Thepretentiousacademic - Quality And Beauty In The Everyday

Gowns by Charles James photographed by Cecil Beaton, 1948

Golden Temple Amritsar Punjab

Sir please that's my emotional support stack of books that i haven't read

for Odysseus’ name to become synonymous with journey; Odyssey- he has lost his humanity; even after he dies and his body burnt to ashes on a pyre he won’t enter Hades. he will be damned to a thousand more journeys, a thousand more trials and a thousand more deaths. his spirit floats through the plays that recite his journey, echoes through the songs sung about him, his pain seeks through every epithet. Sacker of cities. Great glory of the Achaeans. Mastermind of war. Master mariner. Man of pain.

he will be damned time and time again to suffer and reach home for it to be torn out of his grasp each time. he will reach where the river styx fades into Hades and see the descent and before he can feel relief he is back where he started. He is in Troy. He is in a boat in an unfamiliar land, but it has his name. He is in Troy again, but not the same one he raided and burnt. he is floating through the aether. he is not a man anymore. nor is he monster. he is a Thing, an Ideal; akin more to Thanatos or Hypnos or Eris in he is no longer Odysseus he is the personification of journey.

If there truly are three deaths; one of the mind, one of the heart, and one of the memory. then Odysseus has become immortal and yet he begs for death. he no longer knows whether he begs for the peace of Hades or to truly be forgotten, to truly cease to be

“Helped are those who are content to be themselves; they will never lack mystery in their lives and the joys of self-discovery will be constant.” ― Alice Walker

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