Sandy Beach with Breakers c. 1869

Winslow Homer captured this scene with oil on canvas, immortalizing a sandy beach and its breakers. Here, the ocean is not merely a body of water; it's a stage for an age-old drama. The waves, in their relentless advance and retreat, evoke the eternal cycle of creation and destruction, a motif resonant in countless myths. Think of the serpent Jörmungandr in Norse lore, whose circling the Earth causes the waves. Or the Greek Oceanus, the titan of the great, all-encircling river of Ocean. These cresting waves, forever changing yet eternally the same, echo the Heraclitean flux, the ceaseless becoming that defines our very existence. The sea, a mirror reflecting not just the sky, but also our deepest selves. And just as those ancient mariners looked to the sea for answers, Homer invites us to contemplate the endless, ever-changing horizon and to consider our place within the grand, cyclical tapestry of time.