Pylos: An Old Man’s Memories

Guided by Athene, who is disguised as Mentor, Telemachus sails overnight to Pylos, the well-ordered kingdom of old King Nestor. He is welcomed exactly as a guest should be, and he hears Nestor’s long memories of Troy and of the Greek leaders’ journeys home, above all the murder of Agamemnon and the revenge of his son Orestes. Nestor has no news of Odysseus, so he sends Telemachus on to Menelaus at Sparta.

What happens

• Telemachus and Athene (as Mentor) arrive to find Pylos sacrificing to Poseidon, and are welcomed into the feast at once.
• Nestor’s son Pisistratus shows perfect xenia, seating the strangers and handing the wine-cup to the elder guest first.
• Nestor recalls the war at Troy and Odysseus’ unmatched cunning, but has no news of his return.
• He tells the story of Agamemnon’s murder and Orestes’ revenge, urging Telemachus to be brave like Orestes.
• Athene departs in the form of a bird, revealing her divinity; Nestor sends Telemachus on to Sparta by chariot with his son.

Who we meet

Nestor

the model wise elder, king of a kingdom at peace

Pisistratus

Nestor’s courteous son, who becomes Telemachus’ companion

Agamemnon, Aegisthus, Orestes

the shadow-story of murder and revenge, told by Nestor

Why it matters for essays

Pylos is the first model household in the poem: xenia is performed correctly, the kingdom is at peace, and father and sons live in harmony, which is the opposite of the disorder on Ithaca. Nestor’s story of Agamemnon and Orestes plants the revenge parallel that runs through the whole poem. The workbook marks Book 3 as unprescribed: read it for the story and as background for essays. It is not examined as a context passage.

Arrival at Pylos lines 1–12

• The sun rises as Telemachus and his crew reach Pylos, the stately citadel of Neleus (Nestor’s father).
• They find the people of Pylos on the shore, sacrificing jet-black bulls to Poseidon, Lord of the Earthquake.
• The sacrifice is huge: nine companies of five hundred men, and each company has nine bulls to offer.
• The people have just tasted the entrails and are burning the thigh-bones in the god’s honour as the ship comes in.
• The crew furl the sail, moor the ship and disembark, with Athene leading the way and Telemachus the last to leave.

Note (line 5). The whole city is holding a public sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. A sacrifice meant killing animals as an offering to a god and then feasting on the meat.

Worth noticing. The textbook points out that Nestor’s grand sacrifice to Poseidon shows a mortal actively keeping on good terms with a god: correct religious behaviour as insurance against divine anger. It also displays Nestor’s timē, his wealth and piety performed in front of his whole community.

Athene encourages him lines 13–33

• Athene, still disguised as Mentor, tells Telemachus to forget his shyness, since there is no reason for it here.
• She reminds him why he crossed the sea: to find out where his father’s bones lie and how he died.
• She tells him to go straight up to Nestor, the tamer of horses, to learn the wisdom in his heart.
• Telemachus must make the appeal himself and ask for the honest truth, though a man as wise as Nestor will not lie anyway.
• Telemachus worries: he asks how he should approach and greet Nestor, since he has no practice in making speeches and it is embarrassing for a young man to question someone so much older.
• Athene reassures him that where his own intelligence fails, a god will inspire him, because the gods have blessed his birth and his growing up.
• Athene leads the way quickly to the assembled people, where Nestor sits with his sons while their followers skewer and roast meat for the banquet.
• As soon as the people of Pylos see the strangers, they all come towards them, take them by the hand and invite them to join the feast.

Note (line 17). Nestor is the old king of Pylos, the oldest and wisest of all the Greek leaders who fought at Troy. Telemachus has come to ask him for news of his father.

Note (lines 24–25). “Where your own intelligence fails, a god will inspire you” is a common idea in Homer. When a person needs it most, a god quietly gives them the courage or the right words, and help from the gods often arrives as a sudden thought.

