The Myth
Scheria (Corfu) was, according to myth, the last stop on the adventurous journey of Odysseus (Ulysses) after the Trojan Wars.
Odysseus left Ogygia (where the nymph Kalypso lived) on a small raft furnished with provisions of water, wine and food by Kalypso, only to be hit by a storm and washed up on the island of Scheria and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, who entertained him well and escorted him to Ithaca. On the twentieth day of sailing he arrived at his home in Ithaca, which has long been the symbolic image for the end of a long journey.
One of the masterpieces of Greek poet Constantine Kavafis (1863 - 1933) is titled: ITHACA. It is one of his most famous poems, which narrates in a unique way, the journey of life, inviting all people to seek their own Ithaca.
Odysseus' adventures symbolize the difficulties of life; Ithaca is every man's destination, what he cherishes most in his life. And the journey personifies the route to knowledge, the philosophy of wisdom, which is completed only when he reaches his Ithaca.
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