Odyssey 3.247 · Book 3, lines 247–252
How did Agamemnon die?
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ὦ Νέστορ Νηληϊάδη, σὺ δʼ ἀληθὲς ἐνίσπες· πῶς ἔθανʼ Ἀτρεΐδης εὐρὺ κρείων Ἀγαμέμνων; ποῦ Μενέλαος ἔην; τίνα δʼ αὐτῷ μήσατʼ ὄλεθρον Αἴγισθος δολόμητις, ἐπεὶ κτάνε πολλὸν ἀρείω; ἦ οὐκ Ἄργεος ἦεν Ἀχαιικοῦ, ἀλλά πῃ ἄλλῃ πλάζετʼ ἐπʼ ἀνθρώπους, ὁ δὲ θαρσήσας κατέπεφνε;
O Nestor, son of Neleus, tell me the truth: how did he die, the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon? Where was Menelaus? What doom did crafty Aegisthus devise for him, since he slew a far better man? Was he not in Achaean Argos, but somewhere else, wandering among men, so that he took heart and cut him down?
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The setting
Still addressing the old king, Telemachus puts his real question: the death of Agamemnon, the great commander at Troy, murdered on his return by Aegisthus.
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Telemachus puts his questions plainly: how did Agamemnon die, where was his brother Menelaus, and what trap did Aegisthus lay for a man so much his better? He even guesses at the answer — Menelaus must have been away, off wandering, or the murder could never have happened.
Under the courtesy is the boy's own case. Aegisthus killed a far better man, as the suitors would consume a far better man's house; Menelaus was absent, as Odysseus is absent. Telemachus is learning, through Agamemnon, what a homecoming can cost and what a son may owe. The question is history to Nestor and prophecy to the listener.
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