Nestor

/nes"teuhr, -tawr/, n. Class. Myth.

the oldest and wisest of the Greeks in the Trojan War and a king of Pylos.

* * *

In Greek legend, the king of Pylos in Elis.

All his brothers were killed by Heracles, but Nestor survived. In Homer's Iliad he appeared as an elder statesman who entertained the warriors with tales of his youthful exploits. He brought 90 ships to aid the Greeks in their war against Troy. When, at the war's end, the Greeks sailed for home, Nestor went in a different direction and missed the storm Athena sent to disperse their ships. In the Odyssey Telemachus, son of Odysseus, came to Elis looking for his father, and Nestor entertained him.

* * *

▪ Greek mythology

      in Greek legend, son of Neleus, king of Pylos (Navarino) in Elis, and of Chloris. All of his brothers were slain by the Greek hero Heracles, but Nestor escaped. In the Iliad he is about 70 years old and sage and pious; his role is largely to incite the warriors to battle and to tell stories of his early exploits, which contrast with his listeners' experiences, shown to be soft and easy in comparison with his own. In the Odyssey he tells Telemachus about the sufferings and trials he and others endured during the Trojan War.

▪ Russian monk

born c. 1056, Kiev [now in Ukraine]

died Oct. 27, 1113, Kiev

      a monk in Kievan Rus of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev (from about 1074), author of several works of hagiography and an important historical chronicle.

      Nestor wrote the lives of Saints Boris and Gleb, the sons of St. Vladimir of Rus, who were murdered in 1015, and the life of St. Theodosius, abbot of the Monastery of the Caves (d. 1074). A tradition that was first recorded in the 13th century ascribes to him the authorship of the Povest vremennykh let (“Tale of Bygone Years”; The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The)), the most important historical work of early medieval Rus. Modern scholarship, however, regards the chronicle as a composite work, written and revised in several stages, and inclines to the view that the basic (though not final) version of the document was compiled by Nestor about 1113. The chronicle, extant in several medieval manuscripts, the earliest dated 1377, was compiled in Kiev. It relates in detail the earliest history of the eastern Slavs down to the second decade of the 12th century. Emphasis is laid on the foundation of the Kievan state—ascribed to the advent of Varangians (a tribe of Norsemen) in the second half of the 9th century, the subsequent wars and treaties between Rus and Byzantium, the conversion of Rus to Christianity about 988, the cultural achievements of the reign of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev (1019–54), and the wars against the Turkic nomads of the steppe.

      Written partly in Old Church Slavonic (Old Church Slavonic language), partly in the Old Russian language based on the spoken vernacular, The Russian Primary Chronicle includes material from translated Byzantine chronicles, west and south Slavonic literary sources, official documents, and oral sagas. This borrowed material is woven with considerable skill into the historical narrative, which is enlivened by vivid description, humour, and a sense of the dramatic.

* * *