Odyssey

"My friend," answered Nestor, "you recall a time of much sorrow to my mind, for the brave Achaeans suffered much both at sea, while privateering under Achilles, and in that district [ dêmos ] when fighting before the great city of king Priam. Our best men all of them fell there - Ajax, Achilles, Patroklos peer of gods in counsel, and my own dear son Antilokhos, a man singularly fleet of foot and in fight valiant. But we suffered much more than this; what mortal tongue indeed could tell the whole story? Though you were to stay here and question me for five years, or even six, I could not tell you all that the Achaeans suffered, and you would turn homeward weary of my tale before it ended. Nine long years did we try every kind of stratagem, but the hand of heaven was against us; during all this time there was no one who could compare with your father in subtlety - if indeed you are his son. I can hardly believe my eyes - and you talk just like him too - no one would say that people of such different ages could speak so much alike. He and I never had any kind of difference from first to last neither in camp nor council, but in singleness of heart and purpose [ noos ] we advised the Argives how all might be ordered for the best.

OdysseyBook 3, Line 102Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 3

HomerProseID odyssey-odyssey-butler-en-prose-3-102