Looking Up: Why The Odyssey Still Inspires Us After 3,000 Years
Travel, mythology, and why humanity keeps looking beyond the horizon.
Last night we stepped out onto our terrace with a purpose. We were waiting for the International Space Station to appear. According to the tracker, it would pass silently over our heads for just a few minutes before disappearing into the darkness. We found ourselves scanning the sky, wondering if we’d spot it, until suddenly there it was: a bright point of light moving steadily across the night. It wasn’t a plane or a shooting star. It was the International Space Station, carrying human beings as they orbited our planet at almost 28,000 kilometres per hour. Within moments, it had vanished.
The experience lasted only a few minutes, yet it stayed with us. Perhaps because, despite all our technology, there is still something extraordinary about intentionally looking up and realising that people are travelling above our heads, not simply to reach a destination, but as part of one of humanity’s greatest collective journeys.
If you’ve never seen the International Space Station pass overhead, it’s surprisingly easy to do. NASA’s Spot the Station service lets you check when it will be visible from your location and even sends notifications before each flyover.
Watching it cross the sky made us think of another journey, one that began more than three thousand years ago.
The Oldest Journey We Still Tell
Every culture has stories about journeys, but few have travelled as far as The Odyssey. For centuries, Homer’s epic has been read, translated, retold and reimagined. Christopher Nolan’s latest adaptation has once again brought the story to the cinema, introducing a new generation to the adventures of Odysseus.
Perhaps because The Odyssey has never really been about Ancient Greece, but about leaving home, facing uncertainty, temptation, resilience, loss and hope. About discovering that every journey changes the traveller. These are experiences that belong to every generation, regardless of where or when we live.
That is why the story still feels contemporary after three millennia.
Every Age Has Its Own Horizon
For the ancient Greeks, the sea marked the edge of the known world. Beyond it lay uncertainty. For us, that horizon has shifted. Today, our ships leave the atmosphere, and our unknown begins beyond the Earth itself. Watching the International Space Station pass overhead, we realised that humanity is still living its own Odyssey, the ships have become spacecraft, but the desire to explore remains exactly the same.
Yet there is another thought that stayed with us: Odysseus’ journey is remembered because it became more than one man’s story. It became part of our collective imagination, in much the same way, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are undertaking journeys that belong to all of us. Very few of us know their daily routines, but millions of people around the world stop and look up when the Station passes overhead. Their voyage expands what humanity believes is possible. Perhaps that is why we continue telling stories about great journeys. Not because they belong to individuals, but because they become part of who we are together.
The Journey Within the Journey
When we created our Odyssey Collection in Fairmined Gold, we weren’t trying to recreate Ancient Greece. We wanted to celebrate something much more universal: the idea that life itself is a journey, shaped by encounters, choices, temptations and transformations. Every ring in the collection is inspired by the Greek key, or meander (a continuous line with no obvious beginning or end) that for centuries has symbolised continuity, infinity and the unfolding path of life. Each ring can be worn alone, or together, becoming part of a story, just as every encounter in The Odyssey shapes the journey that follows.
Ulysses
The Roman name for Homer’s Odysseus
Odysseus is the traveller, the one who chooses to leave the familiar behind in search of something greater. His ring is a tribute to the adventure we hope to undertake, to the life we choose to live, and to the search for our own Ithaca. Every meaningful journey begins with the courage to take the first step.
Penelope
Penelope is often remembered simply as the one who waited, yet her story is one of remarkable resilience and independence. She remained loyal while enduring years of uncertainty through her own intelligence and quiet strength.
Like the two scroll bands that fit together almost as though they were a single ring, Penelope symbolises companionship but also the strength to stand on one’s own. She reminds us that every journey is shared, even when we sometimes have to walk part of it alone.
Circe
Every journey brings encounters that transform us. Circe, the powerful and seductive sorceress, is remembered for turning men into animals. Yet she is also the one who helps Odysseus understand which path he must take next. She is both challenge and guide, transformation and wisdom.
Her ring reflects this perfectly. It is the only ring in the collection that breaks the profile of the others. It belongs with them, yet it shines independently; sometimes the people who change our direction are also those who help us discover it.
Calypso
Calypso offers perhaps the greatest temptation of all: love, comfort, even immortality, everything except the freedom to continue the journey. Her ring speaks of passion and power, but also reminds us not to lose sight of our true purpose. Sometimes the hardest part of any voyage is choosing to leave behind something beautiful because something deeper is calling us forward.
Finding our own Ithaca
When we watched the International Space Station disappear into the darkness, we realised that humanity has never stopped travelling: Our maps and our ships have changed, and our horizons have expanded beyond anything Homer could have imagined, but our deepest questions remain the same: Where do we belong? What do we carry with us? Who do we become along the way?
Perhaps that is why The Odyssey continues to inspire us after more than three thousand years. Not because it tells us where to go, but because every generation must discover its own Ithaca.
Have you ever seen the International Space Station cross the night sky?
We’d love to hear about a journey, great or small, that changed the way you see the world. Share your story in the comments.
