Andalusia, where we are headed, is the land of the second-most famous literary traveller of all time, Don Quixote. 

The valley and town of Consuegra are lovely.

We stopped to see where Quixote slayed the giants:

The journey theme serves as another connection between southern Spain and Turkey, the latter being the birthplace of the most famous literary traveller of all time, Homer, author of Odysseus and the Iliad.

The Journey

Long before Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell took on the physical journey as an archetypal metaphor for the journey through a struggle or a journey through life, the journey myth began.  The hero heads out on a journey, has a struggle, overcomes it and comes back transformed, but scarred.   It’s the story of Jacob in Genesis, of Moses, Christ and the Buddha.  It’s also the story of Helen of Troy.

Homer understood it, and so did Cervantes.

Best,

Jan