Scroll 3
But as the sun was rising from the
fair sea into the firmament of heaven to shed light on mortals and
immortals, they reached
Pylos the city of Neleus. Now the people of
Pylos were gathered on the sea shore to offer sacrifice of black
bulls to Poseidon lord of the Earthquake. There were nine guilds with
five hundred men in each, and there were nine bulls to each guild. As
they were eating the inward meats and burning the thigh bones [on
the embers] in the name of Poseidon, Telemakhos and his crew
arrived, furled their sails, brought their ship to anchor, and went
ashore.
Athena led the way and Telemakhos
followed her. Presently she said, "Telemakhos, you must not at all
feel aidôs or be nervous; you have taken this voyage to
try and find out where your father is buried and how he came by his
end; so go straight up to Nestor that we may see what he has got to
tell us. Beg of him to speak the truth, and he will tell no lies, for
he is an excellent person."
"But how, Mentor," replied
Telemakhos, "dare I go up to Nestor, and how am I to address him? I
have never yet been used to holding long conversations with people,
and feel aidôs about questioning one who is so much
older than myself."
"Some things, Telemakhos,"
answered Athena, "will be suggested to you by your own instinct, and
some daimôn will prompt you further; for I am assured
that the gods have been with you from the time of your birth until
now."
She then went quickly on, and
Telemakhos followed in her steps till they reached the place where
the guilds of the Pylian people were assembled. There they found
Nestor sitting with his sons, while his company round him were busy
getting dinner ready, and putting pieces of meat on to the spits
while other pieces were cooking. When they saw the strangers they
crowded round them, took them by the hand and bade them take their
places. Nestor's son Peisistratos at once offered his hand to
each of them, and seated them on some soft sheepskins that were lying
on the sands near his father and his brother Thrasymedes. Then he
gave them their portions of the inward meats and poured wine for them
into a golden cup, handing it to Athena first, and saluting her at
the same time.
"Offer a prayer, sir," said he,
"to lord Poseidon, for it is his feast that you are joining; when you
have duly prayed and made your drink-offering, pass the cup to your
friend that he may do so also. I doubt not that he too lifts his
hands in prayer, for man cannot live without gods in the world.
Still, he is younger than you are, and is much of an age with myself,
so I will give you the precedence."
As he spoke he handed her the cup.
Athena thought that he was just [dikaios] and right to
have given it to herself first; she accordingly began praying
heartily to Poseidon. "O you," she cried, "who encircle the earth,
deign to grant the prayers of your servants that call upon you. More
especially we pray you send down your grace on Nestor and on his
sons; thereafter also make the rest of the Pylian people some
handsome return for the goodly hecatomb they are offering you.
Lastly, grant Telemakhos and myself a happy issue, in respect of the
matter that has brought us in our to
Pylos."
When she had thus made an end of
praying, she handed the cup to Telemakhos and he prayed likewise. By
and by, when the outer meats were roasted and had been taken off the
spits, the carvers gave every man his portion and they all made an
excellent dinner. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink,
Nestor, horseman of Gerene, began to speak.
"Now," said he, "that our guests
have done their dinner, it will be best to ask them who they are.
Who, then, sir strangers, are you, and from what port have you
sailed? Are you traders? Or do you sail the seas as rovers with your
hand against every man, and every man's hand against
you?"
Telemakhos answered boldly, for
Athena had given him courage to ask about his father and get himself
a good name [kleos].
"Nestor," said he, "son of Neleus,
honor to the Achaean name, you ask whence we come, and I will tell
you. We come from
Ithaca under Neritum, and the matter about which I
would speak is of private not public import. I seek news
[kleos] of my unhappy father Odysseus, who is said to
have sacked the town of
Troy in company with yourself. We know what
fate befell each one of the other heroes who fought at
Troy, but as
regards Odysseus heaven has hidden from us the knowledge even that he
is dead at all, for no one can certify us in what place he perished,
nor say whether he fell in battle on the mainland, or was lost at sea
amid the waves of Amphitrite. Therefore I am suppliant at your knees,
if haply you may be pleased to tell me of his melancholy end, whether
you saw it with your own eyes, or heard it from some other traveler,
for he was a man born to trouble. Do not soften things out of any
pity for me, but tell me in all plainness exactly what you saw. If my
brave father Odysseus ever did you loyal service, either by word or
deed, when you Achaeans were harassed at the district
[dêmos] of the Trojans, bear it in mind now as
in my favor and tell me truly all."
