Chapter summary
At sunrise, Telemachus, Athena, and the crew reach Pylos, the well-built city of Neleus, where the Pylians sacrifice black bulls to Poseidon on the shore, in nine companies of five hundred men each, with nine bulls before each group. The travelers lower the sails, anchor, and disembark, with Athena in front. The goddess, in the form of Mentor, tells Telemachus to put shame aside, since he has crossed the sea to learn of his father, where the earth covered him and what fate he met, and she bids him go straight to Nestor and ask him to tell the truth, for Nestor is wise and will not lie. Telemachus, who has never practiced speaking and is ashamed to question an older man, asks how he is to speak; Athena replies that he will think for himself in part, and in part a god will suggest what to say, because he was neither born nor raised against the will of the gods.
Nestor is seated with his sons, and his companions prepare the feast. On seeing the strangers, all come to greet them and invite them to sit. Peisistratus, son of Nestor, is the first: he takes both of their hands, seats them on soft fleeces on the sand, beside his father and his brother Thrasymedes, serves them the entrails, and fills a golden cup with wine, which he offers first to Athena, asking her to pray to Poseidon, whose feast they have come upon, and then to pass the cup to the other, because all men need the gods. He begins with her because the other is young, of the same age as Peisistratus himself. Athena is pleased with the prudent and just man who gave her the cup first, and she prays to Poseidon: glory to Nestor and his sons, a reward to the Pylians for the hecatomb, and that she and Telemachus return having accomplished their mission. She herself fulfills the prayer, and Telemachus prays in the same way.
After the feast, Nestor proposes that it is now better to ask the guests who they are, and he wants to know whether they come on business or wander like pirates, risking their lives and bringing harm to strangers. Telemachus, encouraged by Athena, who put courage in his breast so that he would ask about his father and win good fame among men, says they come from Ithaca on a private matter, not a public one: he follows his father's fame, in order to learn something of Odysseus, who they say fought beside Nestor and sacked Troy. Of the other heroes they have heard how they died, but Zeus has left the end of Odysseus unknown, whether on land or at sea. For this reason he comes to Nestor's knees as a suppliant and asks him to tell what he saw or heard, without softening it out of respect or pity, and to recall any word or deed of his father at Troy.
Nestor, reminded of their sufferings, says that Ajax, Achilles, Patroclus, and his own son Antilochus lie there, and that no one could tell it all: five or six years would not suffice, and Telemachus would return home tired before he had heard it. For nine years the Achaeans laid traps against Troy, and Zeus granted it only at the end; no one wanted to contend with Odysseus in cunning, for he overcame with every kind of stratagem. Nestor marvels at the resemblance: Telemachus speaks like his father, and no one would expect such a speech from a young man. He says that he and Odysseus never disagreed in assembly or in council, but thought with a single mind for the good of the Argives.
After the fall of Troy, the Achaeans climbed into their ships, and a god scattered them: Zeus planned a grievous return, because not all of them were wise or just, and many met an evil end through the wrath of Athena, who sowed discord among the Atreidae. These called an assembly out of time, at sunset, and the Achaeans came heavy with wine. Menelaus urged them to remember the homeward journey; Agamemnon wanted to keep the army back to make hecatombs and appease Athena, not knowing, Nestor says, that the goddess would not yield, since the mind of the gods does not change quickly. The army split and spent the night in disagreement, because Zeus was preparing disaster. In the morning, half stayed with Agamemnon, and half, with Nestor, set out, with the sea made calm by a god. At Tenedos they sacrificed, wishing to return, but Zeus had not yet decided the return and stirred up new discord: Odysseus's men turned back to please Agamemnon, while Nestor fled with his ships, knowing that a god was plotting evil, and Diomedes also fled and encouraged his companions. Menelaus caught up with them late, at Lesbos, while they were deliberating their course; they asked the god for a sign, and he bade them cross the sea to Euboea. They reached Gerestus and offered bulls' thighs to Poseidon; in four days Diomedes's men anchored at Argos, and Nestor sailed on to Pylos, with the wind always favorable.
Nestor says he knows nothing more of the fate of the others, but he tells what he heard at home: the Myrmidons arrived safely, with Achilles's son, and Philoctetes too; Idomeneus brought his companions back to Crete without losses. As for Agamemnon, Telemachus has already heard, though from afar, how he returned and how Aegisthus killed him; but Aegisthus paid bitterly, and it is good for a dead man to leave a son, because Orestes avenged his father's murderer. Nestor encourages Telemachus, whom he sees tall and handsome, to be strong so that those to come will speak well of him.
Telemachus replies that Orestes took his revenge and will have wide fame among those to come, and he wishes the gods would give him equal strength to punish the suitors, who insult him and plot impious deeds; but the gods have not granted such fortune either to his father or to him, and now he must endure. Nestor asks whether he submits willingly or whether the people hate him, following the voice of a god, and reminds him that Odysseus may return and take revenge, alone or with all the Achaeans; and, if Athena were to love Telemachus as she loved Odysseus at Troy, where Nestor saw the clearest help a god ever gave a man, one of the suitors would forget his marriage. Telemachus answers that he does not expect this to come true, nor that the gods wish it. Athena, in the form of Mentor, rebukes him: a god can save a man with ease, even from afar; she would rather he suffer much and see the day of return than die at home like Agamemnon, betrayed by Aegisthus and by his own wife; but not even the gods can shield a beloved man from common death when fate brings it. Telemachus asks that they speak of this no more: for his father there is no true return, since the immortals have already decreed his death. He wants to ask Nestor something else, since Nestor, who is said to have ruled through three generations, seems to him immortal: how Agamemnon died, where Menelaus was, what trick Aegisthus used to kill a far better man, or whether Menelaus was far from Argos, wandering among men.
