It's very apparent the value the Greeks put on aestheticism and physical qualities, also to youth. You can see it in their feasting and dancing, and also in the way that they treat their guests. They bathe them, rub them with oil, and just like we discussed last week, don't even ask their guests' names before they load them down with gifts and food. In book 8, line 170 the noble prince challenges Odysseus in the sports of his people, "What greater glory attends a man, while he's alive, than what he wins with his racing feet and striving hands?" I'm finding it hard to make the connection between their idolatry with materialism and Odysseus' groaning and weeping to go home to hearth and wife. Sure any of us would be homesick if we were lost at sea, but Odysseus had all of the wealth, riches, and physical comfort he could ask for, (from Calypso especially).  Even amidst a culture like that, Odysseus is showing a deeper longing--a family and a home. Shouldn't the deepest longings of our hearts reveal that there is more to life than what we can see?

(I commented on Matt's post)