"My friend," answered Nestor,
"you recall a time of much sorrow to my mind, for the brave Achaeans
suffered much both at sea, while privateering under Achilles, and in
that district [dêmos] when fighting before the
great city of king Priam. Our best men all of them fell there - Ajax,
Achilles, Patroklos peer of gods in counsel, and my own dear son
Antilokhos, a man singularly fleet of foot and in fight valiant. But
we suffered much more than this; what mortal tongue indeed could tell
the whole story? Though you were to stay here and question me for
five years, or even six, I could not tell you all that the Achaeans
suffered, and you would turn homeward weary of my tale before it
ended. Nine long years did we try every kind of stratagem, but the
hand of heaven was against us; during all this time there was no one
who could compare with your father in subtlety - if indeed you are
his son. I can hardly believe my eyes - and you talk just like him
too - no one would say that people of such different ages could speak
so much alike. He and I never had any kind of difference from first
to last neither in camp nor council, but in singleness of heart and
purpose [noos] we advised the Argives how all might be
ordered for the best.
"When however, we had sacked the
city of Priam, and were setting sail in our ships as heaven had
dispersed us, then Zeus saw fit to vex the Argives on their homeward
voyage [nostos]; for they had not all been either wise
or just [dikaios], and hence many came to a bad end
through the displeasure [mênis] of Zeus'
daughter Athena, who brought about a quarrel between the two sons of
Atreus.
"The sons of Atreus called a
meeting which was not according to kosmos, for it was sunset
and the Achaeans were heavy with wine. When they explained why they
had called the people together, it seemed that Menelaos was for
sailing homeward [nostos] at once, and this displeased
Agamemnon, who thought that we should wait till we had offered
hecatombs to appease the anger of Athena. Fool that he was, he might
have known that he would not prevail with her, for when the gods have
made up their minds [noos] they do not change them
lightly. So the two stood bandying hard words, whereon the Achaeans
sprang to their feet with a cry that rent the air, and were of two
minds as to what they should do.
"That night we rested and nursed
our anger, for Zeus was hatching mischief against us. But in the
morning some of us drew our ships into the water and put our goods
with our women on board, while the rest, about half in number, stayed
behind with Agamemnon. We - the other half - embarked and sailed; and
the ships went well, for heaven had smoothed the sea. When we reached
Tenedos we offered sacrifices to the gods, for we were longing to get
home [nostos]; cruel Zeus, however, did not yet mean
that we should do so, and raised a second quarrel in the course of
which some among us turned their ships back again, and sailed away
under Odysseus to make their peace with Agamemnon; but I, and all the
ships that were with me pressed forward, for I saw that mischief was
brewing. The son of Tydeus went on also with me, and his crews with
him. Later on Menelaos joined us at
Lesbos, and found us making up
our minds about our course - for we did not know whether to go
outside
Chios by the island of Psyra, keeping this to our left, or
inside
Chios, over against the stormy headland of Mimas. So we asked
heaven [daimôn] for a sign, and were shown one
to the effect that we should be soonest out of danger if we headed
our ships across the open sea to
Euboea. This we therefore did, and a
fair wind sprang up which gave us a quick passage during the night to
Geraistos, where we offered many sacrifices to Poseidon for having
helped us so far on our way. Four days later Diomedes and his men
stationed their ships in
Argos, but I held on for
Pylos, and the wind
never fell light from the day when heaven first made it fair for
me.
"Therefore, my dear young friend,
I returned without hearing anything about the others. I know neither
who got home safely nor who were lost but, as in duty bound, I will
give you without reserve the reports that have reached me since I
have been here in my own house. They say the Myrmidons returned home
safely under Achilles' son Neoptolemos; so also did the valiant
son of Poias, Philoctetes. Idomeneus, again, lost no men at sea, and
all his followers who escaped death in the field got safe home with
him to
Crete. No matter how far out of the world you live, you will
have heard of Agamemnon and the bad end he came to at the hands of
Aigisthos - and a fearful reckoning did Aigisthos presently pay. See
what a good thing it is for a man to leave a son behind him to do as
Orestes did, who killed false Aigisthos the murderer of his noble
father. You too, then - for you are a tall, smart-looking young man -
show your mettle and make yourself a name in story."
