Homeric scholarship generally recognizes the "Telemachy" as the story of its eponymous hero's journey from boyhood to manhood. It is only after having gone through this journey that Telemachus will be equipped to help Odysseus kill the suitors in Book 22. His first step toward Homer's ideal of manhood is a figurative one: in Book 1 Penelope tries to dictate what songs a bard should sing for the suitors. Telemachus (345ff.) admonishes her, and directs her to go back to her room; this signals the first time that Telemachus asserts himself as the head of the household in the "Odyssey".