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In Greek mythology, Nestor of Gerênia was the son
of Neleus, the King of Pylos, and Chloris.
Heracles killed Neleus and all of Nestor's brothers and sisters. Nestor then
became king of Pylos.
Nestor was an Argonaut, helped fight the centaurs, and participated in the hunt for the Calydonian
Boar. He and his sons Antilochus and Thrasymedes, fought on the side of Greece
in the Trojan War. Though Nestor was already very old when the war began, he
was noted for his bravery and speaking abilities. In the Iliad he often gives advice to
the younger warriors, and advises Agamemnon and Achilles to reconcile. He is too old to engage in combat himself, but he leads the Pylian troops, and one of his
horses is killed by an arrow shot by Paris. He also had a
solid gold shield. Homer frequently calls him by the epithet "the Gerenian horseman." At
the funeral games of Patroclus Nestor advises Antilochus on how to win the
chariot race. Antilochus was later killed in battle by Memnon.
In the Odyssey Nestor has safely returned to Pylos, and Odysseus' son Telemachus travels there to inquire about
the fate of his father. Nestor does not know his fate but allows Telemachus to stay in his house as a guest. Nestor's wife
Eurydice and their remaining living sons appear in the Odyssey as well - Echephron,
Stratius, Perseus, Aretus, Thrasymedes, and Pisistratus. They also had a
daughter, Polycaste.
In James Joyce's Ulysses, Nestor is represented by the figure of the schoolmaster Garret Deasy.
Iliad I, 248; II, 370; IV, 293. Odyssey
III, 157, 343.
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