Imagining Ithaca

''Though home is a name, a word, it is a strong one'', said Charles Dickens, ''stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest conjuration.'' The ancient Greek word nostos, meaning homecoming or return, has a commensurate power and mystique. Irish philosopher-poet John Moriarty described it as ''a teeming word... a haunted word... a word to conjure with''. The most celebrate...