How important is Nostos to Odysseus in Books 5-13?

Nostos’ is shown as a very important event in the Odyssey. Odysseus continuously strives towards his homecoming, in Ithaca, to reunite himself with Penelope (his wife) and Telemachus (his son). But of course, in the Odyssey, there are many hurdles Odysseus has between him and his homecoming; not to also forget mentioning his lustrous desires with other women in Homer’s Book. These points and ideas do lead us to question: the importance of Nostos to Odysseus.

At the beginning of Odysseus’ travels, coming back from troy: Odysseus gets washed up on Calypso’s shore. After this, he ends up spending 7 years on her island, before she grants him freedom. During this time, we can imply, they exchanged coitus; with Odysseus only sobbing out missing his wife. There is no evidence of him being active, and him trying to evade Calypso’s grasp. Odysseus’ lustrous ways doesn’t stop there either; he also got washed upon the shore of Circe. Here he also slept around for a year. This does go to show that: possibly Odysseus is not so accepting of his coming Nostos, and that he’d rather have intercourse with other women (bar his wife).

Further evidence shows, his disinterest of getting back to Ithaca, through means such as plundering the Cicones. This was done for unknown reasons in the Book, and does show a rather brash or even vicious side to Odysseus. We could also imagine the time this must of took, since the successful plunder also involved the “sharing” of women. He also suffered several other hold backs, at his own cost, one including staying at people’s houses rather than making haste: with the position as suppliant. He has also fallen asleep at some wrong times, also his stupidity. This is evident when his hubris gets the better of him, when taunting a Cyclops who almost kills them.  Also there is the greed of the many gifts he accepts during his travels, which by taking (and burdening him) will slow his travels down. These do add up to another insight on why Odysseus may not be thinking about Nostos.

On the other hand there is significant evidence on the importance of Odysseus’ soon coming Nostos. Such as the sobbing, and sadness, he dwells of missing his family. This does show a great sign of respect, and how he looks forward to his return. Also, as mentioned earlier, he does also bow to kings as a suppliant. This is a massive show of needing charity, and ultimately weakness in your time of need. After these actions, the suppliant would be granted what they needed (if accepted). This show of needing is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted when, examining the importance of Odysseus’ homecoming to himself.

Although there may seem to be, much evidence of delays that could of been avoided, there are many delays in which they couldn’t. Such as stopping at the Cyclops island, and being captured. Odysseus only initially wanted to seek refuge and food there, but instead had two of his men eaten in front of him, and also he ended up trapped there. Odysseus here, or it wasn’t apparent, carried on and battled the Cyclops cunning; all done without any sobbing! Possibly implying him striving to get his Nostos.

For my conclusion, I feel as though home coming is is not as important, as the other side of the argument debates. The main reason being, he took many amount of years to get back! That is a ridiculous amount of time: since other people, coming back from Troy, took a matter of months. Also (looking back) there is the massive factor of him sleeping with other women for a large amount of years, clearly not caring about his own wife. This is especially important, since it does show he may not really be missing his wife all that much. Showing his lack of wanting to get back, to fulfill his Nostos.