Astronaut Shoots into Space Reciting Greek Poet Cavafy’s “Ithaca”

An astronaut of Axiom Space recited “Ithaca,” the work of renowned Greek poet Constantine Cavafy as the crew of four lifted away from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Saturday.

Israeli investor and philanthropist, Eytan Stibbe, recited the poem “Ithaca” which symbolizes the destination of a long journey.

“I would like to share a few words of the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy before embarking on this journey,” he wrote in his message, quoting some verses from “Ithaca”:

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. 

Λίγα λεπτά πριν την εκτόξευση της ιδιωτικής αποστολής Axiom-1 με προορισμό τον Διεθνή Διαστημικό Σταθμό, ένας από τους αστροναύτες απήγγειλε στίχους από την Ιθάκη του Καβάφη.🤩 pic.twitter.com/maZNPKRsxT

— Astronio (@_Astronio_) April 9, 2022

Eytan Stibbe, alongside Nasa’s Michael López-Alegría, the commander of the mission; US real estate entrepreneur and aerobatic pilot, Larry Connor; and Canadian entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, Mark Pathy, are heading to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX Falcon rocket.

The four -members of the Axiom-1 crew are part of the first all-private mission to the ISS. Axiom is a commercial spaceflight company that hopes to build its own space station in the next few years.

Cavafy’s “Ithaca” is one of his most highly regarded works

Cavafy’s poem “Ithaca,” written in 1911, is one of his most highly regarded works. The poem evokes Homer’s Odyssey in stressing the importance of the journey over the destination.

The poem’s theme is the destination that produces the journey of life: “Keep Ithaca always in your mind. / Arriving there is what you’re destined for.” The traveler should set out with hope, and in the end, you may find Ithaca has no more riches to give you, but “Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey,” reads the poem.

Cavafy, or Kavafis, was born in Alexandria, Egypt on April 29, 1863, the last of nine children of the wealthy merchant Petros-Ioannou Kavafis. He died on the very same date seventy years later, in 1933.

In a short autobiography, Cavafy wrote of his life:

“I hail from Constantinople, but I was born in Alexandria – in a house on Sherif Street. When I was very young I left and spent much of my childhood in England. I visited this country after a long time but stayed for a short while. I lived in France too. In my teenage years, I lived for over two years in Constantinople. I had not visited Greece for many years. My last job was as an employee of a government office of the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works. I speak English, French, and a little Italian.”

Incredibly, the man known above all else for his poetry never published his poems in book form during his lifetime.