Homer's Ithaca Rediscovered
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- The Discovery
Today's islands of Ithaca and Cephalonia lie to the west of Greece, between Corfu to the north and Zacynthos to the south. Although Ithaca is described as an island in the Odyssey, Homer's Cephallenians are the people who live there in the Iliad:
Odysseus led the gallant Cephallenians,
From Ithaca and leaf-quivering Neriton,
Iliad 2.631-2
When Odysseus makes himself known to King Alcinoos on the island of Scherie (thought to be Corfu) he introduces his homeland with a description that scholars have pondered over for many centuries:
I am Odysseus, Laertes' son, world-famed
For stratagems: my name has reached the heavens.
Bright Ithaca is my home: it has a mountain,
Leaf-quivering Neriton, far visible.
Around are many islands, close to each other,
Doulichion and Same and wooded Zacynthos.
Ithaca itself lies low, furthest to sea
Towards dusk; the rest, apart, face dawn and sun.
Odyssey 9.19-26
However today's island of Ithaca is not low-lying, it is mountainous. It is clearly not the furthest out to sea and it does not face towards dusk (i.e. west), nor do the adjacent islands face towards the dawn and sun (i.e. east). The geographical layout is almost opposite to that described by Homer, so how can his description of ancient Ithaca make any sense? And where are Same and the lost island of Doulichion?
Geology provides a vital clue. The Ionian Islands are located in one of the most tectonically active places in the world, where the African continental plate impacts that of Eurasia. Ten kilometres to the west of Cephalonia the seabed drops from a depth of 300 metres to an incredible 3 kilometres. Every month or so the ground shakes and every few decades there is a major earthquake: the last such event to impact the population was in August 1953.
But can earthquakes change the layout of entire islands? That was the challenge facing the exploration team in 2003. It has taken intensive efforts and the advice of experts from all over the world to answer this question. We now know that the answer is a resounding 'yes'.
www.odysseus-un...
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Andreas Petalas....that "theory" is wrong ?What about the facts ?Read Homeros visit the ancient sights of ALL islands in Ionian and then decide..Kefalonia is FULL of IMPORTANT Mycenian ruins..it is the BIGGEST island in the area..it has the HIGHEST mountain..and it faces the Western Ocean..Thoucedidis and Homeros called Odysseus as leader of the Kefalonians and if you dont know Odysseus father was Laertis King of Kefalonians and his grandfather was Kefalos who named Kefalonia with his name,....too much Kefalonian references but this a stupidity for you...hhhmmm..why?because you don't like the truth maybe ?
This is very interesting. One should not close one's ears to novel ideas, for sometimes they prove to be right. However this theory needs to find a lot more evidence than the possibility that once a channel existed. To me the story of the suitors lying up on Asteris in the channel between Ithaca and Kephalonia fits well with present geography. Telamachus avoids them by landing at dawn on the bottom of the island to breakfast his tired rowers who rowed all night and wisely walking home, the suitors see the ship does not contain Telemachus and then they sail in right after it. This all fits well with present Ithaca and the location of a palace on the northern end. Homer's locations by compass are not always as reliable as his local geography and the question of "closest to the dark" meaning west or north and the dawn and sun meaning south or east. Let us not forget that in Homer the Ethiopians live closest to the "dawn and the setting of the sun" but we today know the dark skinned people live to the south not the east. More than a milennium after the songs were first sung, Caesar (whom one could only call well travelled) would say Britain lay "furthest to the west". Depth and height have a certain interchangeability in the ancients' thought -they are often expressions of how far one has to go up or down. If Ithaca lies "low", does it lie less deep in the sea than the other islands? I look forward to further instalments of this tale of a different Ithaca. He ideally needs to find the palace, the fountain and the cave too, though one might be able to blame seismic activity for their absence.
This is stupidity! How many times we will listen to this theory that is proven wrong. Isn't he the same prof. who denied this theory in the past? Ithaca is not on Kefalonia
Ithaca has always been, if all the facts pertaining to it from the "Odyssey" are correctly interpreted. understood, connected and verified, a commune on an island, not an island itself.