A welcome at the feast lines 34–61

• Nestor’s son Pisistratus reaches the strangers first, takes them both by the hand and seats them on soft fleeces on the beach, beside his brother Thrasymedes and his father.
• He gives them portions of the sacrificial meat and fills a gold cup with wine for Athene.
• Pisistratus tells her to pray to Poseidon, because the feast is in his honour, and then to pass the cup to her companion so that he can pray too, since all men need the gods.
• He explains that he is giving the cup to her first because Telemachus is the younger, about his own age.
• Athene is delighted by the young man’s good manners and prays to Poseidon at once.
• She asks Poseidon to grant glory to Nestor and his sons, to reward all the people of Pylos for their rich offerings, and to let Telemachus and herself complete their task and get home safely.
• As each request leaves her lips, Athene herself makes sure it will come true.
• She passes the two-handled cup to Telemachus, who repeats her prayers.
• The meat is roasted and carved, and everyone begins the feast.

But as soon as they caught sight of the strangers they all made a move in their direction, took them by the hand and invited them to join them. Nestor’s son, Peisistratus, who was the first to reach them, took them both by the hand and gave them places at the banquet on downy fleeces spread over the sandy beach, near his brother Thrasymedes and his father.

Book 3, workbook lines 31–37

Unpacking the passage

“as soon as they caught sight of the strangers”

The people of Pylos notice the guests straight away, which is the first duty of a host. On Ithaca only Telemachus noticed the stranger at the door.

“they all made a move in their direction”

The whole community goes to meet the strangers, so the welcome comes from the whole community.

“took them both by the hand”

Pisistratus greets the visitors personally, before anyone knows who they are.

“near his brother Thrasymedes and his father”

The guests are seated in the place of honour beside the king’s own family.

Note (lines 34–35). This is xenia done properly: the strangers are welcomed and given a place at the feast before anyone even asks who they are. It is the exact opposite of the suitors back home.

Note (lines 45–46). Pisistratus offers the wine-cup to the older guest first. Serving the senior person before anyone else was a mark of good manners.

Nestor’s question lines 62–72

• Only when everyone has eaten and drunk does Nestor, the Gerenian charioteer, say that it is the right moment to ask the visitors who they are.
• He asks them where they have sailed from.
• He asks whether they are traders, or whether they are roaming the sea like pirates who risk their lives to ruin other people.
• Athene inspires Telemachus with courage, because she wants him to ask about his father and so win a good name among men.
• Telemachus plucks up the courage to give a spirited reply.

Note (lines 63–64). The polite order was food first and questions afterwards: you never quizzed a guest before feeding him.

Note (line 67). Nestor asks straight out whether they are traders or pirates. It sounds rude, but it was the normal thing to ask strangers arriving by sea, because piracy was a genuine danger.

Telemachus’ appeal lines 73–91

• Telemachus addresses Nestor as “son of Neleus, great glory of the Greeks” and says they come from Ithaca, below Mount Neion.
• He explains that they have come on private business, with no public purpose.
• He is searching everywhere for news of his father, the long-suffering Odysseus, who is said to have fought beside Nestor at the sack of Troy.
• He says they know where every other man from the war met his death, but Zeus has wrapped the death of Odysseus in mystery.
• No one can say whether Odysseus was killed by a hostile tribe on land or lost at sea.
• He begs Nestor to tell him the truth about his father’s end, whether Nestor saw it himself or heard it from some other wanderer.
• He asks Nestor not to soften the story out of pity for his feelings, and to describe faithfully what he saw.
• He appeals to the old bond: if Odysseus ever gave Nestor his word at Troy and kept it, Nestor should remember that and tell him all he knows.

Worth noticing. Telemachus gives an honest account of himself as soon as he is asked, which the textbook lists among a good guest’s duties. He is also following Athene’s instruction to make the appeal himself.

Nestor remembers Troy lines 92–115

• Nestor exclaims at the memories the name of Troy brings back: raid after raid across the sea behind Achilles, and fight after fight around the walls of Priam’s city.
• He lists the best men who fell there: warlike Ajax, Achilles, Patroclus, and his own dear son Antilochus, strong, handsome, fast and a fine fighter.
• He says no one could tell the whole disastrous tale, even if Telemachus sat and questioned him for six years.
• For nine years the Greeks tried every stratagem against Troy, and Zeus made victory very hard to win.
• No man dared to match his wits against Odysseus, who was supreme in every kind of strategy.
• Nestor says Telemachus must be his son: he looks at him in awe, because Telemachus talks exactly as Odysseus did, and Nestor would have sworn no young man could sound so like him.
• He recalls that he and Odysseus never once spoke on opposite sides, in the assembly or in the council of kings; they seemed to share a single mind when they advised the Greeks.

