At the council with the gods, Athena told Zeus how bad she felt for Odysseus, who was being held hostage on an island by Calypso, a nymph. Zeus told Athena that he would send Hermes, the messenger god, to the island and try and convince Calypso to free Odysseus. Athena wanted to tell Telemachus, Odysseus' son, that his father was still alive. She disguised herself as a mentes who was an old friend of Odysseus and went to Ithaca, where she talked to Telemachus about where his father was and gave him wise advice. She told him to go find out about his long-lost father. She then told him that she had to get back to her ship, but she flew away. After Athena left, Phemius, a holy singer was singing a song about Troy. When Penelope heard it, it reminded her of her husband and made her sad so she told him to stop. Telemachus shut her request down and told Penelope to go upstairs. Telemachus was thinking more and more about what Athena (in disguise) had told him, and he could not admit it was true to anyone else, but in his mind he knew he had spoken to a god and that he needed to plan out the journey that would take him to Sparta and Pylos.