The Iliad Nestor Quotes

True, old man – all you say is fit and proper –
but this soldier wants to tower over the armies,
he wants to rule over all, to lord it over all,
give out orders to every man in sight. Well,
there’s one, I trust, who will never yield to him!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 335-339. Agamemnon responds to Nestor’s attempt to mediate in his dispute with Achilles, when the elder captain and king of Pylos asks that they both back down. But fueled by his intense pride, the angry Agamemnon ignores Nestor’s plea, accusing Achilles of wanting to rule and lord it over everyone. He vows that he will never yield to Achilles.

Old war-horse,
if only your knees could match the spirit in your chest
and your body’s strength were planted firm as rock,
but the great leveler, age, has worn you down.
If only some other fighter had your years
and you could march with the younger, fitter men!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 360-365. All the fighters in the Iliad understand that sooner or later death comes knocking on their door. Here Agamemnon is speaking to the wise elder and counselor Nestor. Nestor’s mind and spirit as just as strong as the younger soldiers, but physically he has been worn down by old age.

Lost to the clan,
lost to the hearth, lost to the old ways, that one
who lusts for all the horrors of war with his own people.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 73-75. Wise old King Nestor of Pylos says this to impetuous young warrior and lord of the war cry Diomedes who has branded King Agamemnon a coward. Diomedes wants the Achaeans to fight their way to Troy, while Agamemnon considers retreating back to Greece. But Nestor is about to present a plan to avoid a civil war and Greek ranks being split: reconciliation between Agamemnon and Achilles.

No one will offer a better plan than this…
the plan I still retain, and I’ve been forming,
well, for a good long while now, from the very day
that you, my illustrious King, infuriated Achilles –
you went and took from his tents the girl Briseis,
and not with any applause from us, far from it:
I for one, I urged you against it, strenuously.
But you, you gave way to your overbearing anger,
disgraced a great man the gods themselves esteem –
you seized his gift of honor and keep her still.
But even so, late as it is, let us contrive
to set all this to rights, to bring him round
with gifts of friendship and warm, winning words.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 123-135. Nestor, King of Pylos and oldest Achaean commander, calls out Agamemnon for his self-pride and says that it is not too late to heal his rift with Achilles. He tells us that Agamemnon in anger stole Achilles’s gift of honor Briseis and keeps her still, infuriating Achilles, a hero with the gods on his side. Nestor urges Agamemnon to acknowledge his fault and set things right.

Nestor stood there, stunned.
As a huge ground swell boils up on the open seas,
soundless, foreboding a hurricane’s howling onslaught,
rearing but never rolling back or forth…all adrift
till one steady, decisive blast comes down from Zeus –
so the old man thrashed things out, torn two ways,
to join his Argives fast with chariot-teams
or go and find Agamemnon lord of armies.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 14, lines 18-25. The Greek elder Nestor is stunned and uncertain what to do as the Achaeans fall back, having suffered many losses. An epic simile compares his uncertainty to a huge swell boiling up on the sea, but having no direction, waiting for a sharp blast to come down from Zeus.

By skill, too, the captain holds his ship on course,
scudding the wine-dark sea though rocked by gales.
By skill alone, charioteer outraces charioteer.
The average driver, leaving all to team and car,
recklessly makes his turn, veering left and right,
his pair swerving over the course – he can’t control them.
But the cunning driver, even handling slower horses,
always watches the post, turns it close, never loses
the first chance to relax his reins and stretch his pair
but he holds them tight till then, eyes on the leader.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 23, lines 360-369. At the funeral games to honor Patroclus, Nestor coaches his son Antilochus with tips for the chariot race. Despite his son having the "slowest nags", Nestor says that it is skill and not brawn that will see one charioteer outrace the others.
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