And all the time there was not a man that dared to match his wits against the admirable Odysseus, who in every kind of strategy proved himself supreme – your father, if you really are his son. Indeed, I cannot help looking at you in awe: you talk exactly as he did, and I should have sworn no young man could so resemble him in speech.

Book 3, workbook lines 106–111

Unpacking the passage

“not a man that dared to match his wits”

Nestor remembers Odysseus for his intelligence above everything else, the quality the poem calls mētis.

“in every kind of strategy proved himself supreme”

The praise comes from the wisest of the Greek leaders, so it carries weight.

“your father, if you really are his son”

Nestor checks himself, then decides that Telemachus must be Odysseus’ son.

“you talk exactly as he did”

Nestor recognises Odysseus in the way the young man speaks, only moments after Telemachus worried that he had no practice in making speeches.

Note. The textbook’s Kleos and Disguise chapters mention Nestor seeing a likeness to Odysseus in Telemachus’ head and eyes. In Rieu’s translation Nestor speaks of a likeness in speech; the remark about the head and fine eyes is made by “Mentes” in Book 1.

Key idea. The textbook calls this recognition by likeness: being seen as his father’s son raises Telemachus’ standing. It is personal timē given to him now, and it links him to Odysseus’ continuing story, which is kleos by association.

Note (line 97). Nestor names the greatest Greek warriors who died at Troy: Achilles, the mightiest of all, the giant Ajax, and Patroclus, Achilles’ closest friend.

The scattered fleet lines 116–172

• Nestor says that after the Greeks destroyed Troy and set sail, the gods scattered the fleet.
• Zeus planned disaster for their journey home because not all of them had behaved sensibly and honestly, and many suffered through the anger of Athene, “the bright-eyed Daughter” of Zeus.
• Athene began by making the two sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus, quarrel.
• The brothers called the whole army to an assembly at sunset, on the spur of the moment and without proper procedure, so the soldiers arrived drunk.
• Menelaus told the army that their first concern should be to sail home.
• Agamemnon wanted to keep the army at Troy and make offerings to Athene to calm her anger, and Nestor says he was foolish to think the gods could be turned from their purpose so easily.
• The brothers exchanged hard words, the soldiers split into two sides, and the assembly broke up in uproar; that night they rested with bitter feelings towards their comrades.
• In the morning half the army, including Nestor, launched their ships with their spoils and captive women, while the rest stayed behind with Agamemnon.
• They sailed fast to Tenedos and sacrificed there, but Zeus stirred up another quarrel, and Odysseus’ followers turned their ships back towards Troy to rejoin Agamemnon.
• Nestor saw that a god was planning harm and fled with his ships; Diomedes did the same, and later Menelaus caught them up at Lesbos.
• At Lesbos they argued over the route, north or south of Chios; they prayed for a sign, and the god told them to cut straight across the open sea to Euboea.
• A strong wind took them to Geraestus by night, where they offered many bulls’ thighs to Poseidon in thanks.
• On the fourth day Diomedes’ men anchored at Argos, and Nestor sailed on to Pylos with a steady breeze the whole way.
• So Nestor came home without news of the men left behind, and does not know who survived or who was lost.
• He passes on what he has heard at home: the Myrmidons reached home safely under Achilles’ son; Philoctetes fared well; and Idomeneus brought all his surviving men to Crete, losing none to the sea.

After we had destroyed Priam’s towering city we left in our ships, but then the gods scattered the fleet. Zeus planned disaster for our homeward journey because we had not all behaved sensibly and honestly, and many came to grief through the fatal anger of the bright-eyed Daughter of that mighty Sire.

Book 3, workbook lines 116–120

Unpacking the passage

“the gods scattered the fleet”

The victory at Troy is followed straight away by disaster at sea, sent by the gods.

“because we had not all behaved sensibly and honestly”

Nestor gives the gods a reason: the Greeks’ own wrongdoing brought the punishment on them.

“the fatal anger of the bright-eyed Daughter”

The goddess who is angry with the Greeks is Athene, the same goddess who is sitting beside Telemachus in disguise and who helps Odysseus.

Note (line 117). The journeys home of the Greek army (their nostoi, or homecomings) went disastrously wrong, and the gods were behind it. That is the same subject as the whole Odyssey.

