{"collection":"Classics","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cla/aoto/aoto08.htm","path":"cla/aoto/aoto08.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cla/aoto/aoto08.htm","text":"The Authoress of the Odyssey, by Samuel Butler, [1922]\nThey reached Pylos on the following morning, and found Nestor, his sons, and all the Pylians celebrating the feast of Neptune. They were cordially received, especially by Nestor's son Pisistratus, and were at once invited to join the festivities. After dinner Nestor asked them who they were, and Telemachus, emboldened by Minerva, explained that they came from Ithaca under Neritum, * and that he was seeking news of the death of his father Ulysses.\nWhen he heard this, Nestor told him all about his own 102 adventures on his way home from Troy, but could give him no news of Ulysses. He touched, however, on the murder of Agamemnon by \u00c6gisthus, and the revenge taken by Orestes. \u2020\nTelemachus said he wished he might be able to take a like 201 revenge on the suitors of his mother, who were ruining him; \"but this,\" he exclaimed, \"could not happen, not even if the gods wished it. It is too much even to think of.\"\nMinerva reproved him sharply. \"The hand of heaven,\" 229 she said, \"can reach far when it has a mind to save a man.\" Telemachus then changed the conversation, and asked Nestor how \u00c6gisthus managed to kill Agamemnon, who was so much the better man of the two. What was Menelaus doing?\n253 \"Menelaus,\" answered Nestor, \"had not yet returned from 266 his long wanderings. As for Clytemnestra, she was naturally of a good disposition, but was beguiled by \u00c6gisthus, who reigned seven years in Mycene after he had killed Agamemnon. In the eighth year, however, Orestes came from Athens and 311 killed him, and on the very day when Orestes was celebrating the funeral feast of \u00c6gisthus and Clytemnestra, Menelaus returned. Go then to Sparta, and see if he can tell you anything.\"\n329 By this time the sun had set, and Minerva proposed that she and Telemachus should return to their ship, but Nestor would not hear of their doing so. Minerva therefore consented that Telemachus should stay on shore, and explained that she could not remain with him inasmuch as she must start on the following morning for the Cauconians, to recover a large debt that had been long owing to her.\n371 Having said this, to the astonishment of all present she flew away in the form of an eagle. Whereon Nestor grasped Telemachus's hand and said he could see that he must be a very important person. He also at once vowed to gild the horns of a heifer and sacrifice her to the goddess. He then took Telemachus home with him and lodged him in his own house.\n404 Next day Nestor fulfilled his vow; the heifer was brought in from the plains, her horns were gilded, and Nestor's wife Eurydice and her daughters shouted with delight at seeing her killed.\n477 After the banquet that ensued Nestor sent Telemachus and his son Pisistratus off in a chariot and pair for Laced\u00e6mon, which they reached on the following morning, after passing a night in the house of Diodes at Pher\u00e6.\n23:* Reading \u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7\u03c1\u03af\u03c1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 for \u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7\u03af\u03bf\u03c5, cf. i. 186 and also xiii. 351.\n23:\u2020 The reader will note that the fact of Orestes having also killed his mother is not expressly stated here, nor in any of the three other passages in which the revenge taken by Orestes is referred to\u2014doubtless as being too horrible. The other passages are \"Od.\" i, 40 and 299 (not given in this summary), and xi. 408, &c.","title":"The Authoress of the Odyssey: Chapter II: The Story of the Odyssey: Book III. Telemachus at the House of Nestor","type":"page"}