Odyssey 3.400 · Book 3, lines 400–403
Peisistratus beside him; Nestor to the inner chamber
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πὰρʼ δʼ ἄρʼ ἐυμμελίην Πεισίστρατον, ὄρχαμον ἀνδρῶν, ὅς οἱ ἔτʼ ἠίθεος παίδων ἦν ἐν μεγάροισιν· αὐτὸς δʼ αὖτε καθεῦδε μυχῷ δόμου ὑψηλοῖο, τῷ δʼ ἄλοχος δέσποινα λέχος πόρσυνε καὶ εὐνήν.
and beside him Peisistratus of the good ash spear, leader of men, who alone of his sons was still unwed in the halls; but he himself slept in turn in the inner recess of the high house, and beside him his lady wife made ready the bed and couch.
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The setting
The night's lodging is arranged. Peisistratus — Nestor's youngest, still-unmarried son — is bedded next to Telemachus, while Nestor retires to his own inner room, his wife having prepared his bed.
A note on this passage
The sleeping arrangements finish the scene. Peisistratus, the one son still unmarried and living at home, is laid beside Telemachus; Nestor himself withdraws to the innermost room of the tall house, where his wife has made his bed ready.
The quiet undercurrent is contrast. Here is a whole house in order — a queen who prepares her husband's bed, grown sons sleeping under the same roof, a peer laid beside the guest as a companion-to-be. Every detail of Nestor's settled household is the exact negative of what Ithaca has lost: a wife who waits without a husband, a bed no one shares, an heir among enemies.
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