Odyssey 3.121 · Book 3, lines 121–125
No younger man could speak so well
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Nestor — ἤθελʼ, ἐπεὶ μάλα πολλὸν ἐνίκα δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς παντοίοισι δόλοισι, πατὴρ τεός, εἰ ἐτεόν γε κείνου ἔκγονός ἐσσι· σέβας μʼ ἔχει εἰσορόωντα. ἦ τοι γὰρ μῦθοί γε ἐοικότες, οὐδέ κε φαίης ἄνδρα νεώτερον ὧδε ἐοικότα μυθήσασθαι.
…none was willing, since godlike Odysseus far surpassed them all in every kind of wile — your father, if you are truly his son. Awe holds me as I look upon you. For truly your words are fitting; nor would you say that a younger man could speak so aptly.
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The setting
Nestor has been recalling the war at Troy. Here he finishes praising Odysseus's unmatched cunning in counsel, then marvels that his young visitor, Telemachus, speaks with the very same gift.
A note on this passage
Nestor finishes praising Odysseus: in the war-councils no one would even try to rival him for cunning. Then he turns the compliment on his young guest — your father, if you are really his son. The boy speaks so well that the old man feels a kind of awe, and swears no younger man could talk so aptly.
The measure Nestor uses is telling. He knew Odysseus above all as a mind and a voice, the man of counsel, and he tests the son by his speech — the way the whole poem keeps asking whether Telemachus is truly his father's heir. The word σέβας is strong: not mere admiration but the shiver owed to something sacred. For a moment the old king looks at the boy and half-sees the man.
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