Why does a person long to return home? Is it because we begin to miss a place only after leaving it, or because distance makes us realise that we have left a part of ourselves behind? Perhaps the desire to return home is not simply a longing for a familiar place. We imagine that by returning to somewhere we once knew as home, we might find ourselves again. Homer's Odyssey has revolved around this question for thousands of years. At first glance, it is the story of Odysseus's long and perilous journey back to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Yet the enduring power of the poem lies not so much in the creatures encountered along the way, the interventions of the gods, or the adventures in which the hero relies on his ingenuity to survive. It lies in the questions these experiences raise about human nature. In the ancient Greek world, the word nostos , meaning homecoming, referred to more than the completion of a journey. Returning to one's birthplace or homeland meant confronting...
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