Odyssey 3.327 · Book 3, lines 327–328
He will tell you the truth
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λίσσεσθαι δέ μιν αὐτός, ἵνα νημερτὲς ἐνίσπῃ· ψεῦδος δʼ οὐκ ἐρέει· μάλα γὰρ πεπνυμένος ἐστίν.
And entreat him yourself, so that he may tell you the plain truth; and a lie he will not speak, for he is a man of full and sound sense.
Word by word
The setting
Nestor finishes his advice: ask Menelaus directly for the truth about Odysseus. Menelaus will not lie, Nestor promises, because he is a man of good sense.
A note on this passage
Nestor closes with a character reference. Go to the source, ask him yourself, and trust what you hear — Menelaus deals in the truth. The two lines set 'the unerring truth' against 'a lie' and come down firmly on the first, guaranteed by the man's own good sense.
The undercurrent is what counts as reliable knowledge in this world. There is no other way to learn of Odysseus than to find a man who was there and ask him face to face. Truth travels by testimony, host to guest, and the worth of a witness rests on his character — πεπνυμένος, 'of sound sense,' the same praise the poem keeps giving Telemachus himself as he grows into the man who can go and ask.
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