"Pains weigh on my spirit now, not your sports –
I’ve suffered much already, struggled hard.
But here I sit amid your assembly still,
starved for passage home, begging your king,
begging all your people."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 178-182. King Alcinous’ son Laodamas asks Odysseus to participate in the sports. Odysseus is quick to reply that he is too weigned down with pain and all he wants to do is go home.