Nostoi

Nostoi

The Nostoi (Greek: Νόστοι, Nostoi, "Returns"), also known as Returns or Returns of the Greeks, was a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the "Trojan" cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Nostoi comes chronologically after that of the Iliou persis (Sack of Ilium), and is followed by that of the Odyssey. The author of the Nostoi is uncertain: ancient writers attributed the poem variously to Agias of Troizen, Homer, and Eumelos (see Cyclic poets). The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter. The word nostos means "return home".

Contents

Date

The date of composition of the Nostoi, and the date when it was set in writing, are both very uncertain. The text is most likely to have been finalized in the seventh or sixth century BC.

Content

The Nostoi relates the return home of the Greek heroes after the end of the Trojan War. In current critical editions only five and a half lines of the poem's original text survive. For its storyline we are almost entirely dependent on a summary of the Cyclic epics contained in the Chrestomatheia (see also chrestomathy) attributed to an unknown "Proklos" (possibly to be identified with the 2nd-century-CE grammarian Eutychios Proklos). A few other references also give indications of the poem's storyline.

The poem opens as the Greeks are getting ready to set sail back to Greece. The goddess Athena is wrathful because of the Greeks' impious behaviour in the sack of Troy (see Iliou persis). Agamemnon waits behind, to appease her; Diomedes and Nestor set sail straightaway, and reach home safely; Menelaus sets sail, but encounters a storm, loses most of his ships, lands in Egypt and is delayed there for several years. Other Greeks, including the prophet Calchas, go by land to Kolophon, where Calchas dies and is buried.

As Agamemnon is getting ready to sail, Achilles' ghost appears to him and foretells his fate. Agamemnon makes a sacrifice and sets sail anyway; Neoptolemus, however, is visited by his grandmother, the sea-nymph Thetis, who tells him to wait and make further sacrifices to the gods. Zeus sends a storm against Agamemnon and those accompanying him at Athena's request, and the lesser Ajax dies on the Kapherian rocks on the southern end of Euboia. Neoptolemus follows Thetis' advice and goes home by land; in Thrace he meets Odysseus at Maroneia, who has come there by sea. Neoptolemus arrives home, though Phoenix dies en route, and there he is recognised by his grandfather Peleus.

Agamemnon arrives home and is there murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Agamemnon's cousin Aegisthus. Later Agamemnon's and Clytemnestra's son Orestes avenges the murder by killing both of them. Finally Menelaus arrives home from Egypt. (This last section, known as the Oresteia, is narrated in Odyssey books 3 and 4 by Nestor and Menelaos; and it was later also the basis for Aeschylus' trilogy of tragic plays, the Oresteia).

At the end of the Nostoi the only living Greek hero who still has not returned home is Odysseus. His return is narrated in the Odyssey.

Editions

See also

References

  • Burgess, Jonathan S., The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle, The Johns Hopkins University Press, (2004). ISBN 0801866529. (p. 180).
  • Davies, Malcom; Greek Epic Cycle, Duckworth Publishers; 2 edition (May 2, 2001). ISBN 1853990396.
  • Evelyn-White, Hugh G., Hesiod the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, BiblioBazaar (March 13, 2007). ISBN 1426472935.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Nostoi — Die Nostoi (griechisch Νόστοι, Heimkehrerepen) waren ein altgriechisches Epos in fünf Büchern und erzählten Stoffe des trojanischen Sagenkreises. Sie sind nur fragmentarisch erhalten und werden zum sog. Epischen Zyklus gerechnet. Inhaltlich… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Agias — or Hagias (Gr. polytonic|Ἀγίας) was an ancient Greek poet, whose name was formerly written Augias through a mistake of the first editor of the Excerpta of Proclus .Citation | last = Schmitz | first = Leonhard | author link = | contribution =… …   Wikipedia

  • Odyssey — This article is about Homer s epic poem. For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). Greek text of the Odyssey s opening passage The Odyssey (Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, Odysseia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer.… …   Wikipedia

  • Nostos — (Greek: νόστος) (pl. nostoi) is the Greek word for homecoming. It is a theme dealt with in many Homeric writings such as the Odyssey, in which the main character, Odysseus, strives to get home after the Trojan War. The plural term nostoi is… …   Wikipedia

  • Ciclo troyano — El ciclo troyano es un conjunto de poemas que, datados en la época de la Grecia arcaica, narraban la sucesión de los acontecimientos de la leyenda de la guerra de Troya. Entre ellos se encuentran dos que han llegado hasta nuestros días, la Ilíada …   Wikipedia Español

  • Epic Cycle — The Epic Cycle ( el. Επικός Κύκλος) was a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems that related the story of the Trojan War, which includes the Kypria , the Aithiopis , the Iliou persis ( The Sack of Troy ), the Nostoi ( Returns ), and the Telegony …   Wikipedia

  • Cypria — The Cypria (Ancient Greek: Κύπρια Kypria; Latin form: Cypria) is an epic of ancient Greek literature that was quite well known in the Classical period[1] and fixed in a received text, but which subsequently was lost to view. It was one of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Cyclicer — Der Epische Zyklus oder Epische Kyklos (griechisch Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος), ein antiker Begriff, war eine Sammlung von altgriechischen Ependichtungen, die von der Geschichte des Trojanischen Krieges erzählten. Sie umfasste die Kypria, Aithiopis, Kleine… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Die geheimnisvolle Flamme der Königin Loana — ist der Titel des fünften Romans von Umberto Eco. Im italienischen Original, La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana, erschien er im Juni 2004 und nur vier Monate später in der deutschen Übersetzung von Burkhart Kroeber. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Epischer Kyklos — Der Epische Zyklus oder Epische Kyklos (griechisch Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος), ein antiker Begriff, war eine Sammlung von altgriechischen Ependichtungen, die von der Geschichte des Trojanischen Krieges erzählten. Sie umfasste die Kypria, Aithiopis, Kleine… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”