Jorge Luis Borges on the 'Odyssey'

Borges was interested in the idea that transmigration was a respectable concept in ancient Greek thought and it is still an under-appreciated thought in the West today. He cites Pythagoras who recognized the shield he fought with in the Trojan War. And then there was Plato:

"In the tenth book of Plato's Republic is the dream of Er, a soldier who watches the souls choose their fates before drinking in the river of Oblivion. Agamemnon chooses to be an eagle, Orpheus a swan, and Odysseus - who once called himself Nobody - chooses to be the most modest, the most unknown of men."

Anonymity is bliss...

"There are no moral or intellectual merits. Homer composed the Odyssey; if we postulate an infinite period of time, with infinite circumstances and changes, the impossible thing is not to compose the Odyssey, at least once."