Ithaka, a case study in trying to link "Homer" to the "real world."
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"ACHAEANS and TROJANS" du site de Carlos Parada,
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By Pitichinaccio - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
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Ever since the earliest written sources of Classical Antiquity
talked about it, Odysseus' home has been thought to be on the
island nowadays known as Ithaki or Ithaca.
WHAT CONNECTIONS REALLY EXIST BETWEEN ITHAKI AND ODYSSEUS'
ITHAKA?
Odyssey 9.21, describes Odysseus' home island:
I am at home in sunny Ithaca. There is a mountain
there that stands tall, leaf-trembling Neritos, and
there are islands
settled around it, lying one very close to another.
There is Doulichion and Same, wooded Zakynthos,
But my island lies low and away, last of all on the
water
toward the dark, with the rest below facing east and
sunshine,
a rugged place, but a good nurse of men; for my part
I cannot think of any place sweeter on earth to look
at.
In Iliad, Odysseus' subjects are called "Ithacans"
and also "Kephallenes"
some people think that the two names are purely the result
of their different position in the hexameter line: one fits
in one place while the other fits elsewhere.
others think it refers to two different groups, one of
which is more general and the other a subset: one group is
his whole realm of subjects, while the other is those who
live on one island in his realm.
Ithaka is described at 4.605-608, 9.21-27, and 13.242-247
it is:
rough
narrow
poor for horses
good for goats, cattle
good for timber
low (presumably no high elevations: perhaps viewed from
the sea?)
but it has the 'mountain' Neritos on it
highest (or perhaps "last": perhaps from some
perspective at sea: if one approaches from the south and
it is the farthest island one sees, it looks "low")
toward the West (which may be the North: the word is
ambiguous! depends on perspective)
it has:
a bay, called Rheithron
two mountains, Neriton and Neion
Odysseus' "Palace"
Laertes' "gardens"
a harbor called "Phorkys"
a cave "of the nymphs"
a rock named "Korax"
a spring named "Arethousa"
both rock and spring are near the farm of Eumaius, the
swineherd who is still loyal to Odysseus 20 years after
Odysseus left
a nearby island named "Asteris"
Later ancient ideas:
Strabo is a major source for geography: Strabo was a
learned man who lived around the time of Christ and wrote a
large book called the Geography
But though at the present time only the people of the
island Cephallenia are called Cephallenians, Homer so
calls all who were subject to Odysseus, among whom are
also the Acarnanians. For after saying,“but Odysseus led
the Cephallenians, who held Ithaca and Neritum with
quivering foliage” (Neritum being the famous mountain on
this island, as also when he says, “and those from
Dulichium and the sacred Echinades,” Dulichium itself
being one of the Echinades; and“those who dwelt in
Buprasium and Elis,” Buprasium being in Elis; and“those
who held Euboea and Chalcis and Eiretria,” meaning that
these cities were in Euboea; and “Trojans and Lycians
and Dardanians,” meaning that the Lycians and Dardanians
were Trojans)—however, after mentioning "Neritum," he
says, “and dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips, and
those who held Zacynthos and those who dwelt about
Samos, and those who held the mainland and dwelt in the
parts over against the islands.” By "mainland,"
therefore, he means the parts over against the islands,
wishing to include, along with Leucas, the rest of
Acarnania as well, concerning which he also speaks in
this way,“twelve herd on the mainland, and as many
flocks of sheep,” perhaps because Epeirotis extended
thus far in early times and was called by the general
name "mainland." But by "Samos" he means the Cephallenia
of today, as, when he says,“in the strait between Ithaca
and rugged Samos;” for by the epithet he differentiates
between the objects bearing the same name, thus making
the name apply, not to the city, but to the island. For
the island was a Tetrapolis, and one of its four cities
was the city called indifferently either Samos or Same,
bearing the same name as the island. And when the poet
says,“for all the nobles who hold sway over the islands,
Dulichium and Same and woody Zacynthos,” he is evidently
making an enumeration of the islands and calling "Same"
that island which he had formerly called Samos. But
Apollodorus, when he says in one passage that ambiguity
is removed by the epithet when the poet says “and rugged
Samos,” showing that he meant the island, and then, in
another passage, says that one should copy the
reading,“Dulichium and Samos,” instead of "Same,"
plainly takes the position that the city was called
"Same" or "Samos" indiscriminately, but the island
"Samos" only; for that the city was called Same is
clear, according to Apollodorus, from the fact that, in
enumerating the wooers from the several cities, the
poet said,“from Same came four and twenty men,”
and also from the statement concerning Ktimene,“they
then sent her to Same to wed.” But this is open to
argument, for the poet does not express himself
distinctly concerning either Cephallenia or Ithaca and
the other places near by; and consequently both the
commentators and the historians are at variance with one
another.
