Introduction

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

So you’re old by the time you reach the island,

Wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,

Not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

- C.P. Cavafy "Ithaca"

The excerpt from the poem "Ithaca" by C.P. Cavafy reassures us that the most important objective is not necessarily the destination, but rather, the journey itself. I wonder if Odysseus felt this way?

Our word nostalgia stems from the Greek words nostos and algia. The word nostos, which comes from neomai, means the "return home," and the word algia means pain. This is the same -alg as in the word analgesic. So our word nostalgia literally means the painful return home or the painful longing to return home.

One of the main themes of the story of The Odyssey is nostos. Odysseus longs to come home to Ithaca and to his sweet wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Similar to how Odysseus longs to come home to his normal life, I, Patrick, long to come home to Bikini Bottom.

I have had my fair share of adventures in a lifetime. I have seen terror and I have seen glory. I have gained and I have paid dearly for it. Now it has been ten years after the Trojan War and I still am not home. Cursed forever to be on this Island, I can only wish for death. However, I cannot receive death. Where I reside, the goddess that holds me here wishes to keep me forever by her side. She tempts me by saying if I stay here I no longer have to suffer. I will become a god if I desire it. Oh how sweet a prize it must be for certain men to become gods. However, I do not want this. I do not wish to be a god. Quite the contrary, I wish for my mortal life. I long for Bikini Bottom. I yearn for my sweet aging wife and my grown son. I long for that past life before the war. Oh how futile an endeavor it is to long for the past, as W.H. Auden said "O let time not deceive you,/ You cannot conquer time." To me, home is both a place and a time and I long for both.

This story is about how I, Patrick Star, from the Nickelodean show Spongebob Squarepants, will return home.

Authors Notes:

The story is from the Odyssey. I am replacing Odysseus with Patrick Star, from the hit Nickelodian show Spongebob Squarepants. The original story has Odysseus coming back from the Trojan War after a long series of misadventures and ends up on Calypso's island. Odysseus is sad the whole time and longs to come home. That is where the theme of nostos comes in. I want to focus on that theme. I also am exploring the idea of home as a place in time (the past before the war) and as a physical destination. I thought that the two poems by Cavafy and Auden would add some emotional weight to the introduction.