The topos of Ulysses originated from ancient myths. The most famous literary narration appears in Homer's ILIAD (minor character, but important role) and as the main character in the ODYSSEY.

 In Dante he appears as the symbol of intellectual disquiet, driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, to the point of defying the boundaries god set for humans. He becomes a symbol of hubris but at the same time symbol of the infinite quest for noble virtue (courage) and

James Joyce in the eponymous novel ULYSSES [immo the greatest work of fiction ever written].

Ulysses appears also in one of the most important memoirs of the Shoah, Primo Levi's If This Is a Man also published with the alternative title Survival in Auschwitz (Italian title: Se questo e' un uomo.) Primo Levi takes Dante's Ulysses, and in particular the mission Ulysses gives himself to continue his quest and turns it into what is probably the single most important moment in his memoir, the moment of understanding and true knowledge, of GNOSIS.
http://www.dantepoliglotta.it/en/the-canto-of-ulysses-narrated-by-primo-levi/

Lucio Dalla, song writer and composer, reconnected to Dante's Ulysses in the song ITACA [Italian spelling for ITHACA, the island where Ulysses returned after 20 years away from his old father, his son and his wife Penelope.]

VIDEO 2

ITACA (Lucio Dalla)

and, yes, it IS a choir of drunken sailors

Capitano che hai trovato
principesse in ogni porto
pensi mai al rematore
che sua moglie crede morto?

Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
la mia casa ce l'ho solo la'
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
ed a casa io voglio tornare
dal mare, dal mare, dal mare.

Capitano le tue colpe
pago anch'io coi giorni miei
mentre il mio piu' gran peccato
fa sorridere gli dei
e se muori è un re che muore
la tua casa avra' un erede
quando io non torno a casa
entran dentro fame e sete.

Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
la mia casa ce l'ho solo la'
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
ed a casa io voglio tornare
dal mare, dal mare, dal mare.

Capitano che risolvi
con l'astuzia ogni avventura
ti ricordi di un soldato
che ogni volta ha piu' paura?

Ma anche la paura in fondo
mi da' sempre un gusto strano
se ci fosse ancora mondo
sono pronto dove andiamo?

Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
la mia casa ce l'ho solo la'
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
ed a casa io voglio tornare
dal mare, dal mare, dal mare

Itaca Itaca Itaca
la mia casa ce l'ho solo la'
Itaca, Itaca, Itaca
ed a casa io voglio tornare...

Captain, you who found
princesses in every port,
do you ever think of the oarsman
whose wife believes he's dead?

Ithaca, Ithaca, Ithaca
my only house is there,
Ithaca, Ithaca, Ithaca
and home is where I want to return
from the sea, from the sea, from the sea.

Captain, I too pay for your faults
with my days,
instead my greatest sin only
makes the gods smile.
If you die, it's a king who dies,
your home will have a heir,
when I don't go back home,
hunger and thirst enter my house.

Ithaca, Ithaca, Ithaca
my only house is there,
Ithaca, Ithaca, Ithaca
and home is where I want to return
from the sea, from the sea, from the sea.

Captain, you who can solve
with cunning every adventure,
are you aware of the marine
who every time is more and more scared?

But even fear after all
always has a strange taste,
if there is more world [to see]
I am ready, where are we going?

Ithaca, Ithaca, Ithaca
my only house is there,
Ithaca, Ithaca, Ithaca
and home is where I want to return
from the sea, from the sea, from the sea.

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