"Nestor son of Neleus," answered
Telemakhos, "honor to the Achaean name, the Achaeans will bear the
kleos of Orestes in song even to future generations, for he
has avenged his father nobly. Would that heaven might grant me to do
like vengeance on the insolence of the wicked suitors, who are ill
treating me and plotting my ruin; but the gods have no such happiness
[olbos] in store for me and for my father, so we must
bear it as best we may."
"My friend," said Nestor, "now
that you remind me, I remember to have heard that your mother has
many suitors, who are ill disposed towards you and are making havoc
of your estate. Do you submit to this tamely, or are the people of
the dêmos, following the voice of a god, against you?
Who knows but that Odysseus may come back after all, and pay these
scoundrels in full, either single-handed or with a force of Achaeans
behind him? If Athena were to take as great a liking to you as she
did to Odysseus when we were fighting in the Trojan dêmos
(for I never yet saw the gods so openly fond of any one as
Athena then was of your father), if she would take as good care of
you as she did of him, these wooers would soon some of them forget
their wooing."
Telemakhos answered, "I can
expect nothing of the kind; it would be far too much to hope for. I
dare not let myself think of it. Even though the gods themselves
willed it no such good fortune could befall me."
On this Athena said, "Telemakhos,
what are you talking about? Heaven has a long arm if it is minded to
save a man; and if it were me, I should not care how much I suffered
before getting home, provided I could be safe when I was once there.
I would rather this, than get home quickly, and then be killed in my
own house as Agamemnon was by the treachery of Aigisthos and his
wife. Still, death is certain, and when a man's hour is come,
not even the gods can save him, no matter how fond they are of
him."
"Mentor," answered Telemakhos,
"do not let us talk about it any more. There is no chance of my
father's ever coming back [nostos]; the gods have
long since counseled his destruction. There is something else,
however, about which I should like to ask Nestor, for he knows much
more than any one else does. They say he has reigned for three
generations so that it is like talking to an immortal. Tell me,
therefore, Nestor, and tell me true
[alêthês]; how did Agamemnon come to die
in that way? What was Menelaos doing? And how came false Aigisthos to
kill so far better a man than himself? Was Menelaos away from Achaean
Argos, voyaging elsewhere among humankind, that Aigisthos took heart
and killed Agamemnon?"
"I will tell you truly
[alêthês]," answered Nestor, "and indeed
you have yourself divined how it all happened. If Menelaos when he
got back from
Troy had found Aigisthos still alive in his house,
there would have been no grave marker heaped up for him, not even
when he was dead, but he would have been thrown outside the city to
dogs and vultures, and not a woman would have mourned him, for he had
done a deed of great wickedness; but we were over there, fighting
hard [athlos] at
Troy, and Aigisthos who was taking
his ease quietly in the heart of
Argos, cajoled Agamemnon's wife
Clytemnestra with incessant flattery.
"At first she would have nothing
to do with his wicked scheme, for she was of a good natural
disposition; moreover there was a singer with her, to whom Agamemnon
had given strict orders on setting out for
Troy, that he was to keep
guard over his wife; but when heaven had counseled her destruction,
Aigisthos led this bard off to a desert island and left him there for
crows and seagulls to batten upon - after which she went willingly
enough to the house of Aigisthos. Then he offered many burnt
sacrifices to the gods, and decorated many temples with tapestries
and gilding, for he had succeeded far beyond his
expectations.
"Meanwhile Menelaos and I were on
our way home from
Troy, on good terms with one another. When we got
to
Sounion, which is the point of
Athens, Apollo with his painless
shafts killed Phrontis the steersman of Menelaos' ship (and
never man knew better how to handle a vessel in rough weather) so
that he died then and there with the helm in his hand, and Menelaos,
though very anxious to press forward, had to wait in order to bury
his comrade and give him his due funeral rites. Presently, when he
too could put to sea again, and had sailed on as far as the Malean
heads, Zeus counseled evil against him and made it blow hard till the
waves ran mountains high. Here he divided his fleet and took the one
half towards
Crete where the Cydonians dwell round about the waters
of the river Iardanos. There is a high headland hereabouts stretching
out into the sea from a place called
Gortyn, and all along this part
of the coast as far as
Phaistos the sea runs high when there is a
south wind blowing, but past
Phaistos the coast is more protected,
for a small headland can make a great shelter. Here this part of the
fleet was driven on to the rocks and wrecked; but the crews just
managed to save themselves. As for the other five ships, they were
taken by winds and seas to
Egypt, where Menelaos gathered much gold
and substance among people of an alien speech. Meanwhile Aigisthos
here at home plotted his evil deed. For seven years after he had
killed Agamemnon he ruled in
Mycenae, and the people were obedient
under him, but in the eighth year Orestes came back from
Athens to be
his bane, and killed the murderer of his father. Then he celebrated
the funeral rites of his mother and of false Aigisthos by a banquet
to the people of
Argos, and on that very day Menelaos came home, with
as much treasure as his ships could carry.
