Nostos
conceptΝόστος
The hero's homecoming
Nostos was the perilous return home after war — the concept from which "nostalgia" derives.
The Myth
Odysseus wandered ten years, Agamemnon was murdered, Menelaus blown to Egypt, Ajax drowned. The concept combined physical journey with transformation: the hero who returns is not the person who left.
Parents
A cultural concept
Children
N/A
Symbols
shipIthacahearth firerecognition
Fun Fact
The word "nostalgia" was coined in 1688 from nostos + algos (pain) to describe the illness of homesick soldiers.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth: