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Summary Book III

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Book 3
On the morning of the third day, Telemachus arrives in Pylos, kingdom of aged Nestor, who had fought in the Trojan War. Telemachus and his guide Athena, still in the form of Mentor, are welcomed by the Pylians, who are sacrificing a bull to Poseidon, god of the sea. Telemachus identifies himself and announces his mission. Nestor's reply is characteristically lengthy: he reports the homecoming of the heroes of Troy, relating the murder of Agamemnon by his wife, Clytemnestra, and his cousin, Aegisthus, and the revenge of Agamemnon's son, Orestes, who slew the murderers of his father; Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus, was unable to intervene, for unfavorable winds had carried him to Egypt. Nestor bids Telemachus visit Menelaus at Sparta and offers him, on Athena's suggestion, a chariot and his son, Peisistratus, as companion. Telemachus spends the night at Nestor's palace and, after a sacrifice, travels throughout the fourth day and part of the fifth to Sparta.

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