Ithaca

Synopsis

"Ithaca" (Greek: Ιθάκη) is a 1911 poem by Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy that is commonly considered his most popular work. It was first published in the journal Grammata (Γράμματα, "letters") of Alexandria. Based on the homeward journey of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey, the poem is titled after its namesake island of Ithaca. It is classified as a didactic-philosophical poem, stressing the importance of the journey over the destination. An early version of the poem was written in 1894 titled "A Second Odyssey". Ithaca gained a global audience upon its 1994 reading at the funeral of former first lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Text license: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Details

Type

Book

Release date

October 1, 1911

Created by

Konstantinos P. Cavafy