Phantastes is a tale about wandering and discovery, about finding one's way when the destination is unclear. The hero Anados (from the Greek, both 'pathless' and 'ascent') searches for Ideals: Ideals of beauty and manhood, heroism and mystery; he comes back, though, having gained nothing, only losing his shadow-that grasping, hungry part of him which dims and distorts everything it touches: "Indeed, my ideal soon became my life; whereas, formerly, my life had consisted in a vain attempt to behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least myself in my ideal." This book, C. S. Lewis recounted, baptized his imagination.