- When you set out for Ithaka
- Ask that your way be long,
- Full of adventure, full of instruction.
- The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
- Angry Poseidon -- do not fear them;
- Such as these you will never find
- As long as your thought is lofty,
- As long as a rare emotion
- Touch your spirit and your body.
- The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
- Angry Poseidon -- you will not meet them
- Unless you carry them in your soul,
- Unless your soul raise them up before you.
- Ask that your way be long,
- At many a summer dawn to enter --
- With what gratitude, what joy!
- Ports seen for the first time;
- To stop at Phoenician trading centers,
- And to buy good merchandise.
- Mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
- And sensuous perfumes of every kind.
- Buy as many sensuous perfumes as you can,
- Visit many Egyptian cities
- To learn and learn from those who have knowledge.
- Always keep Ithaka fixed in your mind;
- Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
- But do not in the least hurry the journey.
- Better that it last for years
- So that when you reach the island you are old,
- Rich with all that you have gained on the way,
- Not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
- Ithaka has given you the splendid voyage.
- Without her you would never have set out,
- But she has nothing more to give you.
- And if you find her poor,
- Ithaka has not deceived you.
- So wise have you become, of such experience,
- That already you will have understood
- What these Ithakas mean.
C. P. Cavafy
- Konstantinus Kafavis (1863-1933), also known as Cavafis (or Constantine P. Cavafy), 1863-1933, one of the greatest modern Greek poets, lived in Alexandria for all but a few of his seventy years.
This Greek poet published only about 200 privately printed poems. Cavafy has come in recent years to be regarded as a the greatest Mediterranean poet of modern times.
Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, into a wealthy merchant family. After his father's death in 1872, he was taken to Liverpool, England, for five years. Apart from three years in Istanbul (1882-85), he spent the rest of his life in Alexandria, where he worked 34 years intermittently as journalist, broker, and civil servant of Egyptian government. His first book was published when he was 41 and reissued five years later with an additional seven poems. He published no further works during his lifetime.
As a writer Cavafy was perfectionis. That is, he printed his poems by himself and delivered them only to close friends. Main themes in his works revealed Cavafy's interests in homosexual love, art, and politics.
Cavafy's poems were first published without dates before World War II and reprinted in 1949. In his works, Cavafy mixed the demonic and pure Greek, called Katharevusa, and used his wide knowledge of the history of East Roman and Byzantine empires as the basis of his themes.
Note: Cavafy become also known as the 'poet of the city' (Alexandria).
Source: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kafavis.htm
CRITICAL ESSAY ASSIGNMENT
- Following the guidelines of your Mechanics Page, write a three-to-four-page essay in which you draw upon both Ithaka and the Odyssey to discover and thus to discuss whether Odysseus symbolizes a "figure whose life embodies the whole sum of human experience" (Norton). The first question you will need to ask is obvious: How does the short poem Ithaca relate to Homer's epic poem? What are the primary comparisons/images illustrating the relationship of one to the other, in other words?
- Additional questions you may wish to consider as you prepare your response may include one or more of the following: What is the spirit behind Ithaca the poem and Ithaca the town? Is the end more important than the journey itself? What are the implications/relevance each poem holds for contemporary life? What qualities about Odysseus in particular have implications for us today? For example, is he an admirable role model for us? Why or why not? Is his areté a significant consideration? What about other characters? Should one seek to have an adventuresome life? Depending upon how you define adventuresome, why or why not?
- The above questions are but guidelines, of course, for you cannot answer all the thematic issues in a brief paper. Regardless of which of the questions you choose to tackle, however, you must relate the poem Ithaca to the Odyssey in an analytic/interpretive sense. Use supporting passages from each poem.
- To document your paper, follow class instructions. In general, you must follow MLA guidelines, but you will not have to prepare a works cited page. If citing from Book IV of the Odyssey, for example, you need only put the book number and line number(s) in parenthesis because I know you are citing text from the epic poem (IV.430-32). For the poem Ithaca, you need only put the abbreviation Ith. in parenthesis, not line numbers. Finally, do refer to the speaker when citing a passage from the poem Ithaca ("The speaker further suggests that . . .").
For a brief discussion of areté , click HERE
Professor Joyce M. Miller 
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