In Odysseus Leaves Nausicaa (1979), Romare Bearden blends myth, memory, and identity to reclaim a scene from Homer’s Odyssey. Rendered in vivid screenprint based on a collage, the work places a poised Nausicaa at the narrative’s center—her figure framed by palm trees and abstract geometry. Bearden fuses classical European myth with African American and African diasporic visual languages, giving new resonance to Nausicaa’s strength and emotional complexity. Through layered form and symbolic color, the piece challenges who gets remembered in myth—and how.