kateandjohnsail.boats

SPEAK, MEMORY—
	                     Of the cunning hero,
The wanderer, blown off course time and again
After he plundered Troy’s sacred heights.

Of all the cities he saw, the minds he grasped,
The suffering deep in his heart at sea
As he struggled to survive and bring his men home
But could not save them, hard as he tried—
The fools—destroyed by their own recklessness
When they ate the oxen of Hyperion the Sun,
And that god snuffed out their day of return.

		            Of these things,
Speak, Immortal one,
And tell the tale once more in our time. 

Ithaca is the home to which Odysseus returned after the wars to reunite with his beloved Penelope. By Homer’s telling of the story, it took the hero 10 years of struggle to reach home; this becomes more real when you understand that in those days one could not sail against the wind, but was much more at the mercy of weather and events. We can also understand why Odysseus persevered, as his home island is a beautiful place.