Tragedy in Athens: Performance Space and Theatrical Meaning Book

Frame explores a number of interesting points in this book, but to say this is a book about Nestor is not entirely accurate. It starts off being about Nestor, and tries to uncover Nestor's past history through an in depth analysis of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Those initial chapters were what led me to the book and I found them truly excellent. The author also explores the relationship of Nestor to other characters in the Trojan saga, such as Antilochus, Odysseus and Diomedes.

Things become more complex when Nestor is presented as one of a pair of twin figures (with a missing, dead brother) and compared to other mythological pairs, and become somewhat stretched as Frame presents a bold proposal that the king of the Phaeacians is a double for Nestor, with no less than Athena Polias acting through Queen Arete and Nausicaa. Those chapters are worth reading, but I don't think they are going to become a trendsetting theory any time soon.

Additional topics discussed are (i) Nestor's placement within the Neleids, the Neleids' involvement with the foundation of Miletus and other cities of the Panionian league (with a collateral relationship with Athens) and how the Homeric poems could have been born and/or evolved within the context of the Panionian festival before reaching the rest of Greece; (ii) the location of Pylos (not as simple as I would have thought); (iii) interpolations and amendments to the Homeric poems in Nestor-related passages, their possible authors and eras where they would have occurred. This last topic is somewhat scattered through the book, as possible alterations to the text are considered when analysing each particular passage.