Note (lines 119–120). “The Daughter” is Athene. During the sack of Troy the Greek army committed crimes in her temples, so she turned against them and made their voyages home a nightmare.

Note (line 121). The “sons of Atreus” are the two Greek commanders and brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus. Here they fall out over when to sail home, and the argument splits the whole army.

Key idea. Asked for news of Odysseus, Nestor gives a history of homecomings instead. The textbook notes that some leaders got back quickly, some slowly and some never. Nestor’s own return was smooth, and his settled household and grand sacrifice show what a completed nostos looks like, which quietly measures how far Ithaca has fallen from it.

Agamemnon and Orestes lines 173–187

• Nestor says that even far away on Ithaca Telemachus must have heard how Agamemnon was killed by Aegisthus’ plot as soon as he got home.
• He adds that Aegisthus paid a grim price for it.
• He draws a lesson: it is a good thing for a son to survive his father, as Orestes survived to take revenge on Aegisthus, who had killed his father.
• He tells Telemachus, whom he calls a tall and splendid young man, to be as brave as Orestes, so that future generations will sing his praises.
• Telemachus agrees that it was true revenge, and that Orestes’ fame will spread through Greece and live in song for generations.
• He wishes the gods would give him the same strength to take revenge on the suitors for their crimes, their disregard of what is right, and the way they have humiliated him.
• He says the gods have no such happiness in store for him or his father, and that he must simply endure.

As for Agamemnon, though you live far away, you must have heard how he had no sooner got back than he fell a wretched victim to Aegisthus’ plot. And a grim reckoning there was for Aegisthus! Which shows what a good thing it is, when a man dies, for a son to survive him, as Orestes survived to take revenge on the treacherous Aegisthus who had killed his noble father. So you, my friend – and what a tall and splendid young man you have become! – be as brave as Orestes. Then future generations will sing your praises.’

Book 3, workbook lines 173–180

Unpacking the passage

“had no sooner got back”

Agamemnon reached home and was killed at once: a homecoming that ended in death.

“a good thing … for a son to survive him”

Nestor praises Orestes for what he did as a son, and Telemachus is a son whose father’s house is also under threat.

“be as brave as Orestes”

Nestor makes the comparison directly and tells Telemachus to follow the example.

“future generations will sing your praises”

The reward is kleos, fame that lasts in song after a man is gone.

Agamemnon and Orestes. This story is repeated more than once across the Telemachy. It works as a model: Telemachus is being encouraged, again, to think about what decisive action of his own might look like. Nestor holds Orestes up as an example of exactly the kind of decisive action a son should take.

Note (lines 174–175). This is the story the poem keeps coming back to. King Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was murdered the moment he got home from Troy by Aegisthus, the man who had taken up with his wife Clytemnestra while he was away.

Note (line 177). Orestes grew up and killed his father’s murderer, Aegisthus, and became the model of a son who does his duty and avenges his father.

Nestor on the suitors lines 188–215

• Telemachus’ words remind Nestor that a crowd of Penelope’s suitors are said to be wrecking his house as uninvited guests.
• Nestor asks whether Telemachus tamely puts up with this, or whether the people of Ithaca have turned against him because of some rumour sent by a god.
• He suggests that Odysseus may yet come back, alone or with all his men, and pay the suitors back for their violence.
• He wishes Athene would show Telemachus the loving care she showed Odysseus at Troy; he has never seen the gods show such open affection as Athene did for Odysseus.
• If she cared for Telemachus like that, says Nestor, some of the suitors would soon forget all about courtship.
• Telemachus answers that he sees no hope of this: Nestor is speaking of the impossible, and it will never happen even if the gods were to want it.
• Athene, still as Mentor, rebukes him: a god who wants to can bring a man safely home from however far away.
• She says she would rather suffer untold hardships and reach home in the end than come straight home and die at her own hearth, as Agamemnon died through the wiles of his wife and Aegisthus.
• She adds that death comes to everyone, and even the gods cannot rescue a man they love when his death arrives.

A god who wills it can bring anyone safely home however far away he may be. And for myself I would rather live through untold hardships to reach home in the end and see that happy day, than come straight back and die at my own hearth, as Agamemnon died by the wiles of his wife and Aegisthus.

Book 3, workbook lines 208–212

Unpacking the passage

“A god who wills it can bring anyone safely home”

Athene corrects Telemachus’ despair. The speaker is herself the goddess who will bring Odysseus home, which Telemachus does not know.

