Nostos

Nostos

Homer's Odyssey tells the epic story of Odysseus, the man ‘skilled in all ways of contending’ who surmounts various seemingly impossible obstacles to find his way home to his steadfast companion, Penelope, who has promised to marry a suitor when she finishes weaving the tapestry that she unravels every night. The Odyssey is animated by yearning: the great governor of character. Yet the yearning in The Odyssey is quintessential in the western project, because it is the yearning of Nostos, the Greek word that means the yearning for home. We are marooned here, us moderns, trying to make our way home– home to ourselves, home to community, home to the Living World. We are trying to make our way back to the primordial fireplace, the circle, the tribe gathered to tell stories, care for the children, tend the elderly. The center of home is the ancestral hearth. So the practice of nostos is the practice of yearning for home.

Nostos

(verb) - Greek

The yearning for home. This yearning is what animates Odysseus, what drives the plot as he traverses the travails of the world, seeking to return home to his faithful companion, Penelope, who is weaving and unweaving the world each night on her loom.