THE NOSTOI aka THE RETURNS is a neglected epic in the Trojan War cycle. It is attributed to Agias or to Eumelus of Corinth. In the Epic Cycle, The Nostoi comes after The Sack of Troy and before The Odyssey. The epic deals with the homeward journeys of certain Greek heroes of the Trojan War other than Odysseus. The verse rendition of The Nostoi survives only in fragmentary form but there are surviving prose summaries of the work written by Proclus and Apollodorus.
THE NOSTOI – Picking up from the end of The Sack of Troy, the goddess Athena is still angry with the triumphant Greeks for the way Ajax the Lesser led the desecration of her temple inside Troy. She causes arguments among some of the Greek leaders, including the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus, as a prelude to more deadly measures to come.
*** Diomedes and Nestor, free of hubris and considered free of the taint of the temple’s desecration, are granted swift and untroubled voyages with their fleets as they return home to Argos and Pylos, respectively.
*** Agamemnon is visited by the ghost of Achilles, who warns him not to set sail because of Athena’s anger. Impatient to return home, Agamemnon tries to appease Athena with a quick sacrifice, then departs. A storm sent by Zeus at Athena’s request ravages Agamemnon’s fleet, killing many on the Kapherian rocks, including the mad Ajax the Lesser. (One account says Athena stole one of Zeus’s thunderbolts and caused the storm herself.) Continue reading
THE SHIELD 
Powers: The chemical formula that the Shield rubbed onto his skin followed by bombardment with flouroscopic rays endowed him with super-strength plus invulnerability. The Shield also wore an indestructible costume which encased his torso like a shield.
THE PEOPLE OF THE MOON (1895) – Written by Tremlett Carter. An unnamed narrator, a scientist of some sort, sees a glowing 18 inch object floating in the sky. A bird who makes physical contact with the glowing orb is killed by the object’s electric charge. 
POWER MAN Vol 1 #24 (April 1975) 
Claire says she cannot abandon Bill during a moment of crisis like this and was afraid Luke wouldn’t understand. Dr. Foster unexpectedly finds Power Man and Claire together and misunderstands the situation. Revealing to Luke that he is now the costumed figure Black Goliath, he attacks Power Man.
THE ABLEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1879) – This short story was written by American author Edward Page Mitchell. The central figure – but not the title figure – is a wealthy bespectacled man named Fisher. Because of his scholarly appearance Fisher is mistakenly addressed as “doctor” and “professor” while staying at a spa in Baden, Germany. 
MR. GHIM’S DREAM (1878) – This anonymous work is set in the autumn of 1877. Mr. Ghim is a poor American who dreams of ending the “current” unemployment crisis through a massive construction project that will employ thousands. Ghim tries to enlist some of the most well-known tycoons of his day – William Vanderbilt, Robert Roosevelt, Jay Gould and others – in his scheme. 
TWO – Aeneas and his companions, the survivors of the Fall of Troy, are still lingering in Carthage. Queen Dido, not knowing that the Roman State which Aeneas will spawn will also be the future destroyer of Carthage, remains deeply in love with Aeneas. 
Playing into (or maybe establishing) the enduring cliche about people in a burgeoning romance being driven closer by needing relief from a downpour, Dido and Aeneas start to feel even friskier. Juno manipulates things further by having nature and animal life in the cave behave in ways that parallel a wedding ceremony. 
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #1 (Aug 1970) 
Dr. Doom Title: Unto You is Born … the Doomsman 
Recent movie news about the latest screen adaptation of The Odyssey happened to make me reflect on the lack of a big screen version of the poet Virgil’s epic The Aeneid. For newbies to the tale, I’m posting this very brief synopsis of the story – the first half a mythic voyage like Jason and the Argonauts and The Odyssey and the second half a tale of warfare as Aeneas leads his fellow survivors of fallen Troy in their mythic conquest of what would become Rome. 
