Ithaca Returned:

Homer, Odysseus, Cavafy,

Modern Greece, Europe

and the Cyclops.

If you believe in Homer's great poem The Odyssey, then you must understand it is the perfect metaphor for the journey of Modern Greece. Where else, as Kazantzakis says, "can you pass so easily from reality to dream" but Greece. The dream, the glory that was Greece, is once again under fire. The fire is not from the flames of the Trojan Wars, but rather from the financial constraints of the Triokan Wars. Odysseus will return home having killed the Cyclops and reclaim his kingdom, and Greece will remain in Europe, war torn and ready to rebuild.

In this time of endless elections, the Blender Gallery has decided to host an exhibition of contemporary photographers, whose works interpret the Homeric ideal of the return home—the final return, full of knowledge from all the waring trials we have had to make. I can think of no greater truth, no better metaphor, than Ithaca itself, and where we are returning to, as Greeks, today.

Philip Tsiaras

Co-Curator

Ithaca Returned