#when nestor begs achilles to fight for him it strikes me as hauntingly unlike nestor

[ilions-end]

i've kept thinking about the detail in philoctetes where we're told nestor was broken by the loss of antilochus (and even in the odyssey he's still grieving). it's interesting finally reading a depiction of antilochus' death in posthomerica.

antilochus dies at troy trying to protect nestor from memnon. it's already awful for a child to die before the parent, but i think nestor's blessing of a triple-long life heightens that theme even more. nestor is in his third lifespan, and his son doesn't even get to experience one full life. he dies at the peak of youth to save his supernaturally old father.

to make it worse, when nestor wants to avenge his son, memnon refuses to fight him, saying that he hadn't realized he was attacking an old man and that if he'd known, he'd have given him a wide berth. antilochus dies because of a misunderstanding, and one that wouldn't have happened if nestor had sat that battle out with the other elders. i can see why his son's death haunts him.