A small cove on the coast of Ithaca, hidden by rocks, away from the fishing villages and roads. When Athena warns Telemachus in a dream that the suitors are waiting at the strait, he calls his crew aft and points to this cove. They bring the ship in low and fast. The hull scrapes bottom. Telemachus climbs over the side, the water cold and sharp against his legs, and wades through it to let the earth hold him. His earth. He leaves the men to guard the ship and walks the path inland to Eumaeus’s hut alone. The cove is the first place his feet touch home. Quiet, off the map, the kind of landing a smuggler would choose. Fitting, because what he is smuggling in is himself.
The Hidden Cove
An inland cove off the main harbor where Telemachus quietly puts ashore, away from the suitors' ambush.