Book 9 and 10
Both book 9 and 10 takes place on the same night. In book 9, Nestor suggests that it was would be a good idea to ask Achilles to return to the war. Seeing the wisdom of this idea, Agamemnon decides to offer Achilles a bunch of gifts on the condition that he return to the battle. The king selects some of the best men including Odysseus, Great Ajax and Phoenix to deliver the proposal to Achilleus. Achilleus felt insulted by Agamemnon with the idea. Achilleus only wanted restoration of the honor and glory he has worked so hard for. He felt like Agamemnon has embarrassed him. Later on the night, in book 10, Nestor suggests sending a spy to infiltrate the trojan rank and Diomedes quickly volunteers for the role. The two achaean spies proceed to the Thracian camp, killing twelve soldiers. Based on these two books, Nestor seem to have a significant role with certain decisions. He seem to be very wise and people tend to listen to his instructions. I think a lot of people respects Nestor.
This a wonderful recap of Book 9 and 10 ! I agree with your reflection of Nestor's character, he is proving to be a very wise and great leader of the Achaians, if he was not so aged he would be leading them on the front lines.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think Nestor is one of the key characters in the Iliad. Typically, someone might associate only warriors and gods with the major shifts that occur in the story, but Nestor shows that even characters that aren't directly on the battlefield still have major control over what goes on behind the scenes. It's possible that so many people respect Nestor because he is able to have so much control over what goes on, without having to actually risk his life fighting, unlike almost everyone else he knew. Usually, people with power in the story are those that have physical or magical strength, but Nestor is an outlier in that his power comes more from speech, rather than physical traits.
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