The Odyssey - Book 3 - Other homecomings; Telemachus visits King Nestor in Pylos

• Reading time: about 32 minutes
• "You can't go home again" — or can you? [Discuss Ody Bk03 Q01]

• The Greek soldiers' journeys home from Troy provided story-tellers a wealth of stories. A whole genre of literature grew out of this theme — the return-home story. The Odyssey itself, of course, belongs to this genre. So far we have been introduced to the homecomings of Agamemnon, Nestor, and Odysseus. In the next book we will learn about Menelaus's homecoming. The most prominent homecoming mentioned in the first three books has been that of Agamemnon. Zeus talked about that bloody homecoming right at the start of The Odyssey in Book 1. Now in Book 3 we are asked to consider it again.
• It might be good to think about homecoming as an archetypal image and speculate what is it about this image that has such a grip on the human imagination over the centuries.

• Contrast of Book 3 with Book 2

• Notice how Book 3 provides a contrast with Book 2 — the anarchy of the suitors in Telemachus's home with the well-ordered society of Nestor's world on Pylos.
• You would think that Telemachus would ask for help from Nestor with his situation back at home, but he doesn't, although Nestor does give him some advice. Telemachus just wants to know about his father, whom he presumes to be dead.

• Book 3 provides context and reflection on main aspects of The Odyssey.

• We learn much in Book 3 about
  • the gods
  • the relation of the gods, especially Athena, to Odysseus
  • Odysseus — how he acted, how others regarded him
  • the results of anarchy; again we hear about Agamemnon's return home.
    • We now have the stories of three warriors from Troy and what has happened to them — Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Nestor. Book 4 will give us the story of a fourth, Menelaus.
• Take some time to reflect on what you can take away from Book 3 about the characters: their past and present, the gods, the social relations we see.