For Many Touched by War, a Harsh Homecoming

Newsweek

26-05-2025

For schoolchildren, Homer's Odyssey is a vivid tale of storms, shipwrecks and sea monsters, but for those who have actually seen war it remains the classic tale of a homecoming gone wrong. For 10 long years Odysseus and his crew struggled to get back to the Greek island of Ithaca. It was the "longed for day of return" that kept them rowing in the face of Sirens and Cyclopes. Yet Odysseus's homecoming is no joyful event. On the island where he had once been king, no one recognizes him. People and places have changed. Friends and family have drifted away.
Homer's hero is not alone in his experience.
Whether they have served in the military, intelligence community or diplomatic service, many of our own veterans of foreign wars have faced similar disappointment.
Eric Teo Lopez, 16, of the Fitchburg ROTC program works to replace damaged flags as he stands in a field of some 37,000 of them as part of a Memorial Day Flag Garden by the...
Eric Teo Lopez, 16, of the Fitchburg ROTC program works to replace damaged flags as he stands in a field of some 37,000 of them as part of a Memorial Day Flag Garden by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Boston Common on May 25, 2024. More
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
In a reunion fraught with tension and doubt, even his own wife fails to recognize the wily Odysseus. Penelope addresses him as "stranger" and asks, "Who are your parents?" Only when he describes how he had built their marriage bed does she realize that her husband has returned. This strained process of rebuilding trust and intimacy with one's spouse after years of separation is often as painstaking for today's veterans as it was 3,000 years ago.
Odysseus's son Telemachus has grown up without a father. Seeking to escape the pain of his father's absence as well as his mother's anxiety over her husband's uncertain fate, the young man turns to drugs at Helen's hands. How many of our modern veterans or their children have done the same? While Telemachus did not become addicted, many seeking solace from the pain and anger of separation have not been so fortunate.
Above all, Odysseus caries the burden of memory. He recalls all too well the blood and chaos of war, the deaths of both comrades and enemies. Watching the men who trusted him to lead them home devoured by monsters or crushed by clashing rocks was not a fairytale, but a nightmare. When a court poet recounts the glories of battle, the old warrior breaks down in tears of remembrance. In Odysseus we see a reflection of every veteran who returns home with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Returning to civilian life is inevitably difficult after years of constant fear, sanctioned violence, and anger at the callousness of fate. Some never adjust. As Odysseus tells Penelope, for some war becomes home. His own effort to expunge years of pent-up rage results in the massacre of the suitors who have been pursuing his wife. Modern veterans have no such outlet and are left only with their doubts, anger, and restless nights.
Homer's Odyssey portrays the human cost of war. It reminds us of our obligation to care for and honor those who placed their lives in harm's way on our behalf. Each veteran is our own Odysseus. On this Memorial Day, it is fitting to remember those who did not return but save a thought for those who survived and yet never found the longed-for homecoming.
David H. Rundell is a former chief of mission at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the author of Vision or Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads. Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a former political advisor to the U.S. Central Command and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Both served in war zones and are fellows of the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.