Actually, looking at the map of my upcoming summer sojourn, it will be more of a katabasis, as I will be heading down south to my home country, New Mexico, and my folks’ soon-to-be new place in central Texas, but then Xenophon’s journey was mostly a katabasis, too. Happily, my trek will not involve military defeat, treachery or perilous escapes from the depths of the Persian empire, but it will take me away from Eunomia for the better part of July, so I am bidding my friends and readers adieu for now.

Incidentally, this Anabasis comparison would, if I extended the analogy a bit further, make Chicago the equivalent of Mesopotamia, which might make Mayor Daley a new Artaxerxes II. That part of the analogy makes the most sense of all, except that it would probably be rather unfair to Artaxerxes. At the end of the month, I will be back east in New England for a few days, so perhaps I will have a chance to shout, “Thalassa, thalassa!” in echo of the intrepid Ten Thousand. More likely, I will be shouting at the New England traffic, but anything’s possible.