Telemachus

We might have guessed Telemachus, the son of the water-flush (Odysseus) and filth (Penelope), would be a bath or a shower (Fig. 1). The semantic scan of THLEMAXOS (Τηλέμαχος; Tēlemaxos; Telemachus; Table 1) reveals sememes of self-wrestling agitation, hand strokes or caresses for peeling off, a draining basin with a raised rim like a sieve hoop (shower basin), wine press or a boat (bathtub; Fig. 2), a protective board, froth, and distant flushing. By reverse reading, the term advertises a far cheaper, hassle-free body care service, including efficient installations, warmth, and oil or salve application in a laid-back position.

Figure 1. Soldiers shower near Eilat, Israel. Artwork by the Government Press Office (Israel). Creative Commons license.

Egyptian and Greek wall paintings and frescoes attest to the ancient origin of showering, which has probably existed since man could store and pour water. In Delphi, in the 5th century BC, gymnasts took showers of cold water poured through carved animal mouths.

Most modern cultures encourage daily showering primarily to promote cleanliness and prevent odour, disease, and infection but also as a means of relaxation and mild therapy. The related English Wikipedia article states that people began to realize the benefit of regular bathing to an individual’s health after advances in science and medicine in the 19th century. But Homer knew it!

Table 1. Semantic scan of THLEMAXOS (Telemachus). Meanings compiled from Liddell and Scott (1940).

Stem	Cognate	Meanings	Application
From left to right
THL	τῆλε τηλίκος τηλία τηλοῦ	to a distance, afar, far from, at a distance, far off so young board or table with a raised rim or edge a hoop of a corn-sieve afar, far away, chimney board, long ago	from a distance youth shower basin protective board or rim
HLE	ἠλέ, ἠλεός	distraught, crazed, distracting, crazing, of wine	agitation, strife, winepress
LEM	λέμβος λέμμα λεμφώδης	cockboat that which is peeled off, rind, husk, scales drivelling	bath removal from the skin froth
EMA	ἐμαυτοῦ	of me, of myself, master of oneself	self
MAX	μά μάχλος	battle, combat, struggle, strife lewd, lustful, of women, wanton, luxuriant, insolent	rubbing caressing
AXOS	ἄχος	pain, distress, in Homer always of mind (sound)	stress
From right to left
OXA	ὄχα	by far	far
XAM	χαμαί	on the ground, underground [low]	lower
AME	ἀμείνων ἀμείβω ἀμέλεια ἀμελέω ἀμέλλητος ἄμεμπτος ἀμετρία ἀμεύσιμος	stouter, stronger, braver, better give in exchange, pass out of, pass into, enter, pass on, repay, return, purchase, surpass, outdo indifference, negligence have no care for, be neglectful of, overlook, allow, suffer without delay or hesitation, blameless, without reproach, perfect in its kind excess, disproportion, want of moderation, infinity, countless number pass over (water)	price hassle-free unlimited water
MEL	μέλω μέλος	an object of care or thought, care for, take an interest in limb, bodily frame, properly, correctly	body care
ELH	ἕλη (εἱλέω; εἴλω) ἕλη (αἱρέω) ἐληγός	avoid, escape, warmth, or warm spot, source of warmth, press, force, contract, revolve, wind, turn round, move to and fro, be whorled, swing round, roll up tight, squeeze, take with the hand, grasp, seize, take away, catch, detect, get, obtain, be content, adopt, choose oil-merchant	in warmth massage choose oil
LHT	λῆτο (ἐπέθετο) λήτωρ	lay, put or place upon, apply salves, set upon, turn towards, priest	salve application  service provider

 

Showers and bathtubs may use waterproof curtains or boards (usually glass) to provide privacy and prevent water from flooding or spraying outside the basin. The widespread prefix τῆλε (tēle; /tile/; THLE; tele-; compare English television, telephone, telegram, etc., but also till, until) means from afar, from a distance, implying some separation between a causal object (emitter) and an affected object (receiver). But the stem tēl is already found in words like τηλοῦ (tēloy) for a similar separating, confining, and insulating object, namely the chimney board or fireboard. This is a safety panel placed in front of the fireplace to close the entrance the fire is off or control it when it is burning.

Although tele is used today for objects and technologies that annihilate distances between objects (e.g., communication), the original sense of the stem was a barrier. The strokes | – | forming the letter H sub-literally signify the distance between the objects T and L, or the relative dimensions of the object THL. I vote for the second idea, which describes THL as a relatively high, wide, or long object. At this sub-literal level, T stands for vertical because it consists of two vertical strokes. L stands for flexion because it is a flexed stroke. Therefore, THL reads vertical, long/high/wide, and flexed, which are features of rims like those of a τηλία (tēlia), a board or table with a raised rim or edge, the hoop of a corn-sieve, or the rim of a basin. The final E of tēle is an arrow (THLß) indicating the direction of spread to which THL forms a barrier.