“live through untold hardships to reach home in the end”

This describes Odysseus’ own return: long and painful, but successful.

“die at my own hearth, as Agamemnon died”

Agamemnon’s quick journey home is set against a slow one. A fast return that ends in murder is worse than a long delay.

“the wiles of his wife”

Athene blames Clytemnestra as well as Aegisthus for Agamemnon’s death.

The whole story asked lines 216–228

• Telemachus asks “Mentor” to stop discussing these painful matters.
• He says they can no longer count on his father’s return, because the gods have already set Odysseus on the path to death.
• He turns instead to Nestor, whose knowledge of men’s ways is unrivalled; he has heard that Nestor has been king through three generations, and looking at him is like gazing on immortality.
• He asks Nestor to tell him what really happened: how Agamemnon died, and where Menelaus was at the time.
• He asks what cunning trap Aegisthus used to kill a man far braver than himself.
• He asks whether Menelaus was away from Argos and wandering abroad, and whether that gave Aegisthus the courage to strike.

Worth noticing. Telemachus is now asking questions and steering the conversation, the young man who a few hours earlier did not know how to greet Nestor.

The murder of Agamemnon lines 229–249

• Nestor, calling Telemachus “my child”, promises to tell him the whole story.
• He says that if Menelaus had come back from Troy and found Aegisthus alive in the house, Aegisthus would have had no burial mound.
• His body would have been thrown on the plain outside the city for dogs and birds to eat, and no woman in Greece would have wept for him, because his crime was a great one.
• While the Greeks toiled at Troy, Aegisthus spent his leisure in Argos, charming Agamemnon’s wife with seductive talk.
• At first Queen Clytemnestra refused to listen, because she was a sensible woman, and Agamemnon had left a minstrel with orders to watch over her.
• When the day fixed by the gods for her to give in arrived, Aegisthus took the minstrel to a desert island and left him there as food for birds of prey.
• He then took Clytemnestra to his own house, “fond lover, willing lady”.
• Aegisthus heaped the gods’ altars with offerings and hung the temples with fine fabrics and gold, in thanks for a success beyond his wildest dreams.

At first Queen Clytaemnestra turned a deaf ear to his dishonourable schemes. She was a sensible woman, and besides, she had a minstrel with her, to whom Agamemnon when he left for Troy had given orders to watch over his queen. But when the fatal day came, appointed by the gods for her to yield, Aegisthus took this minstrel to a desert isle, left him there as carrion for the birds of prey, and carried Clytaemnestra off to his own house, fond lover, willing lady.

Book 3, workbook lines 240–246

Unpacking the passage

“turned a deaf ear”

Clytemnestra resisted Aegisthus at first, so the story begins with her loyalty.

“She was a sensible woman”

Nestor gives the worst wife in the poem a word of praise before he tells of her fall.

“appointed by the gods for her to yield”

Nestor presents her surrender as fated, a day the gods had fixed.

“fond lover, willing lady”

In the end she goes willingly. The phrase makes both of them responsible.

Worth noticing. The textbook points out that the poem gives its worst wife a moment of sympathy before condemning her. Clytemnestra is the standing warning of what Penelope’s situation could have become.

Note (line 232). In this world, taking revenge for a murdered relative was seen as a sacred duty.

Note (line 240). Before he left for Troy, Agamemnon set a loyal poet-minstrel to keep an eye on his wife. She held out against Aegisthus until he got the minstrel out of the way.

Menelaus in Egypt lines 250–275

• Nestor explains that he and Menelaus sailed together from Troy as the best of friends.
• Off the cape of Sunium in Attica, Apollo shot Menelaus’ helmsman, Phrontis son of Onetor, the best steersman in a gale, and he died with the tiller in his hands.
• Menelaus stayed at Sunium to bury his comrade with the proper rites, though he was anxious to go on.
• When he reached the headland of Malea, Zeus sent a howling gale with giant waves and split his fleet in two.
• One group was driven towards Crete; Menelaus and his five remaining ships were carried to Egypt.
• While Menelaus was gathering a fortune in goods and gold abroad, Aegisthus carried out his crime at home, killed Agamemnon, and ruled golden Mycenae for seven years.
• In the eighth year Orestes returned from Athens and killed Aegisthus, his father’s murderer, so the killer was killed.
• Orestes held a funeral feast for his hateful mother and the cowardly Aegisthus.
• On that same day Menelaus arrived home with all the treasure from his ships.

