King Odysseus Reflects At Night

Sleep is a luxury for an old warrior, my young friend. Morpheus abandons us in our later years. And all night pounding surf smashes the shoreline; loose rocks tumble into the water, the receding tide will drag them into the sea. It is like a great city gradually collapsing into ruin. That is no aid to us, because upland mocking me in daylight and after nightfall the walls of Troy, solid, expertly molded, impervious to the weapons we wield, rise over the field of battle like the very symbol of victory. It will take the Will of the gods to destroy That citadel city. How are we to convince them to abandon those citizens who faithfully make sacrifices of their wealth to the Glory of Olympus? How can we breach the silence of the gods? The night drags on, don't let me deprive you of your sleep. You will stray with me? Then let us share an unmixed wine to keep our minds keen. The walls must be breached if we are to have our victory. I must think this through for our coalition. The other kings see me as a younger Nestor, not an Ajax or Diomedes. I am no warrior, and hardly a king at all, in their minds. My Ithaka is an unknown land to them. Nothing attracts them to visit, we have no precious gifts under the earth. And we fight the soil to grow our sparse crops. Even pirates stopped raiding our villages and citadel. I have no impulse to steal from others, either from kings with plenty, or peasants with nothing. I do not see that as glory for my name. My kingdom is governed, not ruled. I do not wear a crown when I sit in judgment or council. I want my people to see me as a man among men, not their lord but their patron. One summer a philosopher from Lydia who had heard about my views came to my court and stayed all season witnessing the harmony of Ithacan life, which he compared to the celestial music of Apollo's lyre. I want only that harmony foe my family and my kingdom. I want to sit by my hearth, in the presence of my beloved Queen Penelope, with my son Telemachus on one side and my father Laertes on the other side. This family is the glory of my existence. Athena favors us, because we live by the rigorous code she established for civilized life. With Apollo and Athena as our honored Olympians, we live like gods but without the power we could not control. Instead we live with a divine harmony. to grow our meager