Who wrote the Nostoi poem?
Ancient sources attribute the authorship of the Nostoi to Agias, Homer, or Eumelos of Corinth. No complete manuscript survives from antiquity to confirm which poet created the work.
Questions about Nostoi
Short answers, pulled from the story.
When was the Nostoi written and when did it take place?
The text likely reached its final form during the 7th or 6th century BC while events occurred after the fall of Troy before Odysseus began his journey. The summary attributed to Proklos lived in the 2nd century AD.
Where can scholars find surviving fragments of the Nostoi today?
Only five and a half lines of the actual poem survive in modern critical editions alongside a summary by an unknown Proklos. H.G. Evelyn-White translated these fragments into English in 1914 and M.L. West published a comprehensive edition in 2003 through Harvard University Press.
What happened to Agamemnon according to the Nostoi narrative?
Agamemnon returned home only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus who was also Agamemnon's cousin. Their son Orestes later avenged the murder by killing both parents in what became known as the Oresteia section of the poem.
Why does the Nostoi matter for understanding Greek mythology?
This lost epic occupied a specific slot within the larger Trojan cycle narrative following the Iliupersis which described the Sack of Ilium. The sequence placed the return home of heroes between the destruction of the city and the wanderings of one man serving as a bridge connecting the end of war to individual struggles at home.