Ithaka by Constantine Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
After I'd finished the first draft, I was left adrift, wondering, "What on Earth am I going to call this thing!?" A couple of my friends threw me some rather unhelpful names for the piece--including, if I remember correctly, "The Story Where Mary is a BAMF Hunter Except A Little Of in the Head" and "Awesome Incest Crazy Fic". I ended up looking for quotes and poems that really resonated with me, and ended up on The Wondering Minstrels.
There, I searched various things: Birth, Death, Rebrith, Change, Family, various other things I can't even remember now. I think it was something like Change or Journey that got me Ithaka.
The central idea behind Ithaka, I believe--and why it seemed so powerful for this piece--is this idea of, even if you travel far and for a long time, you'll always end up back where you're supposed to be. Sam has this belief, even when he's alter-verse Sam, that he needs to save Dean: in the standard verse, for obvious reasons; and in the alter-verse, because he can feel that something isn't write with the situation and loves his family and wants to keep them safe. Dean has this belief that there's no point running any longer, but that he still wants to live as much as he can, while in the alter-verse he just wants to be grounded and as normal as he can be. In either case, they begin and end up with each other.
Another aspect that made me choose the particular title, Set Out For Ithaka, from the poem, was the idea in Homer's The Odyssey: Odysseus faces all these perils and obstacles to return to the place and person he loves. Ithaka, in this sense, is not just a place, but a person. In the case of the Winchesters, their Ithaka is simultaniously their mother and each other, and when they find they cannot have their mother, they always have each other, even when they are far apart. The idea of setting out for Ithaka is to go on a journey of discovery, but still return back to what makes you who you are.