Thalatta! The Sea!

Xenophon, a mercenary who made the march of the ten thousand, called out with the rest, thalatta, thalatta! The Sea the Sea!

Joseph Brownlee Brown's poem captures the action nicely:

Thalatta!

I stand upon the summit of my years.
Behind the toil, the camp, the march, the strife,
The wandering and the desert; vast, afar,
Beyond this weary way, behold!
The Sea!

The sea o'erswept by clouds and winds and wings,
By thoughts and wishes manifold, whose breath
Is freshness and whose mighty pulse is peace.
Palter no question of the dim Beyond;

Cut lose the bark; such voyage itself is rest.

Majestic motion, unimpeded scope,
A widening heaven, a current without care.
Eternity! Deliverance, promise, course!
Time-tired souls salute thee from the shore.

In my novel, In Saecula Saeculorum, a young man has fixated on the quote, Thalatta, Thalatta, because it reminds him of lost parents and it seems to offer the hope of a future he feels in his heart. Read the novel to ride the seas with him and see if he finds the peace he seeks...