Part 4. Ionia Chapter 10. The Panionic League {511|515} §4.1 Nestor, as discussed in Part 2 above, plays an extensive role beneath the surface of the Homeric poems; this role is based on Nestor’s twin myth, which is itself kept hidden from view in the poems. Nestor’s brother Periklymenos, who is mentioned but once in the poems, is Nestor’s partner in this old myth, which is… Read more
Chapter 11. The Festival of the Panionia and the Homeric Poems {550|551} §4.20 The Phaeacians, as argued earlier, represent the Ionians in the one context in which they were a single people, namely the celebration of the Panionia. With their love of songs, dances, and banquets, the Phaeacians bring out the festive side of the Ionians, and this is for good reason if they are meant to… Read more
Endnotes, Part 4 EN4.1 (Endnote to n4.22) {620|621} I agree with the viewpoint expressed by Cook 1975:784–785 that Athens cannot be removed from the Ionian migration, but I think that he claims too much for Athens’ role, as in the case of Colophon: “Many modern scholars have contended that this claim [that Athens was the main focus of emigration] was invented by the Athenians in the… Read more
Chapter 3. Vedic {58|59} §1.42 The twin gods of the Rig-Veda have two dual names: they are not only Aśvínā, “horse-possessors,” a name that occurs 398 times in the Rig-Veda, but also Nā́satyā, a name that occurs 99 times in the Rig-Veda. [117] The name Nā́satyā is old. It has an exact cognate in Avestan Nā̊ŋhaiθya, the name of a demon in… Read more
Endnotes, Part 1 EN1.1 (Endnote to n1.181) {94|95} If the Dioskouroi were thought of as buried beneath the earth at Therapne, their cult must, one assumes, have included the principal feature of hero cults, namely a grave. Unfortunately nothing is known of the twins’ cult at Therapne, which after Pindar is never mentioned again. Bölte RE ‘Therapne’ 2365 suggests that after Pindar’s time the twins’ cult… Read more
Part 2. Nestor’s Homeric Role Chapter 4. Iliad 11 {102|105} §2.1 The basic text for Nestor’s myth is his story in Iliad 11.670–761. [1] I have already suggested that the essence of Nestor’s myth is that he is a twin who has lost his brother and who therefore must take his brother’s place. What points to this is the etymological correspondence… Read more
Chapter 5. Iliad 23 {130|131} §2.19 We have so far looked only for similarities between Nestor and Patroclus in their respective bids to become horsemen. There is also a glaring difference between the two, namely that Nestor survived his battle with the Epeians and lived to reach old age, but in his battle with the Trojans Patroclus is slain. It is thus very significant that at the… Read more
Chapter 6. Odyssey 3 and Iliad 8 {172|173} §2.56 In the Odyssey Nestor is the same figure as in the Iliad except that he is now at home in Pylos ten years after the war. In the Iliad he is said to have outlived two generations of men and to rule in yet a third; in the Odyssey much the same is said of him. [… Read more
Chapter 7. Odyssey 11 and the Phaeacians {225|227} §2.100 Nestor is mentioned twice more in the Odyssey, in Odyssey 11 and Odyssey 24. [128] In Odyssey 11, as discussed already, only his name occurs: when Odysseus meets the ghost of Nestor’s mother Chloris in the underworld, Nestor is named as one of three sons she bore to Neleus (Odyssey 11.281–286): … Read more
Endnotes, Part 2 EN2.1 (Endnote to n2.62) {329|331} The terms mē̂tis and bíē, denoting “intelligence” and “strength,” are explicitly opposed to each other only once in Homer (μήτι τοι δρυτόμος μέγ’ ἀμείνων ἠὲ βίηφι, “by intelligence the woodcutter is much better than by strength,” Iliad 23.315), but the opposition between them matches up well with a contrast between the two heroes of the Iliad and the… Read more
