Source 1: Montiglio, S. (2003). Odysseus’ return and the memory of wandering. Gaia : revue interdisciplinaire.  sur la Grèce Archaïque, 7(1), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.3406/gaia.2003.1417

The article talks about one part of Nostos: wandering. It says that to wander means to be human, as immortal creatures won’t suffer from this process. Besides, it talks about how the goddess Circe helped Odysseus find the direction of home and how Odysseus managed to finish his nostos with his own struggle. I learned that the process and the result of nostos are deeply affected by gods and warriors themselves. First, it’s gods who manipulate human nostos. Gods can be an obstacle in a person’s Nostos. If gods feel unsatisfied about a person who might contradict the gods’ wills, gods will make that person’s nostos long and suffering. For example, because Menelaus did not give sacrifice to gods, they make him wander around Egypt for a decade. However, gods can also be an accelerator in a person’s Nostos. The article mentions that the goddess Circe converted Odysseus wandering to a directed journey by giving him a map, asking him to visit Hades, and suggesting him not to pass the Wandering Rock. Gods have the most significant influence on Odysseus’s Nostos: Calypso trapped him; Poseidon punished him; Circe helped him, and Helios penalized him. Besides the gods, the warrior’s perseverance also contributes to his success in returning home. Specifically, a wandering warrior has to resist different kinds of temptations while keep remembering his goal of going home, or he will keep wandering and may even die. Besides, a warrior must obey the gods’ suggestions or rules to avoid tragedy ends. Because Odysseus’s unfailing memory of returning home, he saved his companions from Lotus-Eaters. Because Odysseus followed Circe’s advice, he overcame many difficulties. However, because his companions ate the cattle that are not allowed to be eaten, they all died on the ocean later. In fact, I believe Odysseus became the only person alive just because he resisted the temptation for food. All of these taught Odysseus that he should never forget his goal and past wandering if he wanted to go home and see his dear family members. With this belief in mind, he even resisted the temptation of becoming immortal with goddess Calypso, and finally started the journey toward home successfully.

Source 2: NAGY, G. (2013). The Return of Odysseus in the Homeric Odyssey. In The Ancient Greek Hero in 24. Hours (pp. 275-295). CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS; LONDON, ENGLAND: Harvard University Press. Retrieved April 4, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvjghtrn.14

The article explores the meaning and role of Nostos in Odyssey. Specifically, it says that Nostos is not just a term meaning homecoming, but is a song that can record the Kleos(honor) of warriors and bring feelings to others. I learned that Odysseus’s nostos means more to him than that Achilles’ Nostos means to himself. For Achilles, Homer has shaped him into a central hero of the story of Troy. Even he died on foreign land and failed to destroy Troy; he won Kleos by killing Hector. Achilles used his death to exchange for the victory of Greeks and his honor. In comparison, Kleos of Odysseus at Troy was preempted by the Kleos of Achilles. Odysseus cannot afford to dwell on his success at Troy because his Kleos would only become permanent if he achieved a successful homecoming and tell the story to others. It’s a setting appearing in the book Odyssey. Besides, Odysseus’s nostos is meaningful to many other people, especially to Telemachus and Penelope. “The nostos of Odysseus is defined by the quest of his son Telemachus to learn the identity of his father, thus to learn his own identity.” The understanding of his father’s nostos, which is equivalent to Kleos in this case, will help Telemachus know what kind of person he should be, and how proud he should feel about his father. The nostos of Odysseus makes Penelope feel grief because she believes that Odysseus has dead. To show this grief, Homer describes Penelope as tearful when hearing the Achaean’ homecoming song performed by Phemios. Indeed, the failure of Odysseus nostos will mean that Penelope would lose an intelligent and powerful husband she loves and that Penelope would be forced to marry a suitor who is surely arrogant and is enjoying robbing Odysseus possession. Before Odysseus had returned home, his nostos would seem like a painful song that makes most of the people depressed. When he had returned, his nostos would then become a song of honor and happiness.

Source 3: Alexopoulou, M. (2009). The theme of returning home in ancient Greek literature : the nostos of the. epic heroes / Marigo Alexopoulou ; with a foreword by Vayos Liapis. Lewiston, N.Y: Edwin Mellen Press.

From this article, I first learned that the nostos of Odysseus is much more dramatized and complexed than most of the heroes’ nostos. For example, Odysseus wandered much longer than any other hero. He met more diverse difficulties relating to gods, humans, and nature. He needs to handle more problems at home after reaching his homeland as he has a “suitors problem.” Still, he is the lucky one because he is alive after suffering a lot, while poor Agamemnon and Little Ajax met their destiny of death. Moreover, this article further extends the meaning of Odysseus’s nostos. It says that a warrior will finish his nostos if he has retained all his previous states instead of merely reaching the homeland physically. Those states, including status, recognition, property, and relationship. The external nostos has now become internal nostos. According to the article, one important method to finish nostos is Disguise. Because the long time absence of Odysseus can change the lives of loyal members in his house, Odyssey has to disguise in order to ensure that they recognize him genuinely, not physically. By disguising as a stranger and asking them questions, Odysseus can get the real answer.  Besides, because Odysseus has known that Agamemnon openly returned home and was killed by his wife and her adulterer, Odysseus fears that his wife Penelope will also betray him. Besides, Athena told him that Penelope did not refuse any suitors’ proposal, but she acknowledged that one day she would marry one of them. Consequently, he also has to disguise and test his wife’s loyalty. All of these behaviors are aiming to restore people’s recognition toward him, which is part of the internal nostos mission. Finally, disguise can help Odysseus kill those arrogant suitors who want to kill Telemachus, robbed Odysseus’s property, and humiliated Odysseus. I realize that taking revenge toward suitors is also important for Odysseus’s nostos because it relates to recovering Odysseus’s property and honor that are included in internal nostos.

Source 4: Bonifazi, A. (2009). Inquiring into Nostos and Its Cognates. The American Journal of Philology, 130(4), 481-510. Retrieved April 4, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20616206

Source 5: HALLER, B. (2013). Dolios in “Odyssey” 4 and 24: Penelope’s Plotting and Alternative Narratives of. Odysseus’s νόστος. Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-2014), 143(2), 263-292. Retrieved April 4, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/43830263

Source 6: Katz, M. (1991). COMING HOME/GOING HOME (BOOKS 13, 15, 16). In Penelope’s Renown: Meaning.  and Indeterminacy in the Odyssey (pp. 54-76). PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY: Princeton University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt7zv6gr.7