ABSTRACT
Trauma resulting from wartime experience was widely known and represented in ancient cultures and literature that remain relevant to contemporary circumstances. Perhaps most prominent among ancient returning soldiers, Agamemnon and Odysseus embody and encounter post-war violence at home, though under dramatically different circumstances and with radically different outcomes. Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, who revenges the daughter he sacrificed so that the Greeks could go to war; Odysseus, a reluctant warrior, slaughters his loyal wife’s suitors and restores the status quo ante at great cost to his kingdom and society. Post-Homeric representations pick up on and develop Homer’s hints that Odysseus’ uneasiness at returning home may be psychic as well as circumstantial. Shakespeare knew enough of the classics to produce his own versions of warrior heroes like Agamemnon and Odysseus. His knowledge of militarism and the military life was also rich and deep, and he understood war’s cost for both those who served and the society that remained behind, and the difficulty of re-assimilation for those who fail to receive healing welcomes or undergo transitional rituals. With few exceptions, they behave fatally to others and to themselves, and they end by leaving their world far worse off than it was at the start of their plays.
