Nestor (mythology)

• 1. The Gerenian Horseman

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  Nestor of Gerenia, legendary king of Pylos, survives in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as a voice that never stops. Dares the Phrygian described him as large, broad and fair, with a long hooked nose and the bearing of a wise adviser.

  Beyond that account, Homer offers almost nothing in the way of physical appearance. What fills the Iliad and Odyssey instead is Nestor's speech. He is already very old when the Greeks gather for Troy. He can no longer fight as the younger warriors fight. But he leads, he advises, and he talks. Homer's warriors receive every word with profound respect.

  Across both epics, Nestor's advice sometimes leads to specific, traceable disasters. It gets people killed. And yet the men around him praise him every time. They never question him. The gap between his reputation and what his wisdom actually produces is one of the stranger things Homer wrote into his poems. He left it without editorial comment.

  How a figure with this track record became the Greeks' model counselor is the question Nestor's mythology raises. The answer turns out to say something unexpected about what the ancient world understood wisdom to mean.

• 2. A Long Life Before Troy

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  Nestor was an Argonaut, part of the crew who sailed in pursuit of the Golden Fleece. He fought in the battle against the centaurs. He joined the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, one of the defining collective trials of the heroic age. The Trojan War, when it came, was the culmination of a career that had already covered most of what myth considered important.

  His path to the kingship of Pylos came through a particular catastrophe. Heracles killed Nestor's father, King Neleus, along with every one of Nestor's brothers. Nestor alone survived. That left him king, but it also meant he had been outlasting everyone around him from the beginning of his adult life.

  Apollo had once taken years away from Chloris, Nestor's mother, and from her brothers. Those years the god granted to Nestor instead. The result was a king said to have lived for three full human generations. Chloris was the daughter of King Amphion of Orchomenus; some accounts call his mother Polymede instead.

  By the time the Greeks mustered for Troy, Nestor had built a large household. His wife is given in different sources as either Eurydice or Anaxibia. Their children included Peisistratus, Thrasymedes, Pisidice, Polycaste, Perseus, Stratichus, Aretus, Echephron, and Antilochus. A later tradition gives Nestor a daughter named Epicaste, who in that account became the mother of Homer himself, fathered by Telemachus.

• 3. Voice in the Iliad

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  Two of Nestor's sons, Antilochus and Thrasymedes, fought beside him when the Greek force arrived at Troy. Nestor was noted for his bravery and his gifts as a speaker, though he was too old to enter single combat.

  Nestor led the Pylian troops from his chariot rather than fighting on foot. Paris shot an arrow during the fighting that killed one of his horses. He carried a solid gold shield. Homer attached to him the repeated epithet "the Gerenian horseman," fixing the image of an elderly man who belonged entirely to his chariot.

  Among the Greek commanders, Nestor worked to prevent the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles from destroying the alliance. He urged reconciliation between them and pushed the Greeks toward collective action rather than individual pride.

  At the funeral games held in honor of Patroclus, Nestor gave his son Antilochus specific advice on strategy for the chariot race. Antilochus was later killed in battle by Memnon.

• 4. The Problem With His Advice

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  In Book 11 of the Iliad, Patroclus arrives at Nestor's tent on a limited errand: to gather information for Achilles about the wounded soldier Machaon. What he left with was something far more consequential. Nestor persuaded him that he should disguise himself as Achilles and lead the Myrmidons into combat. Karl Reinhardt argued that this was contrary to what Patroclus had originally wanted. Reinhardt described "an unimportant errand left behind by an all-important one," with an ironic purpose running through the whole encounter. Patroclus followed the advice. Patroclus died.

  Book 2 of the Iliad provides another example. Nestor accepts without question the dream Zeus plants in Agamemnon, then urges the Achaeans to march to battle. In Book 4, he teaches the Greeks spear techniques that would in practice be disastrous. In each case, the advice is followed without challenge. In each case, the outcomes are harmful. Nestor is never questioned and is frequently praised.

  Homer uses Nestor's habit of self-reference for quiet comedy throughout both epics. Every recommendation arrives wrapped in a lengthy account of similar situations Nestor navigated in his own past. The warriors listen respectfully each time. The humor operates at Nestor's expense, and neither Nestor nor the warriors appear to notice.

  Homer offers what scholars describe as contradictory portrayals of Nestor as an adviser, and the contradiction runs through both poems without resolution.

• 5. Too Much Hospitality

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  Nestor left Troy immediately after the city was plundered, rather than staying behind with Agamemnon. Athena had been angered by the conduct of some of the Greeks, most likely Ajax the Lesser, and Nestor chose not to test her patience. He returned safely to Pylos with his forces.

  Odysseus's son Telemachus traveled to Pylos to ask Nestor about the fate of his father. Nestor received him warmly and entertained him with considerable generosity. He could not furnish any information about where Odysseus was or whether he was still alive. His hospitality, however, was thorough enough that it became its own problem.

  When Telemachus returned to Pylos after a visit to Helen and Menelaus, he had already gathered what news he could about Odysseus. He urged Peisistratus, one of Nestor's sons, to let him board his ship and leave without going back inside. Facing another round of Nestor's hospitality was more than Telemachus was willing to endure. Peisistratus agreed to help him slip away, though he observed ruefully that his father would be furious when he found out.

• 6. What Homer Meant by Wisdom

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  Hanna Roisman offers the clearest explanation for the contradiction Nestor embodies. In the world of the Iliad, she argues, outcomes are ultimately in the hands of gods who are arbitrary and unpredictable. Heroes are not held responsible when things go wrong. The framework for judging people differs fundamentally from anything modern readers would apply.

  Book 1 of the Iliad establishes Nestor's character through specific language. Homer calls him a man of "sweet words." He is a "clear-voiced orator" whose voice "flows sweeter than honey." Roisman notes that these descriptions parallel Homer's definition of a good counselor at Iliad 3.150-152. Nestor meets that definition fully and inherently. The consequences of his advice have no bearing on whether he qualifies as a good counselor.

  Roisman states directly that "Nestor is a good counselor inherently, and the consequences of his advice have no bearing on that." This is the distance between Nestor's world and ours. We judge advisers by what happens after they speak. The Iliad judges them by the quality of their speech and the sincerity of their character.

  The palace at Pylos that bears his name dates to the Mycenaean era, long before Homer committed these stories to verse. Archaeologists have not found Nestor there. The stories did not need him to be real to make the palace his.