Chapter 10 pdf

Chapter 10. The Homeric concepts of noos 'mind' and nostos
'return' in the Odyssey
The key word for this dialogue: noos: designates the realm of
consciousness, of rational functions; 'intuition, perception'; principle that
reintegrates thumos (or menos) and psukhē after death
10 A. Odyssey i 1-12
That man, tell me about him, O Muse, about that many-sided man who wandered far and
wide after he had sacked the famous citadel of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many
were the people with whose customs and thinking [noos] he was acquainted; many pains
[algea] he suffered at sea while seeking to save his own life [psukhē] and to achieve the safe
homecoming [nostos] of his companions; but do what he might he could not save his men,
for they perished through their own sheer recklessness in eating the cattle of the Sun-god
Helios; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, as you have told
those who came before me, about all these things, O daughter of Zeus, starting from
whatsoever point you choose. [11] So now all who escaped death in battle or by shipwreck
had got safely home except Odysseus, and he, though he was longing for his return [nostos]
to his wife and country, was detained by the goddess Calypso, ...
I focus on these two lines:
In i 3 Odysseus saw the cities of many and came to know their/his noos
In i 5 Odysseus is seeking to win as a prize his psukhē and the nostos of his companions
The key word for this chapter, noos, is related to the key word in the previous chapter: nostos
'return, homecoming; song about homecoming; return to light and life'. Now I add another
level of meaning: 'coming to' in the sense of 'return to consciousness' after either fainting or
death.
In i 4, which is the verse that is sandwiched in between the verse mentioning noos and the
verse mentioning nostos, we read that Odysseus suffered many algea 'pains'; same word as in
Iliad i 2; cf. the modernizing word "analgesic" (e.g. aspirin).
Note the modern word that is built from a combination of algea 'pains' (as in Odyssey i 4) and
nostos (as in Odyssey i 5): it is nostalgia. In Modern Greek, nostimos means what? [GN will be
expecting an answer from native speakers of Modern Greek. Hint for non-Greeks: think of the
word madeleine in the world of Marcel Proust, "A la recherche du temps perdu."].
With regard to the inherent sadness of the word nostalgia, compare the ethos of love songs in
traditional societies: most of them are "sad."
An example: this aria from Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini:
O mio babbino, caro,
mi piace, è bello bello,
vo'andare in Porta Rossa
a comperar l'anello!
Oh, my Daddy, dear,
I like him, he's beautiful, beautiful.
I'm on my way, going to Porta Rossa
to buy the wedding ring!
1

Si, si, ci voglio andare!
E se l'amassi indarno,
andrei sul Ponte Vecchio
ma per buttarmi in Arno!
Mi struggo e mi tormento,
O Dio! vorrei morir!
Yes, yes, I want to go there,
And if I loved him in vain,
I will go to the Old Bridge
but only to throw myself into the Arno.
I struggle and I am tormented
Oh, God! I want to die!
Back to the subject of noos... Consider the positive and the negative values built into the names
Antinoos and Alkinoos: their names mean, respectively: 'he who is opposed to bringing back to
light and life' and 'he who has the power to bring back to light and life'
Both words, noos and nostos, are derived from the Indo-European root *nes- 'return to light and
life' (Greek is one of many Indo-European languages; other IE languages are Latin, Sanskrit,
Hittite, etc.); from Indo-European languages other than Greek, we see that this root *nes-
occurs in myths having to do with Morning Star / Evening Star.
The meanings of noos and nostos are relevant to the overall plot of the Homeric Odyssey.
The surface meaning of Odyssey: safe return from war, safe return from the sea.
The underlying meaning of Odyssey: safe return from death; this implicit theme is made
explicit in Theognis 1123-1124:
Do not remind me of my misfortunes! The kinds of things that happened to Odysseus
have happened to me too.
Odysseus, who returned, emerging from the great palace of Hades,
and who then killed the suitors with a pitiless thûmos.
The most easily perceived connection of the two words noos and nostos: Odyssey ix 82-104, about
the Land of the Lotus-Eaters: if you lose the "implant" of homecoming in your mind, you
cannot go home because you no longer know what home is.
Here is another negative threat to noos and nostos... Odyssey x 190-202, to which Fitzgerald
refers as an “island nightmare.” In the book Best of the Achaeans, I speak of Iliadic nightmares in
the Odyssey... It is about the disorientation of Odysseus and his companions. The metaphor of
orientation recapitulates noos / nostos. And disorientation recapitulates the negation of noos /
nostos. The disorientation is described in this passage:
10 B. Odyssey x 190-202
'My friends, we are in very great difficulties; listen therefore to me. We have no idea where
the sun either sets or rises, so that we do not even know East from West. I see no way out of
it; nevertheless, we must try and find one. We are certainly on an island, for I went as high
as I could this morning, and saw the sea reaching all round it to the horizon; it lies low, but
towards the middle I saw smoke rising from out of a thick forest of trees.' [198] Their hearts
sank as they heard me, for they remembered how they had been treated by the
Laestrygonian Antiphates, and by the savage ogre Polyphemus. They wept bitterly in their
dismay, but there was nothing to be got by crying.
2

