There are so many metaphors and interpretations of Homers Odyssey. It is probably one of the multitude of reasons why it has stood the test of time.
One metaphor that I particularly like is that of the sailing boat mast. It appears like a constant when everything else seems off or out of balance. We all remember the story of the Sirens. Odysseys gets himself tied to the mast of his ship so that he can experience the tempting sounds of the Sirens without being pulled away from his bigger intentions, namely getting home to Ithaca (oh and potentially certain death).
There are other scenes where his boat is pulled apart by storms or monsters and it is the mast that Odysseys clings onto to survive and make it through.
Symbols of the mast appear in other places too.
The loom that Penelope finds solace in when there is no news of her husband’s whereabouts and the suitors are overrunning her home. The word for loom in the ancient Greek of Homers poem literally means standing beam or mast of the ship. The one piece of solidity in an often uncertain world.
For me this is the metaphor of our intent. The one thing that keeps us grounded when the world around us shakes us up and takes us off course.
I once had a debate with a friend of mine in Thailand many years ago about boats and metaphors. Do we want the boat, representing our life, to drift wherever the wind takes us? She called this surrender because of the possibilities it allowed for and the dreamy image it represented. I called it resignation because there was nothing consciously pulling you towards anything. The alternative, as she saw it, was the boat set on full speed with gusto and determination, heading in one definitive direction. It looks like it’s making progress in life…and it is. It achieves a lot but potentially at the expense of so many other possible adventures. Perhaps the ultimate way is a boat with a strong mast, set on course but open to the changing winds. A boat with a solid, grounded beam or intent. A boat with a clear direction and a big fat degree of surrender.
Having a solid beam or intent allows us to willingly lean into our fears, to go where life’s many Sirens are, knowing, deep down, that we will be ok.
It enables us to happily drift off life’s course every now and again, surrendering to the sometimes stormy seas, knowing that in the inevitable calm that follows, new and greater possibilities will be revealed, ones that we might never have dreamed of before.
Life is a journey.
And we are all, on a deeper level, just like Odysseys, heading home.
As the poet Cavafy says “may your journey be a long one full of adventure, full of discovery”.
I believe, with a solid mast and an intent that truly inspires us…it can be.
pic: from learning to sail in Aegina, Greece
