ODYSSEUS

"Athena Protects Odysseus" by Troy's Work Table. Deep dreamed by artificial intelligence.

Photo source: “Head of Odysseus,” marble, circa 1st century AD, Greek. From the "Blinding of Polyphemus" sculptural group as found at the villa of Tiberius at Sperlonga.

Style source: "Pallas Athena," oil on canvas, circa 1920, by Frantisek Xaver Naske.

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[Odysseus] is the embodiment of a truth obscured in our infantilistic age: Learning begins when development ends, for growing into oneself absorbs all the cognitive energies which, once “identity” is achieved, are free to turn to the world. For how can we learn if it is not we who are there to learn? We either change or grow wiser, but not both. A man who has visited Hades and is thus “twice-dead when other men die once” will see things in a new light. A man who has dealt with crafty, experienced witches and virginal princesses will have shown adaptability, “flexibility” as we say, and the attendant features of wiliness, tact, ingeniousness, ready charm, and occasional formidableness.
—page 51, Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading The Odyssey and The Iliad by Eva Brann