Amater Bittlestone and his academic trabants doesn't know that all problems of exegesis actually derive from the fact that the exact meaning of Homer has not been grasped.
Bittlestone's tesis is not based on the vsersis of Homer in the Odyssey! Paliki is not and has never been Homer's Ithaca!
Unfortunately, you can see nothing because you do not know nothing obviously about the Ithaca Question.
What does it mean " world-renowed professors in the field" ? We do not know in advance who will discover essential new standpoints in science of Homerology.
Please if you can, read first my book and than tell me something "cleverish"!
Nonsens.Bittlestone's theory is just one more of many speculations!He is like Schliemann, a very good publicist: an expert "marketer". He knows his "customers" well, and he listens to them carefully, and he responds to what he belives they neeed in order to convice them.
Please see the book Odysseus's Ithaca: The Discovery.
Berislav Brcković
Thanks.
Nonsens. I promote here only my right tesis about Ithaca.Bitllestone and his proffessors
may ignore my theory,but they can not ignore true meaning Homer's words. That is the point!
I defend my argument in my book. I do not accuse you. It is not an "argumentum ad hominem"! I'm only worried about your and Bittlestone's knowladge of Homer.
Dear sir or madam,
Bitlestone has'nt found ancient Ithaca.
Read the book Odysseus's Ithaca: The Discovery by Berislav Brcković.
Thanks.
Best,
Berislav
Exist a lie, exist a bloody lie and exist also Bitlestone's theory about Homer's Ithaca.
Berislav Brcković
Lake as the trepanation on the Homer's head. Homer's Ithaca is not an island!
Paliki never been an island.
Ithaca is not described in the "Odyssey" like an island! Therefore Bittlestone is digging in the wrong place.This is a big delusion.
ODYSSEUS'S ITHACA
: The Discovery
Author: Brckovic, Berislav
A convincing, compelling argument..."
Review by Kirkus Discoveries,
BERIB S..you are have right..there is only a doubt if Ithace and "Thiake" (Odysseus uses to mention "Thiace" not "Ithace") is the same thing..there is a theory that Ithace was Kefalonia and "Thiake" his kingdom in Lixourion (Kefalonia) since that place is low ...without lots of trees..and looks to the Western ocean...
I love greek mythology, I love the odyssey.
BERIB S Ithace was an island unfortunately for you..the one which was in the Western Ocean surrounded by 3 other islands the one next to the other..as Homeros wrote...
I suggest you and Professor Diggle please read my book first and give your own review.I have to ask myself what one world-revnowed professor (wich knows Homer) is doing in Bittleston's company!?
"I explained the simple meaning of Homers's words, his primitive but correct orientation, conected the relevant episodes and the main story in the Odyssey and have located Ithaca- homeland of Odysseus towards the poet's description on the one of the most enchanting and interesting places on earth." I am sure.
The home of this ancient mythological hero, one of the best known figures of human history, has finally beeen located.
Author: Berislav Brcković
Dear sir or madam,
Thank you very much for your question.This is a very good question.
My book Odysseus's Ithaca:The Discovery gives complitly answer to the question whay my theory about Ithaca is correct until Bitlestone's is not.
Regards.
Berislav
There is almost complete correspondence between the lines and some of the locations... with scientific criteria, will be hard to ignore... etc.
Scherie means the Kyrenia(Kyrneia in oldgreek)-mountains in the north of cyprus./Gazire(Island in persian),Gazira(in arabic),Saar(in Estnic),Saari(in Finnish)./Cirok(History in Kurdish),Heri(yesterday in latin),cora(in sorbic),gar(Swedish..),hier(french),Ayer(spanish),Hyah(sanskrit),iehri(italian)/Zer(old in armenian and pashto)/Dschazira(Island in pashto)
Bravo, Bittlestone et al ! Most interesting.
O.K.
That accent is so wrong.
Mel Are you telling me that the ancient Greeks didn't have British accents? Heretic! Bring the brazen bull!
Homer's Ithaca was located on Lefkas (Lefkada) Island ..It is Known in Greece for many years ..Don't loose your time searching in Doulihion (=nowadays Cefalonia) or Sami (=nowadays Ithaca)..