Home or Away: Homecoming, Glory, and the Good Death in Homer's Odyssey. Issue 1 (April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rees, William
• Is Part Of: CounterText. Volume 6:Issue 1(2020:Apr.)
• Page Start: 102
• Page End: 115
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Subjects: death -- Homer -- Odyssey -- deconstruction -- Blanchot -- post-literary; English literature -- 21st century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Culture -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 820.9
• DOI: 10.3366/count.2020.0184
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2056-4406

Abstract

Abstract : This article examines the overlapping themes of the good death ( euthanasia ), glory ( kleos ), and homecoming ( nostos ) as they are deployed in Homer's Odyssey . On both a thematic and a structural level, I argue that the text stages a confrontation between homecoming and glory – between death at home and death in battle – and that this tension is a sustaining force throughout the text. In contrast to the received interpretation that sees the Odyssey as a straightforward tale of nostalgia, I argue that in Homer's epic the relation to homecoming turns out to be surprising and complex – an event that is at once painfully desired and perpetually deferred.