When Odysseus introduced himself to Polyphemus as "nobody," the genius of Homer did not allow the Cyclops to be surprised or hesitate. The only way a monster can understand another is to feel him as nothing.

Odysseus's self-negation proved to be a lifeline for the cunning king of Ithaca, as well as for Greek culture, which cannot in any way comprehend the other as nothing. This "nobody," who excludes the degradation of the other to nothing, becomes the purpose of life for the ascetics of the desert.

With spring in the neighbor as an image of God, the new great odyssey of the return of the Self to Ithaca begins through the regenerative "nobody." We follow this new journey of man by reading in this book by Stelios Ramfos the unscripted words of the holy elders.

We find our true self when we walk as "nobody" between the Self and the Other.