Primus Pilus Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 A geological engineering company said Monday it has agreed to help in an archaeological project to find the island of Ithaca, homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus. It has long been thought that the island of Ithaki in the Ionian Sea was the island Homer used as a setting for the epic poem "The Odyssey," in which the king Odysseus makes a perilous 10-year journey home from the Trojan War. But amateur British archaeologist Robert Bittlestone believes the Ithaca of Homer is no longer a separate island but became attached to the island of Kefallonia through rock displacement caused by earthquakes. The theory could explain inconsistencies between Ithaki and Homer's description of Odysseus' island... Yahoo News Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Octavius Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 I hope that this isn't a ploy by Furgo to search for oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maladict Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 I hope that this isn't a ploy by Furgo to search for oil. Should be easy enough, as the Med is basically a net recipient of oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecimusCaesar Posted March 29, 2007 Report Share Posted March 29, 2007 I'm surprised that Robert Bittlestone has managed to win support from other academics. Since the days of Schliemman, scholars and academics have criticised those who take Homer's text literally as romantics and mad men. Maybe Mr. Bittlestone will prove them wrong, so who knows. Here's a five minute interview with Michael Wood on the subject of the Trojan Wars, Homer and the Mycenaean age: In Search of the Trojan War Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Octavius Posted March 29, 2007 Report Share Posted March 29, 2007 I'd heard that Schleimann actually carried the Iliad with him and used it in discovering Troy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted March 30, 2007 Report Share Posted March 30, 2007 I'd heard that Schleimann actually carried the Iliad with him and used it in discovering Troy. I think you're right, GO. It was before Schliemann that people thought the Trojan War was all legend. Schliemann showed that at least some of it was true -- a real Mycenaean civilization, Mycenae a rich place, Troy a real location and maybe besieged and burned. Whatever the problems over details of Schliemann's work, he did show that there was some reality behind the legends. And so it's from Schliemann onwards, up to the present day, that we get people trying to identify every geographical detail as true -- he started all that, in a way. My explanation (for what it's worth!) for the problems of identifying Ithaca is different from Bittlestone's. I don't see any reason to think the poet of the Odyssey had ever been anywhere near Ithaca -- it's a very out-of-the-way corner of Greece, and a long way from where people generally suppose the Odyssey was composed. So I wouldn't expect the geographical descriptions in the poem to be accurate. But I don't mean to say that Bittlestone's wrong. The peninsula of Kefalonia that he selects might really be the place where "Odysseus's palace" will be identified. It will be fascinating to see what the current investigations show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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