Terms

Nostos A Greek word for the return home, which gives the poem its subject. When the story begins, all the survivors of Troy have already returned, except Odysseus, and the returns of the other heroes, that of Agamemnon, killed at home, and that of Menelaus, who... Polytropos An adjective with which the first verse defines Odysseus, the man of many turns. It means at once the one who has wandered the world and the one with many resources, and both apply to him. The poem does not give his name at the start, only this adjective,... Hospitality A law that protects the stranger and the suppliant under the guardianship of Zeus. By the rule, the guest is fed and bathed before anyone asks who he is, receives gifts, and, if he asks, an escort back to his homeland. The poem measures each people by it: the... Suppliant One who asks for protection from a host or a god and therefore falls under the guardianship of Zeus. The gesture proper to it is to embrace the knees of the one from whom help is sought: Odysseus does so before Queen Arete, in the palace of the Phaeacians,... Atasthalia Recklessness that goes beyond the limit, the blindness of one who ruins himself through his own fault. Zeus opens the poem by saying that mortals, through their own recklessness, suffer beyond their share, and the proem applies the idea to Odysseus's... Kleos Fame that a hero leaves among men, the glory the song keeps after death. Odysseus opens his account to the Phaeacians by saying that his fame reaches the sky, and in the storm he laments not having died at Troy, where he would have had a funeral and a name.... Aoidos A poet who sings the deeds of heroes, to whom the Muse teaches the song. The blind Demodocus, among the Phaeacians, received sweet song from the Muse and lost his sight, and Odysseus sends him the best cut of meat as an honor. Phemius, in Ithaca, sings to the... Nekyia The descent of Odysseus into the house of the dead, sent by Circe to consult the soul of the prophet Tiresias. He digs a trench, pours out the offerings, cuts the throats of the animals, and lets only the blood be drunk, which restores speech to the dead, to... Hecatomb A solemn sacrifice of cattle to one god or to several gods. Menelaus is held in Egypt because he did not offer them complete before leaving; Telemachus has his mother promise all the gods perfect hecatombs, if Zeus grants him vengeance; and the heralds take... Aegis An instrument of terror of the gods, borne by Zeus: Polyphemus says the Cyclopes do not care about Zeus bearer of the aegis. In the slaughter book, Athena, who until then had only turned aside the suitors' spears, raises from the hall's ceiling the aegis that...