Nestor replies that he will tell it all. Had Menelaus found Aegisthus alive when he came back from Troy, they would not even have buried him: dogs and birds would have devoured him far from the city, and no Achaean woman would have mourned him, so great was the crime. While the Achaeans were fighting at Troy, Aegisthus, living in peace in the depths of Argos, beguiled Clytemnestra with words; she refused at first, for she had good sense, and there was a singer whom Agamemnon had charged with guarding her; but when the fate of the gods bound her, Aegisthus led the singer to a deserted island and left him as prey for the birds, and took the willing woman home; he burned many thighs on the altars and hung many offerings, having accomplished a great deed he had never hoped for. Nestor and Menelaus were sailing back together as friends, but at Cape Sunium Apollo struck down Menelaus's helmsman, Phrontis, with his arrows, and Menelaus stopped to bury him, despite his haste. When he put to sea again, on reaching Mount Malea, Zeus gave him a hateful voyage, with winds and waves like mountains; part of the fleet was driven to Crete, where the men escaped death, but the ships were smashed on the rocks, and five ships were carried to Egypt by wind and water; there Menelaus wandered, gathering riches among strangers. Meanwhile Aegisthus ruled seven years over Mycenae; in the eighth, the godlike Orestes came back from Athens and killed his father's murderer, and gave the Argives the funeral feast for his hateful mother and the cowardly Aegisthus; on that same day Menelaus arrived, with all the riches the ships could carry.
Nestor advises Telemachus not to stay away from home for long, leaving his property and men so insolent, lest they divide everything and the voyage prove useless. He sends him to Menelaus, who has only recently come back from a place where no one expects to return, and offers him a ship or, by land, a chariot, horses, and his sons as guides to Sparta; he urges Telemachus to ask Menelaus for the truth, because he is sensible and will not lie. At sunset Athena says the speech was just, and proposes that they cut out the tongues, mix the wine, pour libations to Poseidon and the immortals, and go to sleep, for the light has gone and it is not right to linger at the feast of the gods. The heralds pour water over the guests' hands, the young men fill the mixing bowls, cast the tongues into the fire, and pour libations standing. When Athena and Telemachus want to go back to the ship, Nestor stops them: he takes offense, as if they were poor, without cloaks or blankets; he has cloaks and fine coverlets, and the son of Odysseus will not sleep on the deck while he lives and his sons welcome whatever guests come to the house. Athena agrees: Telemachus will go with Nestor and sleep in his palace; she herself will return to the ship to encourage the companions, since she is the eldest among the young, and in the morning she will go among the Caucones to collect an old debt; she asks Nestor to send Telemachus in a chariot with his son and the swiftest horses. Then she departs in the form of a bird of prey, and all are amazed.
Nestor, amazed, takes Telemachus's hand and says he does not expect him to be bad or weak, since the gods accompany one so young: that was the daughter of Zeus, Tritogeneia, who also honored his father among the Argives. He asks the goddess for glory for himself, his sons, and his wife, and promises her a yearling heifer, broad-browed, never broken to the yoke, its horns gilded with gold; Athena hears him. In the palace they sit in order, and Nestor has the eleven-year-old wine mixed, which the housekeeper opens, and pours libations to Athena; the others go to sleep, and he lays Telemachus on a corded bed under the portico, beside Peisistratus, the only son still unmarried, while he himself sleeps in the back of the house, with his wife.
At dawn Nestor sits on the white stones before the door, where Neleus used to sit, and his sons gather around him. He orders at once that his wish to honor Athena, which she plainly showed at the feast, be fulfilled: they are to fetch a heifer, summon Telemachus's companions, call the goldsmith Laerces to gild the horns, and have the maids prepare the feast. Athena too comes to watch. Nestor gives the gold, and the goldsmith covers the horns so that the goddess may be glad to see them. The sons and the wife perform the rite: Thrasymedes strikes the heifer with the axe, the women cry out, Peisistratus cuts its throat, and Nestor burns the thighs on wood and wine. Polycaste, the youngest daughter, bathes Telemachus, anoints him with oil, and clothes him, and he comes out of the bath like the gods and sits beside Nestor. After the feast, Nestor orders the horses yoked to the chariot; Telemachus climbs in, Peisistratus takes the reins, and they set out, leaving Pylos. At nightfall they reach Pherae, at the house of Diocles, where they spend the night; at dawn they continue across the wheat plain, and the book ends with the sun setting and the roads growing dark.
Analysis
Telemachus came to hear about his father, and what he hears is the story of another father. Nestor knows nothing of Odysseus: he says that he came back without news of the others. What he offers is a mirror: that of Agamemnon, killed by the one who stayed at home, and that of Orestes, the son who returns and prevails. The book ends with Telemachus without news, but with a road, a chariot, and a companion.
The one speaking in Pylos is a host, and the book shows how guests are received: Peisistratus welcomes the strangers before asking who they are, and Nestor is offended by the idea that Odysseus's son should sleep on the deck. The reader, who saw in the previous book how Telemachus is treated in his own house, hears the contrast without the poem stating it. Athena, for her part, speaks in two ways: she gives the young man courage and corrects him when he doubts, and she reveals herself only at her departure, in the form of a bird.
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