Is there a difference between the pains of the Iliad and Odyssey? For an answer, consider this
passage...
10C. Odyssey iv 219-226
Then Zeus’ daughter Helen bethought her of another matter. She drugged the wine with an
herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and ill humor. Whoever drinks wine thus drugged
cannot shed a single tear all the rest of the day, not even though his father and mother
both of them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his very
eyes.
In the original Greek Helen's drug is called nēpenthes ('non-penthos') and is described as
a-kholon (literally, 'without kholos'; kholos = 'anger'). Note that the son of Menelaos, at the
beginning of Odyssey iv, is named Megapenthēs.
The drug nēpenthes is meant to cancel the penthos of the Iliad... Here I repeat from the previous
dialogue the passage about the "return" to the song of Troy:
10D. Odyssey viii 514-534
Then he [= the singer] sang how the sons of the Achaeans issued from the horse, and sacked
the town, breaking out from their ambuscade. He sang how they overran the city here and
there and ravaged it, and how Odysseus went raging like Ares along with Menelaos to the
house of Deiphobos. It was there that the fight raged most furiously, nevertheless by
Athena’s help he was victorious. [521] All this he told, but Odysseus was overcome as he
heard him, and his cheeks were wet with tears. He wept as a woman weeps when she
throws herself on the body of her husband who has fallen before his own city and people,
fighting bravely in defense of his home and children. She wails aloud and flings her arms
about him as he lies gasping for breath and dying, but her enemies beat her from behind
about the back and shoulders, and carry her off into slavery, to a life of labor [ponos] and
sorrow, and the beauty fades from her cheeks—even so piteously did Odysseus weep, but
none of those present perceived his tears except Alkinoos, who was sitting near him, and
could hear the sobs and sighs that he was heaving.
It is significant that Alki-noos, whose name means ‘he whose noos has power’, is the one who
notices the grief of Odysseus. Alkinoos asks Odysseus a pointed question that keeps the focus
on the themes of the Trojan War, the themes of the Iliad:
10E. Odyssey viii 567-586
Tell us also why you are made unhappy on hearing about the return of the Argive Danaans
from Troy. The gods arranged all this, and sent them their misfortunes in order that future
generations might have something to sing about. Did you lose some brave kinsman of your
wife’s when you were before Troy? A son-in-law or father-in-law—which are the nearest
relations a man has outside his own flesh and blood? Or was it some brave and kindlynatured
comrade - for a good friend is as dear to a man as his own brother?
3

Such Iliadic themes, like the ‘good friend’ (consider Patroklos in the Iliad), are the themes of
the Sirens in the Song of the Sirens:
10F. Odyssey xii 184-191
‘Come here,’ they sang, ‘renowned Odysseus, honor to the Achaean name, and listen to our
two voices. No one ever sailed past us without staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of
our song—and he who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know
all the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and can tell you
everything that is going to happen over the whole world.’
The nostalgic (love song?) Song of the Sirens, xii 184-191, is replete with Iliadic agenda
So how does noos / nostos lead to orientation? Now we go back to celestial dynamics...
returning to the Island Nightmare.
Celestial dynamics: sun sets into the Okeanos (Iliad VIII 485) / and rises from the Okeanos
(Odyssey xix 433-434).
Similarly, the psukhē when it leaves the body “sets” into the Okeanos (Odyssey xx 63ff).
10 G. Odyssey xii 1-7
After we left behind the stream of Okeanos, and had got out into the open sea, we went on
till we reached the island of Aeaea, where the Dawn has her dwelling and her place to
dance, and where the risings of the sun happen.
Where it all comes together is Odyssey xiii 79-95 the nostos:
10 H. Odyssey xiii 79-95
Thereon, when they began rowing out to sea, Odysseus fell into a deep, sweet, and almost
deathlike slumber. [81] The ship bounded forward on her way as a four-in-hand chariot
flies over the course when the horses feel the whip. Her prow curved as it were the neck of
a stallion, and a great wave of dark seething water boiled in her wake. She held steadily on
her course, and even a falcon, swiftest of all birds, could not have kept pace with her. Thus,
then, she cut her way through the water, carrying one who was as cunning as the gods, but
who was now sleeping peacefully, forgetful of all that he had suffered both on the field of
battle and by the waves of the weary sea. [93] When the bright star that heralds the
approach of dawn began to show, the ship drew near to land.
4