Odyssey 3.407 · Book 3, lines 407–410
The stones where Neleus once sat
Read the full text in our reader
οἵ οἱ ἔσαν προπάροιθε θυράων ὑψηλάων, λευκοί, ἀποστίλβοντες ἀλείφατος· οἷς ἔπι μὲν πρὶν Νηλεὺς ἵζεσκεν, θεόφιν μήστωρ ἀτάλαντος· ἀλλʼ ὁ μὲν ἤδη κηρὶ δαμεὶς Ἄϊδόσδε βεβήκει,
which stood for him before the high doors, white and glistening with oil; on which formerly Neleus used to sit, a counselor equal to a god; but he, subdued by death, had already gone down to Hades,
Word by word
The setting
The seat before the gates has a lineage: white stones, polished with oil, where Nestor's father Neleus — founder of Pylos and reputed son of Poseidon — used to sit in his day. But Neleus is long dead.
A note on this passage
The stones get a history. They are white, kept shining with oil, set before the palace doors — and once Nestor's father Neleus sat on them, 'a counselor equal to a god.' Now Neleus is dead, gone down to Hades.
A seat outlasts the man who sits in it. The same polished stone holds the son where it held the father, and the poem lingers on the succession precisely as it records the death: Neleus was god-like in counsel, and death subdued him all the same. Nestor takes his father's place in the open light, and the line lets us feel that he too will one day be the one who 'had already gone.'
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Odyssey 3.407 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 3.407 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/odyssey/3.407/