Ithaca

Ithaca

Ithaca

Note:  Cavafy uses the other Mythic system of the West.  The images are different but the tug of pilgrimage, not vacation, but soulful travel in search of God.  Of course, as the poet points out, the treasure is within you.  Jesus once said, “the Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field.”  The treasure is closer than we know.  So, here is Ithaka.

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,

Posidion
angry Poseidon – do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy –
ports seen for the first time;

byblos_-phoenician_ship
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Alexandria, Egypt

Alexandria, Egypt

Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don’t in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn’t anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn’t deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you’ll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy
Ithaca

Ithaca

Soul of the World

The Epistle to Diognetus is an apology for Christianity,  written by an unknown writer to a pagan of high social or political rank.   It probably dates from the 2nd or 3rd century.  In chapters 5 & 6 Christians are described as the soul of the world.

 

mathetes “Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by either country, speech, or customs; the fact is, they nowhere settle in cities of their own; they use no peculiar language; they cultivate no eccentric mode of life.  certainly, this creed of theirs is no discovery due to some fancy or speculation of inquisitive men; nor do they, as some do, champion a doctrine of human origin.  Yet while they dwell in both Greek and non-Greek cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and conform to the customs of the country in dress, food, and mode of life in general, the whole tenor of their way of living stamps it as worthy of admiration and admittedly extraordinary.  They reside in their respective countries, but only as aliens.  They take part in everything as citizens and put up with everything as foreigners.  Every foreign land is their home and every home a foreign land.  The marry like all others and beget children; but they do not expose their offspring.  Their board they spread for all, but not their bed.  They find themselves in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They spend their days on earth, but hold citizenship in heaven. they obey the established laws, but in their private lives they rise about the laws. 

 

ApostolicFathers

 

They love all men, but are persecuted by all. They are unknown, yet are condemned; they are put to death, but it is live that they receive.  They are poor, and enrich many; destitute of everything, they abound in everything.  They are dishonored, and in their dishonor find their glory.  The are calumniated, and are vindicated.  They are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted and render honor.  Doing good, they are penalized as evildoers; when penalized, they rejoice because they are quickened into life.  they Jews make war on them as foreigners; the Greeks persecute them; and those who hate them are at a loss to explain their hatred.

Vasily Perov's painting illustrates clandestin...

Vasily Perov’s painting illustrates clandestine meetings of Christians in pagan Kiev. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a word: what the soul is in the body, that the Christians are in the world.  The soul is spread through all the members of the body, and the Christians throughout the cities of the world.  The soul dwells in the body, but is not part and parcel of the body; so Christians dwell in the world, but are not part and parcel of the world.  Itself  invisible, the soul is kept shut up in the visible body; so Christians are known as such in the world, but their religion remains invisible.  The flesh, though suffering no wrong from the soul, yet hates and makes war on it, because it is hindered from indulging its passions; so, too, the world, though suffering no wrong from Christians, hates them because they oppose its members; so, too, Christians love those that hate them.  The soul is locked up in the body, yet is the very thing that holds the body together; so, too, Christians are shut up in the world as in a prison, yet it is precisely they that hold the world together. 

 

Immortal, the soul is lodged in mortal tenement; so, too, Christians, though residing as strangers among corruptible things, look forward to the incorruptibility that awaits them in heaven.  The soul, when stinting itself in food and drink, fares the better for it; so, too, Christians, when penalized, show a daily increase in numbers on that account.  Such is the important post to which God has assigned, and they are not at liberty to desert it.”