Odyssey 3.199 · Book 3, lines 199–200
Be brave, that men to come speak well of you
Read the full text in our reader
καὶ σὺ φίλος, μάλα γάρ σʼ ὁρόω καλόν τε μέγαν τε, ἄλκιμος ἔσσʼ, ἵνα τίς σε καὶ ὀψιγόνων ἐὺ εἴπῃ.
And you, friend — for I see you are very handsome and tall — be valiant, so that someone even of men yet unborn may speak well of you.
Word by word
The setting
Nestor closes his long speech by turning the tale of Orestes into direct advice for his young guest: be valiant, so that future generations will praise you.
A note on this passage
Nestor ends by turning the example into direct counsel. Looking at the tall, well-made young man before him, he tells Telemachus to be brave, so that people not yet born will speak well of him. It is the natural close of the whole Orestes lesson: be like him.
The measure of a life here is future speech — what men in ages to come will say. This is the Homeric honour economy in one sentence: worth is not private virtue but the fame others carry forward. Nestor is offering Telemachus the only immortality his world knows, and quietly telling him it must be earned by action.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 3.199 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Odyssey — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Odyssey 3.199 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.199/