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"Who cares to praise his
enemy ?" [Nestor. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
12.548]
"I seek no other vengeance
than to ignore Heracles' mighty deeds"
[Nestor. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
12.575]
"A lie will Nestor not
utter, for he is wise indeed."
[Athena. Homer,
Odyssey
3.20]
Achilles: The prize I am giving you has no
relation to the sports.
Nestor: Now, I must leave
this sort of thing to younger men and take the
painful lessons of Old
Age to
heart." [Homer,
Odyssey
23.615ff.]
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Nestor, whose father and brothers were killed by
Heracles 1, was
brought up among the Gerenians and later became the
Leader of the Pylians against
Troy.
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Gerenian Nestor
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When Heracles 1
ravaged the Peloponnesus, destroying the kingdoms
of Elis, Lacedaemon, and
Pylos in
Messenia, Nestor was a
boy or a very young man. It is said that when
Heracles 1 occupied
Pylos, he killed Nestor's
father Neleus and all of
Nestor's brothers. Nestor survived this massacre
because at the time he was being brought up in
Gerenia, another city in
Messenia, or because he
took refuge there escaping the war. During the
battle for Pylos,
Heracles 1 wounded
Hades, who was siding with
the Pylians, for only in
Pylos the lord of the
Underworld was
worshipped.
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Kingdom entrusted to Nestor ?
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However, when the
HERACLIDES attacked
the Peloponnesian kingdoms after the
Trojan War, they
campaigned in the usual manner, that is both with
weapons and arguments, and so they claimed that
Heracles 1, after
occupying Pylos, had
entrusted the kingdom to Nestor, and that now they
had come to claim what was theirs. And in a similar
way they had argued in
Elis; for Phyleus 1, the
son of King Augeas, was also said to have been
bestowed the kingdom by
Heracles 1, who also
made Tyndareus king of
Sparta.
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War between Pylos and
Elis
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But Nestor says that the war between
Pylos and
Elis took place after the
invasion of Heracles
1, and that Neleus
was still alive when this war, in which Nestor
became a renowned warrior, took place. The Eleans,
as it seems, took advantage of the previous war
between Pylos and
Heracles 1, a war in
which the best Pylian warriors had perished, in
order to oppress the city, taking their cattle and
their horses. So when the Pylians reacted
accordingly, Elis sent an
army against them, and in it were fighting the
MOLIONIDES, twins who had two bodies joined to one
another. When the army camped,
Athena came from Olympus
and instructed the Pylians to array themselves for
battle. Though Neleus hid
the horses because he feared for his son, whom he
deemed unexperienced in war, he could not prevent
Nestor from going into battle.
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Killed by Nestor
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In this war, according to Nestor himself, he
killed the Elean Itymoneus 1, son of Hypeirochus 1,
with a spear. He also killed Mulius 1, who was the
son-in-law of King Augeas, for he had married the
king's daughter Agamede. Nestor says he could not
kill the MOLIONIDES because
Poseidon shrouded them
in a thick mist.
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War with Arcadia
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On another occasion, the Pylians waged war
against the Arcadians, and the champion of these
was Ereuthalion 1, the squire of King Lycurgus 2,
son of Aleus, son of Aphidas 1, son of Arcas 1, son
of Zeus and
Callisto, the daughter
of impious Lycaon 2.
Ereuthalion 1 bore the armour of King Areithous 1,
a man surnamed Maceman because he never fought with
a bow or a spear but used to break the enemy ranks
with an iron mace. King Lycurgus 2 killed Areithous
1, meeting him in a narrow way where his mace was
useless. And that is how King Lycurgus 2 came over
the precious armour which
Ares had given Areithous 1,
wearing it from then on in all his battles. But
when Lycurgus 2 grew old, he gave the armour to his
squire Ereuthalion 1, and while the latter wore
this armour no man dared to challenge him, except
Nestor, who though being the youngest in the army,
defeated and slew Ereuthalion 1, or so he tells us.
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Nestor joins the
LAPITHS
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Nestor joined the
LAPITHS, a people from
Thessaly, in their battle against the
CENTAURS, and he fought
side by side with other
non-LAPITHS, like
Theseus and
Peleus, who also
participated in that battle.
