1. Lecture 14: The Nostoi - Odysseus

2. The Odyssey
Epic narrating The return home (Nostos) of Odysseus
Example of successful return and re-integration at home (cf. Agamemnon, Lecture 15)
O. Returns to Ithaka (Ithaca) after 10 years of wandering (which itself is after 10 years of war) = 20 years away since leaving for Troy
The Man, Memory, speak to me of the cunning hero, the wanderer, blown off course time and again after he plundered Troy’s sacred heights. Speak of all the cities he saw, the minds he grasped, the suffering deep in his heart at sea as he struggled to survive and bring his men home but could not save them, hard as he tried…..

3. THE HOUSE OF ODYSSEUS HERMES = CHIONE ANTICLEA = LAERTES (OR SISYPHUS)
AUTOLYCUS = AMPHITHEA
ANTICLEA = LAERTES (OR SISYPHUS)
ODYSSEUS / ULYSSES = PENELOPE
TELEMACHUS

4. After troy Gods thought that the sack of Troy went overboard
Cassandra - asylum violated
Temples destroyed
Gods send a storm as Greeks leave
Most Heroes either do not get home quickly or never return home

5. THE WANDERING OF ODYSSEUS

6. * DENOTES PLACES ALSO VISITED BY THE ARGO
The Wanderings, A List:
Ciconians
Calypso
Lotus - Eaters
Phaeacians *
Polyphemus
Island of Aeolus
Laestrygonians
Circe *
Underworld
Sirens *
Scylla and Charybdis *
Cattle of the Sun *
* DENOTES PLACES ALSO VISITED BY THE ARGO

7. Left: ODYSSEUS BLINDS POLYPHEMUS; R top: THE SIRENS;
R Bottom: ODYSSEUS & NAUSICAA?

8. Returns disguised; Tokens reveal identity
Home again
Returns disguised; Tokens reveal identity

9. OVID’S HEROIDES: PENELOPE TO ULYSSES
What I should fear, I don’t know.
Yet I, out of my mind, fear everything,
and my worries have many places in which to roam.
Whatever perils the lands and the sea pose for you,
these I presume are the reasons for your long delay.
Yet, while I stupidly dream up these fears,
knowing the lust of you men,
you could be ensnared in a foreign woman’s embrace!
....
But suitors from Dulichium, Samos, and lofty Zacynthus--
that whole wanton mob--have descended upon me.
They are playing king in your palace,
and there’s no one here to stop them.
Your wealth, our sustenance, is being gutted.