If anyone might have an idea about who this figure is up on the screen,
any thoughts?
This is Mentor.
It's not a mentor, he is the Mentor.
Mentor was a relatively minor character in The Odyssey.
We know Odysseus.
We know Penelope.
We know Telemachus.
But Mentor is not someone we tend to think of when we're thinking of starring roles in
that epic journey, and yet, he played a remarkably important role.
Now, Mentor was left at the home of Odysseus when he left to go to war, 20 years before
the book opens.
And he was there to protect the house; to make sure that Penelope was safe; to make
sure that Telemachus, Odysseus's son, was raised in the tradition that Odysseus would
hope for.
And yet, here we find a house where there are suitors camped outside waiting to try
to marry Odysseus's wife.
Can you imagine, if you got home one day from a long journey, and there were people camped
in your front yard trying to marry your spouse?
It would be challenging.
And we have Telemachus, who is still living at home with his mom, which is wonderful,
but not necessarily in the Greek hero sense.
So, it's not like Mentor has really done his job.
The house isn't safe, and the young man hasn't really grown up.
But then something happens.
Something really interesting happens, which is that Athena comes down and takes on the
guise of Mentor.
And all of a sudden, Mentor changes dramatically.
He goes from being a feeble, older, ineffectual part of this story to being a central part
of this story.
And it's not that this goddess comes down and is a goddess on Earth, but Athena, this
remarkable goddess, who's the goddess of wisdom; who's the goddess of strategy; who's the goddess
of arts and crafts and mathematics and olive cultivation—which has nothing to do with
this talk, but I love olives—she comes down, and she's also the goddess of strengths.
And all of a sudden, Mentor seems to be reinvigorated.
He becomes the figure for Telemachus that he was meant to be 20 years ago.
He rediscovers what his strengths were in his role as a mentor.
We see things such as courage, renewed.
We see his skill, returned.
We see him inspired.
We see the wisdom that Odysseus once saw in him return as well.
Mentor guides Telemachus through a series of journeys where we see him grow up to realize
the potential that we knew he had.
I don't think we really believe that the gods came down and intervened.
But they were stories that were meant to help us understand what we are capable of becoming
at our best.
Mentor was a minor character until he was inspired by his mentee.
The realization that he could make a choice to do things differently; that he could be
renewed in his bravery; that he could be renewed in his engagement; that he could be renewed
in his wisdom by sharing it with somebody else.
Telemachus grew up to become a very strong hero in the Greek tradition.
So what we see are these two people who have this remarkable, bi-directional relationship—an
opportunity that helped them both rise up to become what they were truly capable of becoming.
You have this day today.
You have these people you get to work with, your mentees and your mentors, all around you.
And you have this day today, where you have these remarkable workshops and colleagues
who are speaking today, and the resources that are here at Wright State to help you
develop the skills that it takes to become a mentor.
But regardless of those skills, no matter how you take them on, when you do it in a
positive light; when you help nurture positive emotion; when you help nurture hope; when
you help your mentees find and use their strengths and their passions—and when you do so yourself,
you too may find yourself on a wonderful Odyssey with somebody else that results in something
truly tremendous.