When reading book 13 last week I could not help but take note of the way in which Odysseus reaches his home land. The trials and terrors he had faced were all in an effort to return home. He had yearned for Ithaca twenty long years and the reader's anticipation builds as each book brings us closer and closer to the moment when he will finally reach his home. When at last we reach this moment in book 13, the circumstance is very unexpected. There is so much irony in Odysseus's return. He wakes up on the shores of Ithaca and does not even know he is finally home. The mist provided by Athena creates an ironic, brilliant moment in the Odyssey. The homesick hero, home at last, does not even recognize he has completed his long journey.It is such a defining moment of the character that is Odysseus. Truly, he is a man of sorrows. In this moment of triumph and completion, he is not even aware of his long-awaited arrival.
P.S. I commented on Ashley's post.
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