We have been retelling the story of the great adventurer Odysseus, as he attempts to escape from the ruins of Troy—a symbolic destruction of the self—and return to his home. There he will be finally reconciled with his true self—his soul—as represented by his beautiful and faithful wife, Penelope.
The journey to find one’s true self is long and arduous, fraught with dangers. For Odysseus, we know that has meant a 10-year war at Troy itself, as the old self was broken down and destroyed, followed by another 10 years of attempting to get back to Ithaca, to home. To return to the beginning, then, means we are not the same as when we started out.