"Take my advice then, and do not
go traveling about for long so far from home, nor leave your property
with such dangerous people in your house; they will eat up everything
you have among them, and you will have been on a fool's errand.
Still, I should advise you by all means to go and visit Menelaos, who
has lately come off a voyage among such distant peoples as no man
could ever hope to get back from, when the winds had once carried him
so far out of his reckoning; even birds cannot fly the distance in a
twelvemonth, so vast and terrible are the seas that they must cross.
Go to him, therefore, by sea, and take your own men with you; or if
you would rather travel by land you can have a chariot, you can have
horses, and here are my sons who can escort you to
Lacedaemon where
Menelaos lives. Beg of him to speak the truth, and he will tell you
no lies, for he is an excellent person."
As he spoke the sun set and it
came on dark, whereon Athena said, "Sir, all that you have said is
well; now, however, order the tongues of the victims to be cut, and
mix wine that we may make drink-offerings to Poseidon, and the other
immortals, and then go to bed, for it is bed time
[hôra]. People should go away early and not keep
late hours at a religious festival."
Thus spoke the daughter of Zeus,
and they obeyed her saying. Men servants poured water over the hands
of the guests, while pages filled the mixing-bowls with wine and
water, and handed it round after giving every man his drink-offering;
then they threw the tongues of the victims into the fire, and stood
up to make their drink-offerings. When they had made their offerings
and had drunk each as much as he was minded, Athena and Telemakhos
were for going on board their ship, but Nestor caught them up at once
and stayed them.
"Heaven and the immortal gods,"
he exclaimed, "forbid that you should leave my house to go on board
of a ship. Do you think I am so poor and short of clothes, or that I
have so few cloaks and as to be unable to find comfortable beds both
for myself and for my guests? Let me tell you I have store both of
rugs and cloaks, and shall not permit the son of my old friend
Odysseus to camp down on the deck of a ship - not while I live - nor
yet will my sons after me, but they will keep open house as I have
done."
Then Athena answered, "Sir, you
have spoken well, and it will be much better that Telemakhos should
do as you have said; he, therefore, shall return with you and sleep
at your house, but I must go back to give orders to my crew, and keep
them in good heart. I am the only older person among them; the rest
are all young men of Telemakhos' own age, who have taken this
voyage out of friendship; so I must return to the ship and sleep
there. Moreover tomorrow I must go to the Cauconians where I have a
large sum of wealth long owed to me. As for Telemakhos, now that he
is your guest, send him to
Lacedaemon in a chariot, and let one of
your sons go with him. Be pleased also to provide him with your best
and fleetest horses."
When she had thus spoken, she
flew away in the form of an eagle, and all marveled as they beheld
it. Nestor was astonished, and took Telemakhos by the hand. "My
friend," said he, "I see that you are going to be a great hero some
day, since the gods wait upon you thus while you are still so young.
This can have been none other of those who dwell in heaven than
Zeus' redoubtable daughter, the Trito-born, who showed such
favor towards your brave father among the Argives." "Holy queen," he
continued, "agree to send down noble kleos upon myself, my
good wife, and my children. In return, I will offer you in sacrifice
a broad-browed heifer of a year old, unbroken, and never yet brought
by man under the yoke. I will gild her horns, and will offer her up
to you in sacrifice."
Thus did he pray, and Athena
heard his prayer. He then led the way to his own house, followed by
his sons and sons-in-law. When they had got there and had taken their
places on the benches and seats, he mixed them a bowl of sweet wine
that was eleven years old when the housekeeper took the lid off the
jar that held it. As he mixed the wine, he prayed much and made
drink-offerings to Athena, daughter of Aegis-bearing Zeus. Then, when
they had made their drink-offerings and had drunk each as much as he
was minded, the others went home to bed each in his own abode; but
Nestor put Telemakhos to sleep in the room that was over the gateway
along with Peisistratos, who was the only unmarried son now left him.
