Starting the Voyage Home

From the ship's log of Odysseus:

It has been ten long years since we left Greece, since I left everything I loved and cared for. Ten years of my son’s life I have missed. For ten years my dear Penelope has had to care for our household and all of Ithaca by herself. Oh, how I miss her! I neglected everything at home over this never ending decade, just for the sake a man who could not hold onto his wife. It was all a great folly, from the moment we all swore oaths to help Menelaus should he ever go to war, but that cannot be helped now. In the time I have been here I have lost so much; we all have.

Achilles, my most revered friend and Greece’s greatest hero perished, as did Ajax in his madness, and many other good men. We slaughtered women and children, had to hear their cries and pleas for mercy. I wonder if the men consider it all worth it in the end. I sure don’t, even though it was my mind that conjured the atrocity that brought about the fall of Troy. I can hear now the stories to be told… “Remember great Odysseus? The one who brought about the fall of Troy? ... The fall of Troy you say? I heard it was more of a slaughter.” I am not proud of what we have done; maybe the voyage back to Greece will help ease my guilt-ridden mind. In the meantime, I must hold my head high and not fall apart before my men. They are counting on me to lead them home. I just hope that is not a mistake as well.

Author: Gabe