Ithaca: A Journey-Not a Destination

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

The poem “Ithaca,” by Constantine P. Cavafy expresses his outlook on life. Cavafy was born with Greek citizenship on April 17, 1863, in Alexandria, Egypt. After the death of Cavafy’s father in 1870, his family moved to Liverpool, England. Cavafy developed a love for writing in England and indulged in the works of William Shakespeare, Robert Browning, and Oscar Wilde. After problems with the family business, the Cavafy family moved to Constantinople. It was there that Cavafy began his love affair with poetry. The first version of “Ithaca” was written in Greek in 1894. The first English translation was published in 1924, and there have been a number of different translations since then. Along the road in Cavafy’s poetic life, he expressed many important themes dealing with his roots from Egypt and Greece. When Greece was under Turkish rule in the eighteenth century, Greek literature virtually disappeared. It was awakened following the Greek War of Independence in 1821-1827. As Greek national pride grew, there was a strong movement amongst writers to use the demotic or the ordinary form of the Greek language. Thus, the influence of this movement is seen in Cavafy’s poem “Ithaca.” The city of Alexandria is where Cavafy wrote “Ithaca” and is probably one of the unnamed Egyptian cities in the poem. Cavafy’s “Ithaca,” offers its reader advice about life through its clever use of metaphor, repetition, and its allusion to Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey.

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On a literal level, the poem talks about the importance of the journey of life, not just the destination. The poem begins by the speaker addressing the reader of the poem as if offering a piece of advice. The advice in the poem states that life should not be wasted in always contemplating the goal of one’s endeavors or in building up hopes and schemes for the future. An obsession with a final goal can blind a person to the real meaning of living, which is to enjoy every minute that is available. There is also the hint that life can be disappointing. The goals people strive for, their “Ithacas,” may not yield what they hoped for. Therefore, it is better to not have expectations. On the other hand, it is an important part of human nature to have ambitions and expectations. As the poet states in stanza 3, without having an “Ithaca,” a goal in mind, there would be no reason to embark on the journey of life. In addition, the poem prescribes that the reader must cultivate a certain habit of mind in order to enjoy the journey. The entire person-mind, body, and spirit-must fully understand that life is the process of living. Also, the traveler must keep his or her “thoughts raised high,” which means that the mind must not give in to melancholy or disappointment. The literal level that Cavafy uses is easily accessible and gives the reader advice about life’s journey.

Figuratively, Cavafy puts all his advice in context by setting it against the background of the Odyssey, one of the greatest travel narratives. In Homer’s epic poem, Odysseus always longs for home. He does not enjoy his long journey, which is full of perils and sensual delights. The difference between “Ithaca” and the Odyssey is the emphasis on what is important at the end. In “Ithaca,” the journey is valued and the destination is dismissed as of little importance. This is just the opposite in the Odyssey where the destination, Ithaca, is the only thing that is important. Also in the poem, Cavafy suggests that the monsters Odysseus encounters are all creations of the human mind. The poem suggests that if the reader follows the poet’s prescription for happiness, such personal demons will not arise in his psyche. Cavafy’s allusion to the Odyssey reflects his ties to his ethnic background and also reinforces important themes in the poem.

“Ithaca” is an unrhymed poem of four stanzas that employs everyday language. The style in the poem “Ithaca,” contains metaphor and repetition. Cavafy incorporates metaphor into his poem, “Ithaca,” when he talks about the island of Ithaca. The island of Ithaca is associated with the homeland of Odysseus, but Cavafy uses the name of the city in an additional sense. Just as the journey to Ithaca is a metaphor for the human journey through life, so Ithaca is a metaphor for all destinations. It represents all the expectations of a reward to be received in the future for actions performed in the present. This metaphorical meaning of Ithaca is clear not only from the context in which the word is used but also because the last line refers to Ithaca not in the singular but in plural, “Ithacas.” Apart from the journey as a metaphor for human life, Cavafy uses little figurative language. Cavafy’s main rhetorical device in the poem is repetition. In the first stanza, the poet repeats the names of the characters from the Odyssey-Laistrygonians, Cyclops, and Poseidon-in order to emphasize how they may be avoided. The repetition of “as long as” in line 7 of stanza 1 is echoed by the repetition of “unless” at the beginning of lines 11 and 12. The effect suggests that the traveler needs repeated reinforcement before they can understand the message of the poem. A similar effect is gained by the repetition of “sensual perfume” in the second stanza of lines 20 and 21. The use of the word “sensual” uncovers that fulfilment lies in the sensual experiences of the moment, and not the imagined future goal. The vernacular in “Ithaca” represents the accessibility of the advice that Cavafy wishes to convey.

Cavafy wrote the poem “Ithaca,” to tell the traveler that what is really important is not Ithaca, the island home that was the goal of Odysseus’s years of wandering, but the journey itself. The journey must be enjoyed fully at every moment, using all of the senses and intellect, because the goal itself may be disappointing. Cavafy’s “Ithaca,” has a moral undertone that makes many references to his Grecian and Egyptian cultural influences. This can be seen in other works of Cavafy’s such as his poem titled “Alexandrian Kings.” This poem describes the extravagant, hollowness of an Ancient Egyptian civilization. Throughout his works, Cavafy remains true to himself and his life journey by referencing to his beliefs and backgrounds.