Dromo's Den

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Nestor Biography

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NESTOR. In the Homeric epic, the type of the wise and vigorous old man. He was said to be a son of Neleus (q.v.) and Chloris; he was not slain by Hercules because he was away at Gerenia. At the time of the Trojan War he had already outlived two generations. He is the persuasive speaker, drawing on his stores of wisdom and experience for the guidance of the younger leaders. On his return to Pylos he punished the neighboring Epeians of Elis for their raids. He even took part in the war between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs, but it is only in later writers that he appears as a participant in the Calydonian Hunt and the Argonautic expedition. His part in the Iliad is prominent; the Ionian princes of Asia Minor regarded themselves as his descendants. He appears in the Odyssey as safely returned from Troy to Pylos, where he hospitably receives the young Telemachus. Of his death there was no tradition, but Pausanias mentions his grave at Pylos.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 754.