Incidently, this is the first time I've used Google Earth...I see another time sink in my future...
Posted on 09/23/2005 7:37:53 PM PDT by wagglebee
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.
But wait! The prophecy concerning Ulysses was that when he finally got home from Troy he would place an oar upon his shoulder, walk inland and when someone asked him why he was carrying a winowing fan on his shoulder, that would be the place he would settle down.
Maybe that was the place.
There are a lot of details in Homer that seem to be authentic Bronze Age features (not only with weapons, armor, the walls and location of Troy, etc. but also details about Odysseus' ship and such) that had changed by the time of Homer, suggesting the stories have at least a Bronze Age core to them. I'm not sure if archaeology will ever answer questions such as wether the Trojan War was really started over Helen and ended with a wooden horse, though.
My thoughts exactly. The existence of this brooch is not proof. Homer's work was so widely performed that most people would have heard it, and anyone who was interested and who had the money could have had such a brooch created for them.
Be pretty cool if this is true, though!
Incidently, this is the first time I've used Google Earth...I see another time sink in my future...
LOL. I just suffered through his audio narration of the L.A. King Tut exhibit. What a drama queen! There was interesting stuff to see but the exhibit was so badly organized and the signing was so bad you had to be very determined to get through it all, especially with Zahi's overripe commentary. I think he's mostly a creation of National Geographic.
Could be an direct ancestor of Mullah Omar.
Man I was there last september. My wife is greek and she has a home not 5 miles from Poros in Valeriano. My father in law always said theat Odyssous was from Kefalonia. I guess he was right all along.
ping
Wine dark sea bump.
This is so cool. FYI: Victor Hanson has written about Greek warfare.
That's what I was thinking. If I lived in the area in ancient times and had the financial means to duplicate the brooch, I sure would have. Much like finding a copy today of the necklace described in the Titanic movie would not validate the story of Jack and Rose.
Or a modern Chamber-of-Commerce type could have had a forgery made, with an eye to revving up the tourist trade.
-ccm
I'm happy to know both men lived, and it gives some degree of pleasure to contemplate that their legends have managed to survived the passage of time to our day.
Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
Well, we already know where to find Harpies; Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer.
Now, where would we look for Medusa?
"Many moons ago when I was contemplating college, archaeology was a strong draw. But then I thought, how could a 17 yr old from Illinois ever become an archaeologist. My regret."
Maybe. I regret not having the common sense to pick a major that would have given me a good-paying job, and the struggles that have ensued. I suspect I would envy the choice you made and I would not, personally, recommend that anyone try to become an antrhopologist. (I was an English major.)
Yea man , I can hear Jack Bruce singing it now .
Excellent post but I'm not convinced the evidence presented proves all that much .
"I think it is fascinating that this find supports the theory that Odysseus was a real king, not something dreamed up to pass time around a campfire. It has been reported in recent years that Gilgamesh, too, was a historical figure due to finds in Iraq.
I'm happy to know both men lived, and it gives some degree of pleasure to contemplate that their legends have managed to survived the passage of time to our day."
Fascinating yes. Surprising to me, no. I don't know if you know about Colonel Anthony Herbert (Soldier, The Making of Soldier). He was the most decorated American soldier in the Korean War. His career ended in Vietnam, when he was essentially driven out of the military in large part by a set of trumped up charges brought by jealous colleagues (legally, the charges failed). General Westmoreland sued him for $1 million because Herbert called him a liar in reference to body counts (the lawsuit failed.)
If a fictionalized version of this guy survives into the future, it will be as a myth. His story (the combat in Korea) is, in a practical sense, unbelievable. Yet it happened. His story made me realize that there are people who take life to another level. When the area of life is combat, the results are incredible. Hence, the origin of myths, in my opinion.
Actually, Anthropology rather than archeology can answer some of the questions surrounding the Trojan War.
Wife stealing is not an unknown phenomenon in many cultures and is still, in this day and age, a cause for war in many primitive cultures. However, whether Helen actually existed or is merely a metaphor for something else remains to be seen --- it's quite possible that Paris did in fact steal something or give offense, but that propaganda required him to be villified in the worst possible way in order to form an alliance of Greeks. Accusing him of stealing another man's wife would most certainly have offended the civilized Greeks.
As for the Trojan Horse, anthropology might explain that too. The Greeks were the inventors of face-to-face annihilation battle. Honor and the "rules of war" as they existed at the time required a battle to be won by sheer musce power and numbers, not by trickery. Anyone who would have used brains instead of brawn on the battlefield would have been suspect. Somehow, Odysseus managed to trick the Trojans into defeat, but his explots might have disgraced him back at home.
Which might explain why Odysseus wandered for so long; he won the war, but in a dishonorable way, which caused the other Greeks to exile him.
Anyway, just an idea or two...
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