Key idea. This answers Telemachus’ question: Menelaus was away, driven far off course, which left Aegisthus free to act.

A warning to Telemachus lines 276–287

• Nestor warns Telemachus not to stay away from home too long or too far.
• He should not leave his wealth unguarded with such arrogant brutes in the house, or they will share it out and eat it all, and his journey will have been wasted.
• Even so, Nestor urges him to visit Menelaus, who has only just come home from a region so remote that a man blown off course there might give up hope of return.
• He offers Telemachus a choice: go on by ship with his crew, or go by land, with a chariot, horses and Nestor’s own sons as escort to Lacedaemon (Sparta), where Menelaus lives.
• He tells Telemachus to appeal to Menelaus in person if he wants the truth, though a man as wise as Menelaus will not lie.

Be warned yourself, my friend! Don’t stray too long or too far from home, nor leave your wealth unguarded with such a set of arrogant brutes in the place, unless you want them to share it out, to eat up all you have, so making your journey futile.

Book 3, workbook lines 276–279

Unpacking the passage

“Be warned yourself”

Nestor turns the story of Agamemnon into direct advice for Telemachus.

“such a set of arrogant brutes”

Nestor’s judgement of the suitors is blunt, though he has never met them.

“to eat up all you have”

The suitors’ crime is pictured as eating, the consumption of the household’s wealth that the poem shows from Book 1.

Worth noticing. Nestor’s last words about Menelaus repeat what Athene said about Nestor at the start of the book: appeal to him in person, though a man as wise as he is will not lie.

Key idea. The textbook explains why Telemachus travels on: Menelaus has only recently made it home, and since he travelled further and took longer to return, he might have more recent news.

The feast concludes lines 288–298

• As Nestor finishes, the sun sets and darkness falls.
• Athene praises Nestor’s story as well told.
• She asks them to cut up the victims’ tongues and mix the wine, so that they can pour offerings to Poseidon and the other gods before going to sleep.
• She says it is time for bed, and that it is wrong to stay any longer at a feast of the gods once the light has gone.
• The people obey, make their offerings and drink.
• Athene and Telemachus get up to go back to their ship, but Nestor stops them with a loud protest.

Note (lines 290–291). Burning the animals’ tongues and pouring out wine as offerings to the gods are the proper closing rituals of a feast, performed before everyone goes to bed.

Nestor’s hospitality lines 299–315

• Nestor prays that the gods forbid his guests should go back to their ship, as though his house belonged to some pauper without enough blankets for himself and his guests.
• He says he has good bedding for everyone.
• He swears that the son of his friend Odysseus will not sleep on a ship’s deck while Nestor is alive, or while his sons survive to entertain visitors.
• Athene agrees that it is right for Telemachus to accept, and says he will sleep in the palace.
• She herself will return to the ship to reassure the crew, since she is the only senior man in the party and the rest are young men who follow Telemachus out of friendship.
• She will sleep by the ship, and in the morning she will visit the Cauconians, who owe her a long-standing debt.
• She asks Nestor to send Telemachus on in a chariot with one of his sons, since he is now Nestor’s guest.

‘May Zeus and the other immortal gods forbid that you should go to your ship and turn aside from my house as though it belonged to some destitute pauper who hasn’t enough blankets and rugs for himself and his guests to sleep between in comfort! Indeed, I have good bedding for all; and I swear that the son of my friend Odysseus shall not lie down to sleep on his ship’s deck so long as I am alive or sons survive me here to entertain all visitors that come to my door.’

Book 3, workbook lines 299–305

Unpacking the passage

“as though it belonged to some destitute pauper”

Nestor would feel shamed if his guests slept elsewhere; offering a bed is a matter of his standing as a host.

“the son of my friend Odysseus”

The welcome is also owed to an old friendship, which passes from father to son.

“so long as I am alive or sons survive me”

Hospitality is a duty of the whole family line, carried on by Nestor’s sons after him.

“all visitors that come to my door”

Nestor states the principle generally: every visitor is to be looked after.

