What is a mentor? The word mentor is first used in Homer’s The Odyssey. It was a person’s name. Mentor was entrusted with the education of Odysseus’s son. So to mentor someone means you teach, train, and raise up. To mentor someone means that they watch you and become like you—they follow your lead. Because as parents, our actions always speak louder than our words. Our children learn more from our actions than our words.