various archaeologists/historians have linked the features
above to various features on the island called "Ithaki"
nowadays
These links are DEBATED and SPECULATIVE: the
identifications are plausible but not certain:
some scholars link one physical longitude/lattitude place
on Ithaki to a feature mentioned in the epic, others link
that same feature to a different place on Ithaki.
a mask dating perhaps to 1st c. BCE is inscribed "votive
offering to Odysseus": found in Polis Bay, a site on Ithaki
where Mycenaean ruins have been found.
tells us that as early as 1st c. BCE the place may
have been called/considered Odysseus'.
this is part of "hero cult" worship: heroes of the
Trojan war began to be worshipped in the 8th c. BCE and
following: many of them at Mycenaean ruin sites: they were
worshipped as chthonic (underworld) beings.
a Magnesian inscription dating to 206 BCE mentions
games in honor of Odysseus ("Odysseia") and a shrine
to Odysseus on Ithaca.
Now we are as far back as the late 3rd c. BCE. and it's
a written source!
But between Mycenaean times (12th c. BCE), "Homer"(
7-9th c. BCE?) and the late 3rd c. BCE, there lie hundreds
of years.
and certainly by the 3rd c. BCE, 'Homer' was considered
an author and the Iliad and Odyssey were considered
written texts, and there was little real understanding of
the temporal framework, linguistic change, that place
names change, so what is it evidence of that in the 3rd c.
BCE, the island called Ithaki nowadays was already called
Ithaka, and there were Odysseus-honoring games there? It
is evidence of a thriving effort in historic times to
connect to pre-historic times, and perhaps, just perhaps,
evidence that that connection was original to the place
and Odysseus was really a name of a chief who lived there,
just perhaps.
a cache of 13 bronze tripods was found in a cave near
Polis Bay: they date perhaps to 8th or 9th c. BCE (so,
roughly, "Homer" time), while other stuff in the cave dates
back to Mycenaean times (1200BCE or before). Because
13.13-15 can be read as saying that the 13 Phaeacian elders
gave Odysseus 13 tripods, people think that maybe those
tripods are connected to Homer, perhaps via the Odyssean
games. They don't date to Mycenaean times, but they MIGHT
attest that Ithaki was the site of games in honor of
Odysseus.
Dorpfeld, a famous early archaeologist (excavated with
Schliemann, both at Hisarlik and Ithaki), however, identified
Homer's Ithaka with an island called Leukas, which is north of
Ithaki.
Another scholar, Bittlestone, identified Homer's Ithaka as a
promontory of Kephallenia (which is another island just south
of Ithaki).
A typical situation for most all archaeology which
associates anything Homeric with real things on the ground: we
have tantalizing bits and pieces, a dominant tradition, and an
uneasy scholarly consensus that is open to being questioned
and has some dissenting voices.
And we also have the tourist industry on the ground in
Greece, where you will be told/read that this or that place is
"Homer's ..." and folklore will connect things neatly, too
neatly, but that sort of thing has its own reality and
influence and importance: a historian might say it is "wrong"
or "purely speculative," but within the imaginarium of the
tourist industry and modern Greek folk ideas, it's not at all
wrong.