Note (line 299). Nestor is appalled at the thought of his guests sleeping on their ship. Hospitality (xenia) placed real duties on the host as well as giving rights to the guest, and he would be ashamed to let them go.

Athene revealed lines 316–327

• As she finishes speaking, Athene takes the form of a vulture and flies off.
• Everyone is amazed, and old Nestor marvels at the sight.
• Nestor takes Telemachus by the hand and tells him he will never be a coward or a weakling, since so young he already has gods at his side as guardians.
• He identifies the goddess: it was the Daughter of Zeus, the Lady of Triton, who honoured Odysseus too among the Greeks.
• Nestor prays to Athene to grant fame to himself, his sons and his wife.
• In return he promises her a yearling heifer that has never been yoked, to be sacrificed with gilded horns.

As she finished, bright-eyed Athene took the form of a vulture and flew off. They were all amazed. The old King marvelled at the sight. ‘Telemachus, dear boy!’ he exclaimed, seizing him by the hand. ‘There is no chance that you will ever be a coward or weakling when, young as you are, you already have your guardian gods at your side.

Book 3, workbook lines 316–320

Unpacking the passage

“took the form of a vulture and flew off”

Athene ends her disguise by turning into a bird in front of everyone.

“They were all amazed”

The revelation is public. In Book 1 only Telemachus realised that his visitor was a god.

“seizing him by the hand”

Nestor’s view of the young man changes at once, and he treats him with new warmth.

“your guardian gods at your side”

Divine favour is taken as proof of Telemachus’ worth and of his future courage.

Note. The textbook says an eagle; Rieu’s translation has a vulture.

Note (lines 316–317). Athene leaves by turning into a bird. This half-glimpse of a god showing their true nature is called an epiphany, and it tells the watching mortals that a god has been among them.

Note (line 322). “The august Lady of Triton” is a title for Athene. Nestor now realises that the “Mentor” who had been guiding Telemachus was really the goddess herself.

Remember. Mentor, like Mentes in Book 1, is Athene in disguise. The textbook stresses that where Telemachus recognised her alone in Book 1, this revelation is public, and Nestor responds by ordering a sacrifice.

A sacrifice of thanks lines 328–378

• Athene hears Nestor’s prayer, and Nestor leads his sons and sons-in-law back to his palace.
• He mixes a bowl of wine from a jar that has been sealed for ten years, and pours an offering to Athene with earnest prayers.
• The others go home for the night, but Nestor has Telemachus sleep at the palace, on a bed in the echoing portico, with Pisistratus beside him.
• At dawn Nestor sits on the polished white bench in front of his doors, where his father Neleus used to sit and give counsel, holding his sceptre as a guardian of the Greek people.
• His six sons gather round him, Echephron, Stratius, Perseus, Aretus, Thrasymedes and, last, Pisistratus, and Telemachus is seated with them.
• Nestor tells his sons that he wants to honour Athene, who came to him in person at the feast.
• He gives orders: one son is to fetch a heifer from the meadow, one to bring Telemachus’ crew from the ship (leaving two on guard), and one to summon the goldsmith Laerces to gild the heifer’s horns.
• The rest are to stay with him and tell the servants to prepare a feast, with seats, firewood and fresh water.
• Everyone sets to work: the heifer and the smith arrive, and Athene herself comes to accept the sacrifice.
• The smith gilds the heifer’s horns with gold Nestor provides, to please the goddess.
• Nestor begins the ritual with water and scattered grain and prays to Athene.
• Thrasymedes strikes the heifer with an axe, the women raise their ritual cry, and Pisistratus cuts its throat.
• They cut up the carcass, burn the thigh-bones on the fire and sprinkle red wine over the flames.

Note (lines 347–348). The sceptre is the staff a leader holds as the sign of his lawful authority. Nestor holds it as he sits to give judgement to his people.

Note (line 367). A goldsmith coats the sacrificial animal’s horns with gold to make the offering more splendid. No expense was spared when honouring a god.

Note (line 374). The women’s cry is the ololyge, the ritual cry let out at the exact moment the animal is sacrificed.

Worth noticing. Nestor sits where his father sat, surrounded by six sons who do as he asks. Pylos shows father and sons in harmony and a kingdom in order, the household that Ithaca has lost.

