Odyssey 3.202 · Book 3, lines 202–204
The fame the Achaeans will carry
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Telemachus — ὦ Νέστορ Νηληϊάδη, μέγα κῦδος Ἀχαιῶν, καὶ λίην κεῖνος μὲν ἐτίσατο, καί οἱ Ἀχαιοὶ οἴσουσι κλέος εὐρὺ καὶ ἐσσομένοισι πυθέσθαι·
O Nestor, son of Neleus, great glory of the Achaeans, indeed that man took his full vengeance, and for him the Achaeans will carry wide fame, for men yet to be to learn of.
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Telemachus replies, agreeing with Nestor: Orestes truly avenged his father, and the Greeks will carry his fame — his kleos — to generations still to come.
A note on this passage
Telemachus takes up Nestor's example and agrees with it emphatically. Orestes did indeed take his vengeance, he says, and for it the Achaeans will spread his fame far — a glory that even generations still unborn will hear. He gives the old man back his own moral.
The key word is κλέος — the fame carried in song, the nearest thing to immortality Homer's world offers. Telemachus grasps exactly what Nestor was offering: not just praise but a name that outlasts death. Yet by dwelling on the glory owed to a son who acted, he is measuring himself, and the measurement is about to turn painful.
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