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Role of Nestor during the
Trojan War
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When the Trojan War
broke out, Nestor and his sons Antilochus and
Thrasymedes 1 sailed from
Messenia, and joined
the coalition against the Trojans. At this time
Nestor, though still keeps his strength, is already
an old man, and better known for the past deeds he
recalls and tells, or for the wise words he is
believed to utter, than for saving the day in the
battlefield. However, he is respected by all, and
he has wide influence in most decisions.
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Mediates between
Achilles and
Agamemnon
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When Agamemnon took
away Achilles'
sweetheart, and the conflict that ensued threatened
the unity of the Achaean army fighting at
Troy, Nestor attempted to
appease their anger:
"Neither do
you,
Agamemnon, mighty though you are, take away
the girl, but let her be, as the Achaeans first
gave her to him as a prize; nor do you,
Achilles, be minded to strive with a
king." [Nestor. Homer,
Iliad
1.275]
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Pride makes them deaf
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But they would not listen:
Agamemnon:
"All these things, old man,
to be sure, you have spoken as is right. But this
man wishes to be above all others; over all he
wishes to rule and over all to be king, and to all
to give orders; in this, I think, there is someone
who will not obey."
Achilles: "Surely I would be called cowardly
and of no account, if I am to yield to you in every
matter that you say. On others lay these commands,
but do not give orders to me, for I do not think I
shall obey you any longer."
[Homer,
Iliad
1.285]
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False dream in his shape
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Later Zeus, who wished
to vindicate Achilles
for the outrage
Agamemnon had
inflicted on him, sent
Agamemnon a false
dream in the shape of Nestor, whom the king
trusted, so that
Agamemnon would
believe that the hour of victory was at hand, and
that he would soon take the city of
Troy. When
Agamemnon referred the
dream to his war council, even wise Nestor deemed
it to be a true dream though it was false, for as
it is said, the wisest of men, if compared with a
god, will in wisdom appear as a monkey.
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More divine intervention
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So Zeus decided, after
having lifted on high his golden scales with the
fates of death, to give defeat to the Achaeans, and
award victory to the Trojans, and thundering from
Mount Ida he sent a blazing flash among the
Achaeans. At the sight of this no one had the heart
to continue the battle, except Nestor. But then his
horse was shot dead by
Paris, and after him came
Hector 1, and Nestor
would have probably died had it not been for the
intervention of Diomedes
2. So Nestor mounted his chariot, and together
they kept on fighting until
Zeus hurled his
lighting-bolt to earth in front of their horses.
Now Nestor understood, and telling
Diomedes 2:
"A man may in
no wise thwart the purpose of
Zeus" [Nestor. Homer,
Iliad
8.144]
exhorted him to leave the field.
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Nestor advises
Agamemnon
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Since Achilles
retired to his tent, it had not been possible for
the Achaeans to improve the course of the war.
Nestor tried then to persuade King
Agamemnon to placate
Achilles' wrath:
"Let us now
take thought how we may make amends, and persuade
him with kindly gifts and with gentle
words." [Nestor to
Agamemnon. Homer,
Iliad
9.113]
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Agamemnon's gifts
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It is now that
Agamemnon, realizing
his fault and wishing to appease
Achilles, offered the
seven tripods, the seven women, the seven cities,
and many other gifts besides
Achilles' sweetheart
Briseis, for, as it
seemed, without the participation of
Achilles in the war,
only defeat could be expected. Concerning
Briseis,
Agamemnon swore that
he had not slept with her, and no one has ever said
anything against this oath, nor suggested that it
was false.
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Achilles despises
the gifts
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When these words were uttered and the gifts were
offered, Nestor appointed envoys to meet
Achilles, and among
these were Odysseus,
Ajax 1, and Phoenix 2. But
when Achilles heard
from Odysseus what was
offered to him he refused to give up his wrath:
"Hateful in my
eyes, as the gates of Hades, is that man that hides one thing
in his mind and says another."
[Achilles.
