In book 1, Telemachus is described as a "boy daydreaming" (line 145) while he sits among the suitors vying for his mother's hand. He is dreaming about his father's return as Athena first arrives. He dreams that his father returns to displace the suitors. In this daydream, Telemachus is a boy who must depend on his father to restore Ithaca to its rightful rulers. Athena, disguised as Mentes, encourages Telemachus, who is in a deep depression, to tell the suitors to leave his house and to go out in search of his father.

"Daydreaming" has the connotation of inaction and passivity. Telemachus cannot yet imagine doing anything active to help his father return or to kick out the suitors from his house. Instead, he resorts only to imagining a better reality for himself and his mother, Penelope. It is also notable that he is described as a "boy." After he is inspired by Athena to go abroad in search of news about his father, he begins to become more mature—a process that is completed when he and his father take on the suitors.

In the Odyssey, characters who dream are not active and do not have the favor of the gods. Once they have won the gods' favor, they turn to active pursuits and to engaging with life to achieve their goals.