Nostos. The Epic of Travel

per cui, bello di fama e di sventura
baciò la sua petrosa Itaca Ulisse.

 

after which, exalted by fame and by misfortune,
Ulysses did kiss his rocky Ithaca. 

 

These two verses from the sonnet A Zacinto by Italian poet Ugo Foscolo hold the essence of an ancient and extremely well defined literary genre, that has left a clear trace in modern and contemporary literature.

 

The nostos of ancient Greek literature considered the return voyage of the Greek heroes after the Trojan War; the most famous is certainly the Odyssey. Typical of the nostos, interpreting it according to modern parameters, is the mix of Bildungsroman (coming of age story) and adventure book. Ulysses (Odysseus), differently from the heroes of the Iliad who are immutable archetypes of themselves, changes, adds wisdom to his famous cleverness, to finally return to his home, Ithaca, which represents nothing different from the discovery that the boy who left for war has become a grown man. That boy still lives, and is recognized by wet-nurse Eurycleia and the dog Argo, who is capable of seeing beyond the spell of goddess Athena (Reason) that would show him as a different person. Ulysses returning from his quest is a complete version of his potential, can be nothing less from when he left, but something more.

 

The fame of which Foscolo speaks is Odysseus celebrity as a renowned man with a dubious reputation since he was the trick of the Trojan Horse; the redemption of the character occurs through misfortune, his tormented journey caused by the anger of Poseidon, who reflects a representation of consequence of our actions.

 

The first modern nostos I can think of is The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s work should be considered much closer to the epic than the typical novel (you can find here my post on the importance of Middle Earth), but Milton’s Paradise Regained and Ariosto’s The Frenzy of Orlandocould easily fit in the category.

 

The metaphor of travel as interior research and personal growth is a recurring topic in literature, so much that journals and travel literature are a genre of their own; I want to leave you with the notes of what could be considered the travel song par excellence.

 

The Passenger, by Iggy Pop.