Homer,
Iliad
9.313]
arguing that:
"Why has he
gathered and led here his host, this son of
Atreus? Was it not for Helen's sake? Do they then alone of
mortal men love their wives, these sons of
Atreus? No, for he who is a true man
loves his own and cherishes her, as I too loved
Briseis with all my heart, though she was
but the captive of my spear ... Never again shall
Agamemnon beguile me with words...Hateful in
my eyes are his gifts."
[Achilles to
Agamemnon's envoys.
Homer,
Iliad
9.340]
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Nestor present at the turning point
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But some time after, when
Achilles saw Nestor
carrying away from battle the wounded Machaon, son
of Asclepius, he
started to pity the Achaeans, and sent
Patroclus 1 to find
out whether the wounded man was indeed Machaon.
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Nestor and Patroclus
1
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When Patroclus 1
came to Nestor's tent, he was sitting with his
squire Eurymedon 4, telling tales and drinking the
Pramnian wine that
Hecamede, a woman from Tenedos given to Nestor
after Achilles sacked
the island, served them.
Patroclus 1 would not
sit with them, but was nevertheless informed about
all the wounded and the severe military defeat that
the Achaeans were suffering. And
Patroclus 1 also was
instructed by Nestor, who wished him to convince
Achilles
of fighting again:
"It is not too
late for you to talk to Achilles ... A good thing is the persuasion
of a friend ... But if Achilles is secretly deterred by some
prophecy or word from
Zeus that Thetis has disclosed to him,
let him at least allow you to go to battle with the Myrmidon
force behind you ... " [Nestor to
Patroclus 1. Homer,
Iliad
11.790]
These were decisive words [see
Patroclus 1].
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Return from Troy
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After the sack of Troy,
Nestor and Diomedes 2
put to sea in company, joining
Menelaus in Lesbos.
Later Menelaus was
overtaken by a storm, and having lost the rest of
his vessels, arrived to Egypt with only five ships.
Diomedes 2 returned to
Argos, but having met a
sedition, had to leave for Italy. Of these, only
Nestor had a regular return, being one of the few
ACHAEAN LEADERS
who ruled undisturbed after the
Trojan War.
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Telemachus visits
Nestor in Pylos
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When Telemachus
was still looking for his father
Odysseus, who had not
yet returned from Troy, he
came to Pylos, and there
he met prosperous Nestor, sitting with his sons
while people about him were roasting meat and
making preparations for a feast. In this meeting
Nestor informed
Telemachus about the
fate of the ACHAEAN
LEADERS [see also The
Returns], and then took him to his palace,
where Telemachus,
having drunk an eleven years old
wine, was accommodated. The
next day, Nestor's youngest daughter Polycaste 2
bathed Telemachus and
anointed him with oil, and after having a meal,
Telemachus left for
Sparta.
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Life for three generations
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This clear-voiced orator of the Pylians is said
to have lived three generations by favor of
Apollo. For
Apollo had once killed
the brothers and sisters of Nestor's mother Chloris
1. And it is asserted that the years
Apollo took from these
young men and women (the
NIOBIDS), he granted to
Nestor. So at the time of the
Trojan War two
generations had passed away in his lifetime, and he
was now in the third. The circumstances of his
death are still unknown.
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Abolengo
Album - High Resolution Genealogical Charts
|
Names in this chart
Aeolus 1, Alcidice,
Alcmaeon 2, Alcyone 1, Aleus,
Amphion 1, Antilochus,
Antiope 3, Aphidas 1, Arcas 1, Aretus 2,
Atlas,
Callisto, Chloris 1,
Clonia, Deimachus 1,
Deucalion 1, Dione 3,
Echephron 2, Enarete, Eurydice 8, Hellen 1,
Hyrieus, Neleus,
Nestor, Niobe 2, Nycteus 2, Orseis, Paeon 3,
Persepolis, Perseus 2, Pisidice 3, Pisistratus 1,
Pisistratus 2, Pleione, Pluto 3, Polycaste 2,
Polyxo 3, Poseidon,
Pyrrha 1, Salmoneus, Sillus, Stratichus,
Tantalus 1,
Telemachus,
Thrasymedes 1, Tyro, Zeus.
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