Future of Fisheries: Perspectives for Emerging Professionals

The Odyssey of a Fisheries Scientist in Greece in the 21st Century: When the Journey to Ithaca Is Still Harsh but Probably More Interesting than Ever!

Vassiliki Vassilopoulou, Paraskevi K. Karachle, and Andreas Palialexis

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874387.ch48

In his poem “Ithaka,” the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy uses the familiar story of Homer’s Odyssey as a metaphor for the journey of life. Odysseus’s 10-year voyage home from the Trojan War, with its many twists and adventures, is a metaphor for a fulfilling life. The most important symbol in “Ithaka” is Ithaca itself. Ithaca, Odysseus’s island kingdom, represents both the starting and the ending place. Cavafy suggests that the meaning of life is the journey and the experiences along the way, not the destination itself; it is the path in between that makes life worth living: