The Nostoi (Greek: Νόστοι; also known as Nosti in Latin; English: Returns;) is 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 Ilion), 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". Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... // Main article: Ancient Greek literature Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in Ancient Greek from the oldest surviving written works in the Greek language until the 4th century and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. ... The Epic Cycle (Greek: 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 Little Iliad, the Iliou persis (The Sack of Troy), the Nostoi (Returns), and the Telegony. ... The fall of Troy, by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769). ... The Iliou persis (English: Sack of Ilion; Greek: Ἰλίου πέρσις; also known as Iliupersis, esp. ... Beginning of the Odyssey The Odyssey (Greek Οδύσσεια (Odússeia) ) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the Ionian poet Homer. ... Cyclic Poets are epic poets who followed Homer and wrote poems and songs about the Trojan war. ... Dactyllic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter) is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. ...

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 finalised in the seventh or sixth century BCE.

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. Chrestomathy (Greek, from the words khrestos, useful, and mathein, to know) is a selection of linguistic writings which can help you to learn a language. ... Eutychius Proclus (Latin; Greek Eutychios Proklos) was a grammarian who flourished in the 2nd century CE. He was born at Sicca in Africa. ...

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. Helmeted Athena, of the Velletri type. ... The Iliou persis (English: Sack of Ilion; Greek: Ἰλίου πέρσις; also known as Iliupersis, esp. ... The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ... Diomêdês (Gk:Διομήδης - God-like cunning) is a hero in Greek mythology, mostly known for his participation in the Trojan War. ... The word may have one of the following meanings. ... Menelaus regains Helen, detail of an Attic red-figure crater, ca. ... In Greek mythology, Kalchas Thestórides (son of Thestor), or Calchas (brazen) for short, a loyal Argive, was a powerful seer, a gift of Apollo: as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp (Iliad i, E.V. Rieu translation) Calchas prophesized that in order to gain a favourable... Colophon (Gr. ...

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 on 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 Thrake 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. The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre) In Greek mythology, Achilles (also Akhilleus or Achilleus) (Ancient Greek: ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War... Neoptolemus killing Priam In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus, also Neoptólemos or Pyrrhus, was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamea. ... This article is about the Greek sea nymph. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... Ajax (Greek: Αἴας), a Greek hero, son of Oïleus the king of Locris, called the lesser or Locrian Ajax, to distinguish him from Ajax, son of Telamon. ... Euboea, or Negropont (Greek: Εύβοια, modern transliteration: Evvoia, Evvia or Evia), is the largest island of the Greek archipelago. ... Thrace is a historical and geographic area in south-east Europe spread over southern Bulgaria, north-eastern Greece, and European Turkey. ... Head of Odysseus from a Greek 2nd century BC marble group representing Odysseus blinding Polyphemus, found at the villa of Tiberius at Sperlonga Odysseus or Ulysses (Greek Odysseys; Latin: Ulixes or, less commonly, Ulysses), pronounced , is the main hero in Homers epic poem, the Odyssey, and plays a key... Maroneia (Μαρώνεια) (Turkish: ) is a municipality in the Rhodope Prefecture, Greece. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Phoenix (mythology). ... Peleus consigns Achilles to Chirons care, white-ground lekythos by the Edinburgh Painter, ca. ...

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.) Murder of Agamemnon, Painting by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. ... In Greek mythology, Aegisthus (goat strength, also transliterated as Aegisthos or Aigísthos) was the son of Thyestes and his daughter, Pelopia. ... Orestes Ορεστης is a Greek name, literally he who stands on the mountain, or mountain-dweller. Orestes can refer to: In Greek mythology, the son of Agamemnon. ... This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... The Oresteia is a trilogy of tragedies about the end of the curse on the House of Atreus, written by Aeschylus. ...

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. Beginning of the Odyssey The Odyssey (Greek Οδύσσεια (Odússeia) ) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the Ionian poet Homer. ...

Editions

• Online editions (English translation):
  • Fragments of the Nostoi translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914 (public domain)
  • Fragments of complete Epic Cycle translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914; Project Gutenberg edition
  • Proklos' summary of the Epic Cycle translated by Gregory Nagy
• Print editions (Greek):
  • A. Bernabé 1987, Poetarum epicorum Graecorum testimonia et fragmenta pt. 1 (Leipzig: Teubner)
  • M. Davies 1988, Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht)
• Print editions (Greek with English translation):
  • M.L. West 2003, Greek Epic Fragments (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)

The covers of Bibliotheca Teubneriana Greek texts through the years: Philodemi De ira liber, ed. ...