Ithaka Bound

Sparta: Leonidas and the Brave 300

Spring always reminds me that it’s almost summer and summer reminds me that I should be getting into some sort of acceptable shape for the hiking, swimming, and suitcase hauling that lie ahead.
I was raised an athlete and ran sprints for as long as my crooked feet would carry me. I continued to work out [...]

How Anyone Can Travel

To utter a curse out loud was considered one of the most heinous things a person could do in ancient Greece.  A curse spoken was a curse given life and set on it’s course.  To the ancient Greeks, the spoken word carried a lot of power as it spun through the universe, gaining momentum, taking [...]

Forcing Odysseus to Leave Home

I was surprised to learn that one of the main heroes of the Trojan war, and the protagonist of the Odyssey, pulled out every stop in the book to avoid having to leave home and join the fight.
When Helen was abducted by Paris, her husband, Menalaus, asked Helen’s old suitors to help bring her back to [...]

Looking Forward to Ithaka

Today marks three months since I left Greece and, if luck loves me at all, six months until I go back.

This anniversary had me mulling over the theme of this blog — being Ithaka bound. Essentially, it’s the search for a homeland, external, internal, or both.  It’s also a nod to the king of Ithaka, [...]

Sing to me of the Man, Oh Muse…(III)

Emboldened by their new prosperity, prestige, and power, Pericles and the Athenians began to pursue empire.  Despite their protestations to the contrary, they began to treat their allies as their subjects.  Ideologically committed to their own form of radical democracy, they saw it as their mission and their right to foster, or if necessary to [...]

Dare to be Great

I was walking down a street in Georgetown the other day and heard a woman make a comment about me to the friend at her side. The comment concerned something I’ve always considered to be quite normal about myself, but apparently the women had an altogether different idea of what constituted normal.
The comment didn’t [...]

Sing to me of the Man, Oh Muse…(II)

The love of Pericles’ life was an intelligent and charming woman named Aspasia, renown in her time, now known only through the words of the men she influenced.
Aspasia was an anomly in ancient Greece.  As a young women, she left her home in the ancient Ionian city of Miletus to live in Athens–a move that [...]