A second reason why I vote for THL as a barrier is because the inverse, LHT, accounts for the annihilation of barriers. For example, λῆτο (lēto) is glossed as λήϊτο (lēito), a town hall or council room, i.e., a place of congregation, gathering, and communication, or as ἐπέθετο (epetheto) from ἐπιτίθημι (epitithēmi), meaning to lay, put or place upon, set upon, turn towards, put on, add, bring on, impose, inflict, dispatch (a letter), put on oneself or for oneself, apply oneself to, employ oneself on or in, apply with assiduity, contribute, or attack. The English verb to let, i.e., to allow, give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, contract, or cause has pretty much the same sememes of barrier annihilation.

Back to Greek, λήτωρ (lētōr) is glossed as a priest. But in its strict sense, as used in religious service contexts, a priest is only a hyponym of a family of cognates including Old Saxon and Old High German prestar, Old Frisian prestere, and French prestateur, service provider, Modern English prestation, a payment of money, a toll or duty, the rendering of a service, French prestation, financial payment, benefit, service, loan, cover, performance. A priest is an attendant, a person trained to perform services, hence, a (religious) service provider. There is no need to repose on a hypothetical Vulgar Latin root *prester, for the priest, since there is an attested Latin term, praestatio, from the verb praestare, from prae (in front of, close; compare French près, near, close) + stare (to stand), i.e., to stand close.

Every cluster in the sequence THLEMAXOS produces an antonym when inversed (see section On the origin of words). MAX stands for battle, combat, struggle, and strife, like a winner, whereas XAM stands for the ground, or underground (dead), like a loser. It is likely that XAM, from the context of a public bath as opposed to self-bathing (THLEMAXOS), is at the origin of the Arabic hamam and English hammam. HLE stands for agitation, distraught, and out of control, whereas ELH stands for escape, warmth, and relaxation. Incidentally, I wonder if the Hellenes (the Greeks, from Greek Ἕλλην; ‘Ellēn; ‘ELLHN) are not just very (LL) relaxed! LEM is for something floating on the surface, something that can or has to be removed from the surface or skin, and MEL stands for integral parts of the body. Finally, EMA points to oneself, whereas AME points to others, things that others do better, or things that self fails to do.

Apart from THLEMAXOS, a stressful agitation while taking a shower, the sequence HLEMA appears in ἠλέματος (ēlematos; HLEMAT-os), meaning idle, vain. The initial T of THLEMA has moved to the end of the stem to form HLEMAT. This metathesis seems sufficient to invert the meaning from one who strives to take a bath and care about oneself to one who is lazy or  shows an excessively high opinion of one’s appearance, abilities, or worth.

The current etymology of the proper noun Τηλέμαχος (Tēlemaxos; Telemachus) and the common noun τηλεμάχος (tēlemaxos), as from τῆλε (tēle), afar, and μάχομαι (maxomai), to fight, quarrel, wrangle, strive, dispute, argue, measure oneself with or against, come into action, make an effort, is influenced by a first-level interpretation of the mytheme about the hero using a bow against his mother’s suitors; but it is superficial. Telemachus is primarily the bath or shower basin. It may also be the action, strife, of bathing or a bather, by slight semantic shift, but it has nothing to do with war and weapons, at least literally. Wrestlers and athletes in the gymnasium would shower and apply olive oil on their skin before competing. Perhaps gymnasts and soldiers were the only ones to regularly take a bath, following rules under supervision (Fig. 3). This is probably how a shower, a bath, and body care were eventually associated with fighting.

Figure 2. A: Girl in Bathtub by Everett Shinn, marked as public domain. B: Bronze Age bathtub from Knossos (Crete, Greece; 14^th century BC). Artwork by Le plombier du désert; Creative Commons license. C: Wooden bathtubs for children and infants. Artwork by Anna Frodesiak; marked as public domain. D: The traditional foot winepress has been used since antiquity. Artwork by unknown; marked as public domain. E: The Bath Woman Supporting her Back, pastel on paper by Edgar Degas circa 1887, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France; marked as public domain. F: Wooden hot tub on a trailer in Finland. Artwork by Kallerna; Creative Commons license.

Figure 3. La Douche au Régiment (The Shower at the Regiment) by Eugène Chaperon (1887),  marked as public domain.

Telemachus is a central object in Homer’s Odyssey. The first four books of the poem are traditionally given the title Telemachy because they tell Telemachus’ journey in search of news about his father, Odysseus (the water flush). The latter has yet to return home from the Trojan War. The following sections (Nestor and Menelaus) will observe Telemachus in this journey and meet secondary objects and their royal families with which the shower or bath basin, the bathing, or the bather interacts to test whether this hypothesis fits the mythemes of Telemachy.

References

Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. 1940. A Greek-English Lexicon. Clarendon Press.