Month: February 2020

Lines from the Odyssey

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  • Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns.

This is the opening line. I think it perfectly encompasses Odysseus’s character. Odysseus is “the man of twists and turns” because his journey is anything but straightforward. He’s also very capable of thinking his way out of dangerous situations by thinking in twists and turns or outside the box.

  • Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now in the waves and wars. Add this to the total—bring the trial on!

Odysseus says this line to Calypso when she tells him he’s going to suffer if he leaves her island. He just sees this another trial in a long war to go home.

  • My fame has reached the skies. Sunny Ithaca is my home. Atop her stands our seamark, Mount Neriton’s leafy ridges shimmering in the wind.

Kleos is like fame. The highest goal for the men in this book is kleos or fame. Odysseus is and can simply state the fact that he has achieved kleos and his home and family id much more important to him than fame.

Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy translated by Edmund Keeley

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The poem talks about the journey to Ithaka. It talks about hope for a long journey full of adventure and discovery. It wants you to gain an immense amount of knowledge that makes you “rich” intellectually rather than monetarily. It’s saying that this journey is going to prepare you for the world and your awaiting life at your destination. It advises you not to have any expectations but to take it all in as it happens because its a once in a lifetime experience – live in the moment. The last line mentions “these Ithakas” which I think means these personal pieces of wisdom and advice that the author is writing about in the poem.

The poem –

As you set out for Ithaka
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 Ithaka 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 Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka 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, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

The Odyssey – My Thoughts

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The Odyssey is about the journey of Odysseus to Ithaca from the war at Troy. He spent ten years at war and took another ten years to get back to Itaca because of the animosity from Poseidon, the god of the sea. By the time Odysseus comes home, he finds a number of men invading his home to court Penelope, which leads to more woes and fights for him. His dedication to come home shows his strong love for his family yet he has affairs with Circe and Calypso which show the double standard when Penelope has to stay faithful when she has a number of suitors to choose from. Nausicaa’s immature attraction to Odysseus proves insignificant to him and cannot trump his desperate longing to return home. We can see the trickster and cunning intelligence in Odysseus’s character when Polyphemus curses the Ithacans and only Odysseus survives. Penelope isn’t some dumb, naive character either. She is as smart as her husband when she delays choosing a suitor by a ruse to marry only after weaving a death shroud for Laertes, she weaves and unweaves the shroud and delays the event for three years till a maid snitches.

STEM Club Reflection

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LO4 – Commitment, Showing Perseverance and Resilience

STEM Club is about science, technology, engineering and math. Choosing this club was a challenge in itself for me as I’m particularly weak at math and repeat the sentence “I hate math” like a hymn repeatedly everyday. The technology aspect of this club is what attracted me to it in the first place as I’m a closeted tech junkie. After talking to my friends who were in this club for a year, I went ahead and chose this activity which shocked me and my parents the most.

I think the first way I showed perseverance and resilience in this activity was by showing up regularly and on time every week. I committed to it and wanted to prove my commitment was important to me by showing up with a smile that outshined my deep hatred for math. The moment I joined, I made it a personal goal to not quit this particular activity. I know that I’m a quitter when things get hard and I chose this as an opportunity to get over that bad habit for myself. I think my friends are and were a huge part of my dedication to this as we always dragged each other to our weekly lunch sessions. They motivated me to show up in the beginning but after the first few sessions, I loved it.

I think the commitment payed off. I love the weekly STEM sessions and think it is a good use of my time. I made a lot of new friends and met a lot of closeted tech junkies 😉

I think I overcame my quitter attitude and enjoyed doing it.