Telemachus honoured lines 379–390

• Polycaste, Nestor’s youngest daughter, bathes Telemachus and rubs him with olive oil.
• She dresses him in a tunic and a fine cloak, and he comes out of the bath looking like an immortal god.
• He sits down beside Nestor, “the shepherd of the people”.
• The meat is roasted and they dine, with squires filling their golden cups.
• After the meal Nestor tells his sons to harness a pair of horses to a chariot for Telemachus, so that he can be on his way.

The beautiful Polycaste, King Nestor’s youngest daughter, now bathed Telemachus. When she had bathed him and rubbed him with olive-oil, she gave him a tunic and arranged a fine cloak round his shoulders, so that he stepped from the bath looking like an immortal god. He then went and sat down by Nestor, the shepherd of the people.

Book 3, workbook lines 379–384

Unpacking the passage

“King Nestor’s youngest daughter”

A member of the royal family bathes the guest herself, which is a mark of honour.

“a tunic and … a fine cloak”

The host provides clean clothes as part of the welcome, completing the bath.

“looking like an immortal god”

The care he receives transforms Telemachus’ appearance, as if the hospitality brings out his true status.

“sat down by Nestor”

He takes the place of honour beside the king.

On to Sparta lines 391–409

• Nestor’s sons harness two fast horses to a chariot, and the housekeeper packs bread, wine and delicacies of the kind eaten by favourites of the gods.
• Telemachus climbs in, and Pisistratus takes the reins and drives the horses off across the plain, leaving Pylos behind.
• They travel all day; at sunset they reach Pherae and spend the night at the house of Diocles, where they receive the gifts that hospitality requires.
• At dawn they set off again and drive across the wheat plains towards the end of their journey.
• The book ends as the sun goes down once more, with Telemachus and Pisistratus nearing Sparta.

Key idea. The textbook lists escort or provisions for the journey on as the last step a host should take. Nestor gives Telemachus a chariot, horses and his own son as guide, completing the full sequence of xenia, and the stop with Diocles at Pherae shows the same rules working on the road.

Next. Follow Telemachus to Book 4 · Sparta.

Xenia

Pylos is a model of good hospitality. Pisistratus comes to the strangers at once, seats them, gives them meat and wine and includes them in the prayers, and only afterwards does Nestor ask who they are. Nestor insists that Telemachus sleeps in his palace and sends him on with a chariot, horses and his son as escort, while Telemachus behaves as a good guest, honest about who he is and ready to move on. Lesson 1 · Xenia

Nostos

Asked for news of Odysseus, Nestor gives a history of homecomings: the leaders quarrelled after Troy fell and sailed separately, and some got back quickly, some slowly and some never. He dwells on Agamemnon, murdered on arrival and avenged by Orestes. Nestor’s own return was smooth, and his settled household shows what a completed nostos looks like. Lesson 2 · Nostos

Kleos and timē

Nestor’s grand public sacrifice and feast display his timē, his wealth and piety shown in front of his community. Nestor’s recognition of Odysseus in Telemachus gives the young man personal standing and links him to his father’s story. Orestes, who earns both respect and lasting fame by avenging his father, is held up to Telemachus with the promise that future generations will sing his praises. Lesson 3 · Kleos and timē

Gods, fate and responsibility

Nestor’s sacrifice to Poseidon shows a mortal keeping on good terms with a god as insurance against divine anger. Nestor also explains the disasters after Troy as Zeus’ punishment for the Greeks’ own wrongdoing. Athene reveals herself by leaving as a bird in front of the court, and Nestor recognises a god and orders a sacrifice. Lesson 4 · Gods and fate

Disguise and recognition

Nestor recognises Odysseus in the way Telemachus speaks, a recognition by likeness that raises the young man’s standing. Athene’s departure as a bird is a public revelation, where in Book 1 Telemachus recognised her alone. Lesson 6 · Disguise and recognition

Storytelling

Nestor spends most of Book 3 narrating the past: the quarrels after Troy, the separate departures, Agamemnon’s death and Orestes’ revenge. His stories seem accurate, but they are plainly selective and aimed at Telemachus, so the textbook calls him the teller as teacher. Lesson 7 · Storytelling

Women

Nestor recalls that Clytemnestra resisted Aegisthus at first, being a sensible woman, until he wore her down. The poem gives its worst wife a moment of sympathy before condemning her, and she stands as the warning of what Penelope’s situation could have become. Lesson 8 · Women

Characters introduced in Book 3