Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 3. AT PYLOS: MEMORIES OF TROY, by HOMER



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ODYSSEY: BOOK 3. AT PYLOS: MEMORIES OF TROY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And nestor, the gerenian knight, replied
Last Line: So young a man might have such mastery.'
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical; Troy


AND Nestor, the Gerenian knight, replied:
'O friend, to memory you recall the tide
Of miseries that encompassed in that land
The Achaean host in all their strength and pride:

'The woes we suffered on the misty sea
Cruising for plunder, our long ships and we,
Whereso Achilles led us, and the strife
That round King Priam's city mightily

'We waged in battle: there our bravest shed
Their life-blood, there lies valiant Aias dead,
There fell Achilles, there Patroclus fell,
Who with Gods' wisdom all our counsels led.

'And there among them lies mine own dear son,
A warrior brave and fleet of foot to run,
Antilochus, the fighter without fault;
And other ills we suffered many an one;

'What man of mortals all of them might tell?
Not if five years or six you here should dwell
Might you by asking all the sorrows learn,
That there the bright Achaean host befell:

'But sooner would you go in woeful mood
Back to your home. For nine years' space we stood
Devising many sleights against the foe,
That hardly Cronus' son at last made good.

'And in those days to bright Odysseus none
Might be compared in counsel, for he won
Far the first place by manifold device;
Your father, if indeed you are his son.

'While I behold you, wonder is on me.
For such you are in speechcraft as was he;
Nor would one say that of well-ordered words
So young a man might have such mastery.'





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net