As for himself, he slept in an inner room of the house, with the
queen his wife by his side.
Now when the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Nestor left his couch and took his seat
on the benches of white and polished marble that stood in front of
his house. Here aforetime sat Neleus, peer of gods in counsel, but he
was now dead, and had gone to the house of Hades; so Nestor sat in
his seat, scepter in hand, as guardian of the public weal. His sons
as they left their rooms gathered round him, Echephron, Stratios,
Perseus, Aretos, and Thrasymedes; the sixth son was Peisistratos, and
when Telemakhos joined them they made him sit with them. Nestor then
addressed them.
"My sons," said he, "make haste
to do as I shall bid you. I wish first and foremost to propitiate the
great goddess Athena, who manifested herself visibly to me during
yesterday's festivities. Go, then, one or other of you to the
plain, tell the stockman to look me out a heifer, and come on here
with it at once. Another must go to Telemakhos' ship, and invite
all the crew, leaving two men only in charge of the vessel. Some one
else will run and fetch Laerceus the goldsmith to gild the horns of
the heifer. The rest, stay all of you where you are; tell the maids
in the house to prepare an excellent dinner, and to fetch seats, and
logs of wood for a burnt offering. Tell them also to bring me some
clear spring water."
On this they hurried off on their
several errands. The heifer was brought in from the plain, and
Telemakhos' crew came from the ship; the goldsmith brought the
anvil, hammer, and tongs, with which he worked his gold, and Athena
herself came to the sacrifice. Nestor gave out the gold, and the
smith gilded the horns of the heifer that the goddess might have
pleasure in their beauty. Then Stratios and Echephron brought her in
by the horns; Aretos fetched water from the house in a ewer that had
a flower pattern on it, and in his other hand he held a basket of
barley meal; sturdy Thrasymedes stood by with a sharp axe, ready to
strike the heifer, while Perseus held a bucket. Then Nestor began
with washing his hands and sprinkling the barley meal, and he offered
many a prayer to Athena as he threw a lock from the heifer's
head upon the fire.
When they had done praying and
sprinkling the barley meal Thrasymedes dealt his blow, and brought
the heifer down with a stroke that cut through the tendons at the
base of her neck, whereon the daughters and daughters-in-law of
Nestor, and his venerable wife Eurydice (she was eldest daughter to
Klymenos) screamed with delight. Then they lifted the heifer's
head from off the ground, and Peisistratos cut her throat. When she
had done bleeding and was quite dead, they cut her up. They cut out
the thigh bones all in due course, wrapped them round in two layers
of fat, and set some pieces of raw meat on the top of them; then
Nestor laid them upon the wood fire and poured wine over them, while
the young men stood near him with five-pronged spits in their hands.
When the thighs were burned and they had tasted the inward meats,
they cut the rest of the meat up small, put the pieces on the spits
and toasted them over the fire.
Meanwhile lovely Polykaste,
Nestor's youngest daughter, washed Telemakhos. When she had
washed him and anointed him with oil, she brought him a fair mantle
and shirt, and he looked like a god as he came from the bath and took
his seat by the side of Nestor. When the outer meats were done they
drew them off the spits and sat down to dinner where they were waited
upon by some worthy henchmen, who kept pouring them out their wine in
cups of gold. As soon as they had had enough to eat and drink Nestor
said, "Sons, put Telemakhos' horses to the chariot that he may
start at once."
Thus did he speak, and they did
even as he had said, and yoked the fleet horses to the chariot. The
housekeeper packed them up a provision of bread, wine, and sweetmeats
fit for the sons of princes. Then Telemakhos got into the chariot,
while Peisistratos gathered up the reins and took his seat beside
him. He lashed the horses on and they flew forward nothing loath into
the open country, leaving the high citadel of
Pylos behind them. All
that day did they travel, swaying the yoke upon their necks till the
sun went down and darkness was over all the land. Then they reached
Pherai where Diokles lived, who was son to Ortilokhos and grandson to
Alpheus. Here they passed the night and Diokles entertained them
hospitably. When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn; appeared,
they again yoked their horses and drove out through the gateway under
the echoing gatehouse. Peisistratos lashed the horses on and they
flew forward nothing loath; presently they came to the wheat lands of
the open country, and in the course of time completed their journey,
so well did their steeds take them.
Now when the sun had set and
darkness was over the land,
