gnothi seauton

“Know Thyself,”
urged the lapidary aphorism
inscribed above the portal
of the Apollinarian sanctuary at Delphi.

Minimalist maxim.
Epistemically esoteric.
(Or is it esoterically epistemic?)

Alas, the attainment of
true self-knowledge
seems as illusive as a Chimera,
Olympian in task,
Sisyphian in toil;

an odyssey of self-discovery
that must be navigated through
the Siren calls
of conformity and mediocrity;

a trudge through an eternal labyrinth,
paved by ideals and walled by realities,
in search of golden fleece
tangled up in a Gordian knot;

a contest between the
Muses and the Fates.

It is a quest,
embarked upon by champions
in search of the Pyrrhic spoils
of an interior battle,

spurred on by hope
but reined in by fear:

hope, that they might find
what they seek; fear,
that what they might find
be not what they sought.

(I hope all this doesn't sound Greek to you.)