Returns from Troy

The most famous returns are those of Odysseus, whose wanderings are narrated in the Odyssey, and Agamemnon, whose murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra was portrayed in Greek tragedy.

Antenor, who had earlier offered hospitality to the Achaean embassy that asked the return of Helen of Troy and had advocated so[1] was spared, along with his family by Menelaus and Odysseus.

Of the women of the royal family, Locrian Ajax violated Cassandra on Athena's altar while she was clinging to her statue, which since looks upward.

Neoptolemus got Andromache, wife of Hector and Odysseus took Priam's widow Hecuba (known in Greek as Hecabe).

[4] The ghost of Achilles appeared before the survivors of the war, demanding that the Trojan princess Polyxena be sacrificed before anybody could leave, as either part of his spoil or because she had betrayed him.

[5][6] News of Troy's fall quickly reached the Achaean kingdoms through phryctoria, a semaphore system used in ancient Greece.

The gods were thought to be very angry over the destruction of their temples and other sacrilegious acts by the Achaeans and decided that most would not return.

Also Nauplius, in revenge for the murder of his son Palamedes by Odysseus, set up false lights at Cape Caphereus (also known today as Cavo D'Oro, on Euboea) and many were shipwrecked.

According to the Odyssey, Menelaus's fleet was blown by storms to Crete and Egypt where they were unable to sail away because the wind was calm.

[36] He killed Clytemnestra and Aegisthus and succeeded to his father's throne yet he was chased by the Furies until he was acquitted by Athena.

[37][38] Odysseus (or Ulysses), attempting to travel home, underwent a series of trials, tribulations and setbacks that stretched his journey to ten years' time.

Odysseus left on a small raft furnished with provisions of water, wine and food by Calypso, only to be hit by a storm and washed up on the island of Scheria and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, who entertained him well and escorted him to Ithaca.

There Odysseus traveled disguised as an old beggar by Athena he was recognized by his dog Argus, who died in his lap.

Penelope tested him by saying they'd move his immovable bed, which correctly Odysseus pointed out couldn't be done, and he forgave her.

According to a Roman tradition Odysseus did not die this way: when old he took a ship to sea and, crossing the Pillars of Hercules he discovered the estuary of the Tagus river and found there the city of Lisbon.