Themes of Boundaries, Traveling and Migrating in Ancient Literature

As a species, humans have specialized in not only exaggerating the remnants of our survival instincts, but also incorporating intangible concepts into our daily lives. From calculus to gravitational time, people have been steadily implementing new discoveries in hopes of improving the human timeline.

Despite such drastic changes in our lifestyles, a subtle, yet fundamental aspect remains a stable theme within growing societies: boundaries. Designed to separate from the start, boundaries simply undergo changes in accordance to the temporal setting. They were present even before mankind arose: members of the animal kingdom exhibit hostility when their territories, or boundaries, are at risk of being compromised, and physical barriers such as mountains and seas existed long before the first organisms on earth.

As Professor Keller stated, and the subsequent lectures demonstrated, boundaries cannot be defined by a single definition simply because it has many. The word encompasses physical, metaphysical, cultural, social, spiritual, and a myriad of other species of barriers. Their purpose, which appears deceptively clear, is contradictory: while boundaries divide, they also stimulate the amalgamation of peoples. However, when applied with its emotional and spiritual definitions, boundaries serve to differentiate and protect an individual’s wellbeing. As such, due to its widespread influence in multiple aspects of society, it is expected that breaking, traversing, and reestablishing boundaries will have a profound effect on those who participate in traveling and migrating.

Most individuals will find a change environment distressful, and this phenomenon is a plausible response to such stimuli. A surface glance at Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey reveals a powerful example of a forced relocation: Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, has been stranded on the island of the goddess Calypso, who intends to make him her husband, for seven years, and the experience has clearly taken its toll on him. Athena, a goddess who favors Odysseus, reveals that he is a “poor unhappy man” who “longs to see even just the smoke that rises / from his own homeland, and he wants to die”. In Odysseus’ case, his living his days on Calypso’s island, “sobbing in grief and pain”, staring “across the fruitless sea” was the consequence of losing his homeland, and subsequently, a large part of his identity as a husband, a father, a king, and a hero. On the goddess’s island, Odysseus is simply a mortal man, and in accepting Calypso’s offer, will be unable to reclaim his title, which he worked arduously for in Troy — thus, Odysseus blatantly refuses to compromise his identity. An insight into Odysseus’ behavior is provided by Charles Stangor, who states that self-esteem is established by perceiving oneself as important, or in other words, Odysseus is unable to sacrifice the prospects of glory that would follow his return to Ithaca. While this can easily be written off as Odysseus simply hoping to redeem himself and restore his ego as a male lead, a closer inspection reveals that The Odyssey provides Odysseus as a character whose struggles demonstrates the emotional effects physical barriers and relocation have on an individual’s psyche and one’s sense of self. In being displaced for so long, Odysseus suffers: the isolation has disrupted his sense of belonging, and he consequently endures perpetual despair.

Although dramatic, Odysseus’ emotional trial is not specific to those of his time; people of the present also endure comparable traumas. Advances in technology and lifestyle have done little against the forces of nature, and we are vulnerable to storms and earthquakes as much as Odysseus was subject to the gods’ wrath. In 2000, the Miyake Volcano eruption left Japanese residents without homes from 3 to 26 years; many were forced to relocate to the central cities, where they experienced what Hausman refers to as “the mobility syndrome” or “relocation stress”. Symptoms ranged from depression, anxiety, and occurrences of PTSD in which those who relocated frequently or had longer residency on the island exhibited higher rates of the respective symptoms. Studies reveal that in a similar case with Hurricane Andrew in 1992, relocation “was associated with higher levels of ecological stress…isolation, and social disruption”. While prevalent in literature, the themes of “loss of communality” and deprivation of security are frighteningly real repercussions of being forced into unknown territory. The Exeter Book Elegies, for example, composed approximately a century before it was donated to the Cathedral library around 1072 CE, accurately illustrates aspects of exile, longing, and the desolation of one’s mind, soul, and heart. This suggests that the burden of lamenting a lost identity transcends the limits of time and geographical limitations.

However, there are those who navigate between boundaries for curiosity, pleasure, and opportunity: travelers. These individuals make a conscience choice to leave the familiar, and ironically, situate themselves in unpleasant circumstances. Arabian Nights’ Sindbad the sailor ventures another of his total seven voyages away from his country during his “life of the greatest happiness, contentment and relaxation” as he supposedly “felt a pernicious urge to travel to foreign parts” despite having survived countless perils and traumatic losses. Similarly, The Seafarer’s narrator expresses a “desire that urges my spirit / time and time again to travel, so that I might seek / far from here a foreign land” that penetrates the despondent atmosphere of the poem. Perhaps these characters sought, as Professor Doubleday stated, “le joie de vivre, ” or the joy of living — Sindbad especially. As admirable as this trait may be, this desire has two edges; Sindbad, in spending his days associating “with different races…to trade and make a profit, ” jeopardizes his identity for wealth. Luckily, Sindbad safely reestablishes his personal boundaries, telling himself that “Almighty God…turned you from your greed, which is the cause of your sufferings, in spite of the fact that you have riches in plenty”. On the other hand, the fate of the seafarer is unknown, as his “spirit moves with the sea-flood, ” his heart unable to resist “the whale’s path over the open sea”; with the poem falling into a feverish praise of the “Holy One”, “Ruler of Glory”, the “Eternal Lord”, the seafarer loses himself in “the terror of God”.

Boundaries, in the sense that they are man-made, preserve the human psyche. As a defensive mechanism, establishing and enforcing boundaries ensures safety, security, and predictability — characteristics that would, in the days of survival, be favorable. Thus, an upset disturbs the identity of individuals — because without a boundary, without an identity, there is no individual. And while boundaries separate, protect, and amalgamate subjects, individuals, and peoples, they continue to evolve. They are invaded, traversed, and reestablished as frequently as values, customs, and objectives shift. Airplanes and cruise ships have dissolved physical barriers of the modern world, but the intangible boundaries encompassing global societies remain potent. We are barred by our competence and consumed by our differences. Boundaries, despite its innumerable capacities, seem to dominantly function as partitions, primarily fueled by lack of empathy, ignorance, and privilege. Hopefully, we will one day gain the courage to traverse intimidating borders imposed by societies and learn to protect the boundaries we treasure.