Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

When the Atreidae quarreled at Troy over the time of sailing, Nestor sided with Menelaus’s prompt departure and left with Diomedes and (for a stretch) Menelaus. He reached Pylos without the disasters that swallowed Ajax Locrian and delayed Menelaus—Homeric Nestor presents his return as the reward of reading the quarrel rightly and not waiting with Agamemnon under the gathering wrath. Antilochus was already dead in the Troad (Memnon); Thrasymedes and Peisistratus remained to him. In Pylos he ruled again, sacrificing to Poseidon on the shore when Telemachus came seeking news of Odysseus, and sent the boy on to Sparta with Peisistratus as guide. The *Nostoi* treat Nestor’s homecoming among the successful short returns. This stub records that foil: not every victor paid with wreck or adultery’s net; the old charioteer of the *Iliad* came home to unbroken kingship and became the first full witness Telemachus hears.