Homer's Ithaca found - Where is Odysseus ?

[Loki]

From AAP

A British team using Australian technology believe they may have solved a mystery that has baffled scholars for more than 2,000 years - the whereabouts of Ithaca a rocky island described in Homer's Odyssey.

The team led by management consultant and businessman Robert Bittlestone claimed it had found compelling evidence in support of the location of ancient Ithaca.

In a new book: Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer's Ithaca, Bittlestone concludes that Ithaca was not the Greek island now called Ithaki, but was instead located on what is believed to have been the previously separated western peninsula of the island of Kefallinia, an area now called Paliki.

Geospatial imaging software from Australian firm OziExplorer was integral to the discovery, Bittlestone said.

The claim is being plugged as one of the most important classical discoveries since the unearthing of Troy in north-western Turkey in the 1870s.

However, some scholars and archaeologists have concluded that, although Troy was a real city, Ithaca must have reflected the imagination of the ancient Greek poet Homer.

Homer wrote about the island in his epics, Iliad and Odyssey, and described it as the home of legendary Greek hero Odysseus.

Bittlestone came up with his theory after undertaking field trips in western Greece and using his computer to analyse literary, geological and archaeological data.

He also used satellite imagery and 3D global visualisation techniques developed by NASA to look for clues in the Greek landscape.

Once he had formulated his opinion, he enlisted the help of experts who said it was likely to be correct.

The book is co-authored by James Diggle, professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Cambridge, and John Underhill, professor of stratigraphy at the University of Edinburgh.

Bittlestone said: "Our purpose has been to demonstrate that there is something both very new and very old to be found at this new location and that we should now treat the existence of ancient Ithaca very seriously.

"We also look forward to the reaction of Homeric scholars and geological experts worldwide.

"Irrespective of whether this is critical or supportive - and we anticipate a wide spectrum of response - some form of secretariat will be required to ensure that existing information and new developments can be shared effectively.

"I hope that what has been achieved so far will represent only a beginning."

The location of Ithaca has remained a mystery for generations.

Some experts have argued that Homer's description does not match the layout of the existing Greek island Ithaki and no convincing Bronze Age remains have been found there.

[Voo]

Archeologists make historic discovery

Saturday, August 27, 2005

By Thomas Elias - Columnist - The Madera Tribune

POROS, Island of Kefalonia, Greece - The tomb of Odysseus has been found, and the location of his legendary capital city of Ithaca discovered here on this large island across a one-mile channel from the bone-dry islet that modern maps call Ithaca.

This could be the most important archeological discovery of the last 40 years, a find that may eventually equal the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann's 19th Century dig at Troy. But the quirky people and politics involved in this achievement have delayed by several years the process of reporting the find to the world.

Yet visitors to Kefalonia, an octopus-shaped island off the west coast of Greece, can see the evidence for themselves at virtually no cost.

The discovery of what is almost certainly his tomb reveals that crafty Odysseus, known as Ulysses in many English renditions of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey," was no mere myth, but a real person. Plus, passages in the "Odyssey" itself suggest that modern Ithaca and its main town of Vathi probably were not the city and island of which Homer wrote.

Rather, this small village of Poros on the southeast coast of Kefalonia now occupies part of a site that most likely was the much larger city which served as capital of the multi-island kingdom ruled by Odysseus and his father Laertes.

Archeologists have long and often times looked for evidence of Odysseus on modern Ithaca, but never found anything significant from the Bronze Age. This led many scholars to dismiss Homer's version of Ionian island geography as strictly a literary creation.

But two pieces of fairly recent evidence suggest archeologists were looking in the wrong place. In 1991, a tomb of the type used to bury ancient Greek royalty was found near the hamlet of Tzannata in the hills outside Poros. It is the largest such tomb in northeastern Greece, with remains of at least 72 persons found in its stone niches.

One find there is particularly telling. In Book XIX of the "Odyssey," the just-returned and still disguised Odysseus tells his wife (who may or may not realize who she's talking to; Homer is deliberately ambivalent) that he encountered Odysseus many years earlier on the island of Crete. He describes in detail a gold brooch the king wore on that occasion.

A gold brooch meeting that precise description lies now in the archeological museum at Argostoli, the main city on Kefalonia, 30 miles across the island from Poros. Other gold jewelry and seals carved in precious stones excavated from the tomb offer further proof the grave outside Poros was used to bury kings.

Greek archeologists also found sections of ancient city walls extending for miles through the hills around and well beyond Poros. These surround both the village and a steep adjacent hill which bears evidence it once served as an acropolis, what the Greeks called hilltop forts in most of their major cities. The stones of the walls date to about 1300 B.C., the approximate time of events described in the "Iliad" and "Odyssey."

Most likely, the royal capital at Ithaca was a much larger city than Poros or any other town on either modern Ithaca or Kefalonia. It would have needed a major source of water. There is none on modern Ithaca, but streams abound near Poros, where there is also a small man-made lake. This area had the necessary water. The island now called Ithaca likely did not.

Several other ancient settlements found elsewhere on Kefalonia also suggest the island was a major population center at the time of Odysseus.

And Homer described two major landmarks near ancient Ithaca: He says it sat beneath an impressive mountain, the "tree-clad Mt. Neriton," which dominated views from the "wine-dark sea" for many miles around. That description fits Mt. Aenos, just above Poros, the highest peak in the Ionian islands. Homer also describes the legendary Cave of the Nymphs as within a day or two walk from the city of Ithaca. A spacious, dark cave with large stalactites and deep blue water matching Homer's description is currently a tourist attraction about 15 miles northwest of Poros.

Why hasn't all this been reported before? Because of local politics and economics. The most active promoter of the Poros area as Homeric Ithaca is the current mayor, who at one time was governor of the prefecture (county or small state) including both Ithaca and Kefalonia.

Gerasimos Metaxas, an author and amateur archeologist who gladly shows visitors remains of the ancient city call and innards of the tomb, was defeated for reelection as governor when he began promoting the Poros-as-Ithaca idea in Greek publications. Why? If Poros is Ithaca, who would ever go to the barren island now using the name? And if tiny Poros ever gets a huge tourist and cruise ship influx, what happens to Argostoli, now the center for those trades on Kefalonia?

As a result, the entire find has never been reported in the non-Greek press. And so far, major world media show little or no interest in the tale. But for lovers of Homer's sagas, there's now no place more appealing than Kefalonia.

Thomas Elias - Columnist

[Loki]

What about the cyclops, cerberus, geryon and their cute offsprings ?

We might find some good DNA and clone them back to now. It would be good fun.

[prezhorusin04]

I dunno, call me a skeptic, but i'd need some more proof before i believe that this is actually the tomb of the legendary and mythical Odysseus.. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it just seems a little hokey to me..

But, don't mind me, i'm always looking for the propaganda angle..