Ἰθάκη (Ithaca)

March 15, 2016

“But don't hurry your journey at all.

Far better if it takes many years,

and if you are old when you anchor at the island,

rich with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting that Ithaca will give you wealth.

Ithaca has given you a beautiful journey.”

― Barry B. Powell

"I wanted magic shows and miracles

Mirages to touch

I wanted such a little thing from life

I wanted so much

I never came close, my love

We nearly came near

It never was there

I think it was here"

• Stephen Schwartz, Pippin

It’s time to close this episode of The Road to Bali and return home - to Ithaca if you will.

Perhaps more than any other trip we walked the ancient roads of gods and myths this time.  We stood on ground where prior to this time, we have no history.  Only random clay pot shards and bits of blasted rock.

Homer in his second great work “The Odyssey” wrote of Odysseus, the hero who conceived of the Trojan Horse that at last ended the terrible battle for Troy.   It is one of the oldest surviving works of Western literature, traditionally believed to have been composed in the late 8th or early 7th century B.C.E.

Odysseus just wanted to go home at Ithaca and rejoin the world he knew and loved.

It seems fitting that after leaning so hard on all the great stories of Greece and Egypt that we return there to close this trip.  We are heading home - for our Ithaca.

Here is the great poem by C.P. Cavafy that talks about travel, and going home.

Ithaca

BY C. P. CAVAFY

As you set out for Ithaca

hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:

you’ll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind—

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you’re old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn't have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca won’t have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you’ll have understood by then what these Ithaca’s mean.

Every trip teaches us more and more. We have learned that La Dolce Vita has never been far way. It has always been here at Ithaca, our home.

Thanks for coming along with us on this journey.  We will see you in the next episode.

Our Ithaca