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Women After War: Weaving Nostos In Homeric Epic And In The Twenty-First Century, Corinne Ondine Pache

Classical Studies Faculty Research

While women play a circumscribed role in ancient epic, Homer's Odyssey depicts both Helen and Penelope as undergoing their own forms of homecoming, or nostos, after the Trojan War: Helen returns to her husband Menelaus after experiencing the war firsthand at Troy and a ten-year separation; Penelope stays home, but Odysseus' return is in many ways as much a challenge for her as it is for him and the Odyssey portrays her domestic ordeal as a form of heroic nostos. In this essay, I explore female ways of homecoming in the Odyssey and draw connections between Homeric heroines …