Odyssey Study Guide Index
Book 3: Telemachus visits Nestor | Summary Book III | Notes | Major Characters | Quiz on The Odyssey - Book III | Paintings Based on The Odyssey
What Happens in Book I|Book II|Book IV
Telemachus and crew approach the shore of Pylos where sacrifices are being offered. When he hesitates to land, Athena, disguised as Mentor, gives him a nudge to go to Nestor to inquire about his father, so they land. When Nestor sees them, he excitedly invites them over. Athena is given the honor of making an offering to Poseidon. Then they all feast. Afterwards, Nestor asks the strangers who they are. Telemachus says they are Ithacans looking for his father Odysseus.
Nestor tells him that they, the Achaians spent 9 years fighting at Troy, using the unparalleled stratagems of Odysseus. After they destroyed the city, the Achaians were scattered. Athena caused a fight between Menelaus and Agamemnon. They called an assembly at dusk (rather than dawn). Menelaus wanted them to sail for home and Agamemnon wanted them to make a sacrifice to pacify Athena. The next morning half the troops left and the other half stayed.
Zeus made the ones who left argue again, and half went back, under Odysseus. But Menelaus, Diomedes and Nestor were among those who kept going. Nestor got home, and heard that Achilles' Myrmidons made it home, as did Agamemnon who was killed by Aigisthos who was later killed by Agamemnon's son.
Nestor says he'd heard about the suitor situation and wondered what the people of Ithaca thought about it.
Athena-Mentor comments that Odysseus' suffering years at sea is better than the fate of Agamemnon and Telemachus asks Nestor to tell him the story of Agamemnon and Menelaus.
Nestor says Clytemnestra resisted the advances of Aegisthus until the gods wished Aegisthus and Clytemnestra to have an affair. As Nestor and Menelaus returned home and were approaching Athens, Menelaus' helmsman died, so Menelaus had to stop for the burial. Afterward, there was rough sailing and Menelaus went to Egypt, so he was not around to deal with Aegisthus, who ruled for 7 years after murdering his mistress' husband. On the 8th year, Orestes, son of Agamemnon, kills Aegisthus, and that was the day Menelaus made it back.
Nestor advises Telemachus not to stay away from the tricky situation at Ithaca lest something similar to the mess Menelaus found happen. Nestor offers him horses and a chariot to go by land.
Athena, still as Mentor, says it's time for the libations for sleep, but first for the libations for Poseidon. Nestor insists they stay the night, but Athena says she'll return to the ship and Telemachus will stay and take the chariot in the morning. Then Athena becomes an eagle, revealing her divine statues, and flies away. Nestor deduces that the eagle is Athena and Telemachus is protected by the same goddess as his father, Odysseus. Nestor makes a libation to Athena and they go to sleep in the palace.
At dawn, Nestor goes to his customary counsel bench, and is joined by his sons and Telemachus. They make a sacrifice to Athena of a heifer with gold-foiled horns. Polycaste, the youngest daughter of Nestor bathes and oils Telemachus and then there is a feast.
Nestor orders horses for the journey. Telemachus, accompanied by Nestor's son Pisistratus set off for Lacedaemon. They reach Phera by dark. At Phera, the king, Diocles, grandson of the Alpheus River, welcomes them. They spend the night and set off the next morning, racing the horses all day until nightfall.
Book II Summary | Book IV
Read a Public Domain translation of Odyssey Book III.
Next: Major Characters in Book III, Notes on Book III, Quiz on Book III
