Returns

"δῶρα γὰρ ἀνθρώπων νόον ἤπαφεν ἠδὲ καὶ ἔργα."

- The Returns

The sixth installment in The Trojan Cycle, a lost work.

So the Trojan War has come to an end. The next epic in the cycle, the Returns (Νόστοι), deals with the Achaean's respective returns home. Exactly when the epic was completed is very uncertain; it is often dated sometime in the seventh or sixth century BC.

As the Achaeans prepare to set sail, Athena causes Agamemnon and Menelaus to argue about the coming voyage. Agamemnon chooses to wait a few days in order to appease the goddess's anger (who did not approve of the Achaeans' impious behavior during the sack of Troy), while Diomedes and Nestor set out and safely reach their homelands.

Menelaus, the next to set sail, is not as lucky: he ends up in Egypt (most definitely not Sparta by any stretch of the imagination) with only five ships, as the remainder were destroyed during the voyage.

Other Achaeans -- Calchas, Leonteus, and Polypoites -- try a land route and avoid the dangers at sea. Calchas dies at Colophon and is buried there.

Agamemnon, feeling he has postponed his journey enough, is about to set out when he encounters Achilles, who foretells what will occur and tries to stop them. His group continues regardless and meets with a storm at sea, losing many ships.

The storm was sent by Zeus at the request of Athena, who finally punishes Ajax for his actions in the Sack of Ilion. His ship is among those lost in the storm, and he is killed on the Kapherian rocks.

Neoptolemus is advised by his divine grandmother, Thetis, to make his way home by land. His journey is uneventful, and he briefly encounters the unlucky Odysseus in Maronea. The son of Achilles finally comes to Molossia, a land he and his descendants come to rule.

Both Menelaus and Agamemnon do finally reach their homes, but Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytaemestra, and her lover Aegisthus. His son, Orestes, eventually returns to his home and avenges his father's murder by killing his mother and her lover.

Meanwhile, Odysseus's return home is chronicled in the following epic, The Odyssey.

Ancient fragments on the Returns, including Proclus's summary, are available in English here.


 * Big Screwed-Up Family: Agamemnon's. Aegisthus is his cousin.
 * Boring Return Journey: Very averted for several important Achaeans.
 * The Cassandra: Cassandra, who was given to Agamemnon as a slave, is also killed.
 * Cycle of Revenge: Clytaemestra is unhappy with Agamemnon for (seemingly) sacrificing their daughter, Iphigenia. Orestes takes revenge for his father by killing Clytaemestra.
 * Dead Person Conversation: Death hasn't stopped Achilles from chatting with people yet. This is the third epic in a row, and he died way back in the Aethiopis.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin
 * Home, Sweet Home: At least some of them reach it.
 * The Homeward Journey: Naturally.
 * Hostile Weather: Athena gets Zeus to send a storm after the Achaeans.
 * Karmic Death: The Achaeans couldn't kill Ajax, since he took refuge at the temple of Athena. Athena, however, has no qualms about punishing him.
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: Clytaemestra and her lover's murder of Agamemnon.
 * No Sense of Direction: Menelaus somehow ends up in Egypt.
 * Red Shirt: All the random Achaeans killed in the storms at sea.
 * Revenge: Athena taking revenge on Ajax, Clytaemestra taking revenge on Agamemnon, Orestes taking revenge on Clytaemestra, etc.
 * Rightful King Returns: A lot of important Achaeans were kings, after all.
 * Seers: Calchas, Cassandra. Achilles's ghost also warns of things to come.
 * Self-Made Orphan: Orestes, who kills his mother.
 * Storm Of Divine Retribution: Athena, being rather displeased with Ajax, asks Zeus to send a storm to destroy him. Zeus obliges.
 * The Underworld: Several fragments and references seem to imply that there was some passage dealing with Hades, perhaps showing Agamemnon and the others killed arriving in Hades (as the suitors are shown in The Odyssey).
 * You Can't Go Home Again: For some of the Achaeans, notably Ajax. Many others experience difficult homecomings.
 * You Killed My Father: So Orestes kills his mother.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Agamemnon's wife, Clytaemestra.


 * Aeschylus's
 * Agamemnon, a tragedy concerned with the homecoming of the epynomous character and his murder there. The first of Aeschylus's trilogy, the Oresteia.
 * The Libation Bearers, dealing with the reunion of Orestes and his sister Electra, and their avenging of their father. Also the second tragedy of the Oresteia.
 * Euripides's
 * Electra, a tragedy telling another version of the myth behind Aeschylus's Libation Bearers.
 * Helen, a tragedy set during the time Menelaus spends in Egypt. It follows an alternate tradition, where the gods for some reason sent the real Helen to Egypt, and The Trojan War was fought over a phantom (eidolon in Greek).
 * Sophocles's
 * Electra, yet another version of the story.