The returns of Odysseus

by Irad Malkin

Irad Malkin contributes here to the current lively discussion of encounters among Greeks and non-Greeks. Through the prism of myths, he argues, notions of ethnicity and collective identity were articulated. Focussing in particular on myths about Odysseus and other heroes who visited foreign lands on their mythical voyages homeward after the Trojan War, he shows how these Return-myths influenced actual encounters during the time of early exploration and colonization in the western Mediterranean.