The Ethics of Return: The Nostos of Hanuman and Odysseus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1602.09Keywords:
Nostos, homecoming, Ramayana, Ethics, OdysseyAbstract
‘Nostos’ is a theme in ancient Greek literature that tells of heroes' successful ‘Homecoming’. The journey describes a voyage through the sea with a purpose, attaining the purpose, facing various obstacles, victory, and the hero's triumphant return to his home through the sea. Nostos is explained by those who experience adventures at sea. It is interesting to note that Homer’s Odysseus and Valmiki’s Hanuman have illustrated their experience and successful Homecoming. After ten years of adventure, Odysseus meets Sirens and Calypso on returning to his kingdom, Ithaca. On the other hand, Hanuman encounters retaliation from Surasa and Simhika before reaching the destination. He makes his journey purposeful. The paper also focuses on the inward journey of a soul, the journey encountered by every human being to attain the ultimate divine. This journey of Hanuman represents a divine journey of every soul before it attains salvation, a distinctive feature of Indian Philosophical thought and practice. The study exemplifies Nostos as an external journey in Odysseus that marks his victory as a wanderer and a warrior King. The Ramayana illustrates an internal triumph of a soul towards the inclination of a sacred journey. Finally, the spiritually exalted inner conscience promises the individual's victory towards Hanuman’s purpose of faith and righteousness, Dharma, for knowing the self and achieving the purpose of bringing Sita metaphorically to life.
References
Alexopoulou, M. (2009). The Theme of Returning Home in Ancient Greek Literature: The Nostos of the Epic Heroes. New York: Edwin Mellen Press.
Allen, N. J. (2019). Arjuna-Odysseus: Shared Heritage in Indian and Greek Epic. In Bringing Together the Study of the Greek Classics. Routledge India. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429294129
Alighieri, D. (2003). Inferno (Robert Hollander & Jean Hollander, Trans.). New York: Random House.
Aristotle. (2011). Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (R. C. Bartlett & S. C. Collins, Trans.). Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.
Aurobindo, S., & The Mother. (1994). Living Within: The Yoga Approach to Psychological Health and Growth, Disturbances of Mind, Unruly and Perturbing. Thoughts. Puducherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publications.
Austin, N. (2024). Homer’s Odyssey and the Mystery of Time. In David Christenson, Cynthia White & Contributors (Eds.), Sublime Cosmos in Graeco-Roman Literature and its Reception. Intersections of Myth, Science, and History (pp. 11-28). USA. Bloomsbury.
Brown, C. (Ed.). (1975). The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Exeter, Devon, U.K. The Paternoster Press.
Frame, D. (1978). The Myth of Return in the Early Greek Epic. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Homer. (1996). The Odyssey (R. Fagles, Trans.). New York: Penguin Classics.
Homer. (1999). The Odyssey (Samuel Butler, Trans.). Retrieved May 29, 2025, from Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1727/1727-h/1727-h.htm
Homer. (2013). The Odyssey (Stephen Mitchell, Trans.). New York: Atria Books.
Iyengar, B. K. S. (2011). Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
Iyengar, K. R. S. (1983). The Epic Beautiful: An English Verse Rendering of the Sundarakanda of the Ramayana of Valmiki. Delhi: Sahitya Akademi Publication.
La Frentz, G. (2021). Weaving a Way to Nostos: Odysseus and Feminine Mêtis in the Odyssey. Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal, 11(1), 19-28. https://doi.org/10.15695/vurj.vl lil.5072
Marcinkowska-Rosol, M., & Sellmer, S. (2021). The Mind as Container: A Study of a Metaphor in Homer and Hesiod with a Parallel Analysis of the Sanskrit Epics. Mnemosyne, 75(6), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-BJA10076
Marcinkowska-Rosol, M., & Sellmer, S. (2024). How the Mind is affected in Homer and the Sanskrit Epics. Part I: Negative Mental Changes. Classical Philology, 119(4), 435-460. https://doi.org/10.1086/732018
Marlowe, C. (1915). The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus, London. Francis Griffiths. (Originally published 1592)
Newton, R. M. (2020). The Odyssey: An Overview. In Corinne Ondine Pache, Casey Due, Susan Lupack, S., & Robert Lamberton (Eds.), The Cambridge Guide to Homer. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (1986). The Fragility of Goodness. Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. USA: Cambridge University Press.
Rundbaken, A. (2024). Unraveling Leadership and Community: A Study of Greek virtues in The Odyssey [Oral presentation]. UNG Annual Research Conference, Volume 29. https://arc.ungjournals.org/articles/14 (Available in Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Anna%20Rundbaken)
Smith, A. M. (2024). See the tears and hear the tales: Ancient lessons from the Odyssey to address timeless human needs for recovery [Master’s Thesis, Southeastern University]. Retrieved 22 May, 2025, from FIRE Scholars https://firescholars.seu.edu/classicalstudies/16
Tuszynska, K. (2020). Journey with Nostos or Without it. Many Faces of the Homeric Hero, Odysseus. Scripta Neophilogica Posnaniensia, 20, 273-282.
Valmiki. (2010). Sundarakanda. In Harekrishna Satapathy, P. M. Nayak & P. Geervani (Eds.), Valmiki Ramayana with Selected Commentaries. Tirupati, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha Publication Series No 276. (Online version of the text available at https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/)
Vivekananda, S. (2015). Patanjali Yoga Sutra. Retrieved April 02, 2025, from https://archive.org/details/PatanjaliYogaSutraBySwamiVivekananda/page/n9/mode/2up
Whicher, I. (2023). The convergence of seeing and action in classical Yoga. Journal of Dharma Studies, 6(1), 69-85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-022 00134-53
