Proteus and the Thousand Ithacas

Time is an arrow. It flies over the teeming seas, slaying one-eyed giants, piercing Siren song, whispering past disenchanted sea nymphs, taming wild Aeolian winds, evading the grasp of Poseidon's sapphire fist, and finally moving through the twelve axe heads of the Trial of the Bow. It takes a thousand years for the arrow to reach its destination, but it also appears to do so in a single instant... Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, observed how the sea became chaotic after the Trojan war. The god of a thousand faces watched Ithaca change day after day, year after year. He knew that Ithaca followed Odysseus wherever he traveled as it went on its own journey. But he also knew that Odysseus would have to change as that was the only way he could one day recognize the Ithaca he once knew and loved. Athena, goddess of wisdom, watched the millennial journey that seemed to unfold in a single instant. Taking on a disguise allowed her to recognize the elusive disguise of Proteus. The Old Man of the Sea assumed the shape and form of the wandering king in order to make it seem that Odysseus arrived sooner than expected. He made it appear as though Odysseus was finally home despite the fact that he was still far away.