The Iliad, Odyssey and Black Jacobins are the first three books I recall reading when I first came to Blighty as a dumb, callow “freshie” in 1975. All three have left a great impression on me. I have been to Troy, the site where the Iliad is set. That visit changed my whole perspective as it also came in the wake of unimaginable death and destruction unleashed by the west on Iraq. For the first time since my childhood I started to see Achilles, the “hero” of the Iliad, as an invader and Hector as a defender of his homeland.
During our summer holidays in Greece and after waiting for 40 years I finally got to Ithaca which lies a mere half an hour’s ferry ride from Kefelinia. I prepared for trip by reading Daniel Mandelsohn’s account o
f his tracing of Odysseus’ journey back home with his own father. It was a great help in providing more nuanced context. On the eve of our visit we were at the 3 Umbrellas restaurant near Lixouri – a place I would hugely recommend - celebrating my daughter Jass' success in getting her first full time lecturing post. Good food and wine and a convivial atmosphere led to restaurant owner joining us at our table. He’d heard about our plan to visit Ithaca from his nephew who served us and was particularly interested about the ethics of Odyssey. "Why," he posed, "did Penelope wait for 20 years for Odysseus? As for him, he had a party with so many women while she had to stay chaste." He wasn't impressed by my defence that while the double standards trouble me I also acknowledge that those were the rules of kingship which also reflected the unequal relationship between men and women at the time. He did accept though, that in rebuffing Calypso's offer of everlasting youth Odysseus dem
onstrates his deep love and longing for Penelope. (He was also later delighted to hear that we felt the Parthenon marbles belonged in Greece)
We spent a nice day of eating and swimming in Ithaca. There isn't obviously anything related Odysseus there and I didn’t have a particularly earth shatteringly emotional revelation. It's the drama of the epic that is greater than the physical places associated with it. I'm really glad I came as it fulfilled a life long ambition. Our short visit did make me re-think and re-imagine one of the world's greatest epics. I feel different and have an even greater appreciation of something I first read 40 years ago.
But the real Eureka moment came on a bend in the road as I was driving to pick up my family from the b
each the next day. Ithaca, it came to me suddenly, is more, much more than geography. It's a state of mind, a state of being, a longing for something that may have been lost. Something that may not be there if you go back. I realise now my lost Ithaca/Arcadia was Bassi, mum's village of my childhood. That is why I cried so bitterly at my loss when I last visited that place. It is the people in your life at key stages that make a place. When they are no longer there, the place matters far less. In fact it can hurt to go back. I'm glad Odysseus, a hugely complex and challenging character, found HIS Ithaca after 20 years. I guess everyone has their own Ithaca. In the sea I told my wife how I felt. Inevitably tears flowed and my son, Kabir came over to console me.
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