Book III · Episode 5 of 5
Sacrifice and Departure
Nestor sacrifices to Athena, sends Telemachus
Scenes
- Ordering the Sacrifice — Nestor orders heifer gilded for Athena
- Nestor sits where Neleus once sat
- Six sons gather around him
- One son fetches a heifer from pasture
- Another summons the ship’s crew
- Goldsmith Laerceus is sent for
- Feast and Bath — Heifer slain, Polycaste bathes Telemachus
- Thrasymedes fells the heifer with one blow
- Women cry out in ritual lament
- Peisistratus cuts the heifer’s throat
- She anoints him with oil
- He emerges looking like a god
- Chariot to Sparta — Nestor yokes chariot for Sparta
- The matron packs bread, wine, provisions
- Peisistratus takes the reins beside him
- They reach Pherae by nightfall
- Diocles shelters them there till dawn
- A second sunset finds ripening harvests