What Is the True Route of the Odyssey?

[00:00:00]Hi everyone. What is the true route in the Odyssey? Well, traditionally Odysseus is believed to have traveled all around the Mediterranean, but I believe that actually the majority of the Odyssey takes place right around the shores of Greece itself. And I did make a video a few weeks ago looking into why I believe this, but I only looked at a few points. And I did say that in the future I would make a video explaining the entire route of the Odyssey. So, here we are. This is that video. So, from start to finish, what was Odysseus's route in the Odyssey? Well, he starts off obviously at Troy. That's not controversial. He starts off at Troy. He starts sailing around the northern Aegean. Then he goes down towards southern Greece. And he's about to go around the southernmost part of Greece when he hits some trouble. So, right up to this point it's not controversial. Everyone accepts this.

[00:00:52]But then as he's rounding Cape Maleas, he gets blown off course by a strong wind for 9 days straight. And this obviously takes him massively off course, and then he reaches the land of the Lotus Eaters. So, this is when we arrive in Wonderland, as it were. This is when the Odyssey steps out of the realm of easily identifiable real-world geography and enters the land of myths and legends. Although obviously it was already the land of myths and legends because there are already gods doing all sorts of things.

[00:01:22]But this is where we reach the area in which there's no clearly identifiable geography. And there's a lot of debate about where Odysseus was from this point on. Now, traditionally he's thought to have been many miles to the east, right over near Tunisia. That's thought to be the land of the Lotus Eaters. And then when he set sail again, he's near Italy, near Sicily. So, then the islands that he goes to, like the island of Aeolus and the island of Polyphemus the Cyclops, these are all islands in the region of Italy. And then his sailing takes him all around the central Mediterranean and some some maps even show him going as far west as Spain. But as Tim Severin pointed out, there's actually nothing in the Odyssey that suggests that he was blown in a westerly direction.

[00:02:11]The wind is said to have come from the north. It's said to be a northern wind blowing south and he goes past Cythera as it pushes him off course. So that's a southerly direction. There's no indication of any extreme westerly direction as would be required to push him all the way over to Tunisia. So if we just follow very simply what the Odyssey actually says and we appreciate the fact that obviously he would have tried to to maintain his position as much as possible. So he wouldn't have traveled very far in in those nine days of being blown off course, then we can arrive at the conclusion that he he simply arrived almost directly south of where he was. But then, what does he do?

[00:02:51]Well, he's trying to get home, isn't he?

[00:02:53]That's the point of the Odyssey. He is trying to get home to Ithaca, which is off the western coast of Greece. So, we need to understand the route of the Odyssey through that lens. Through the lens of someone trying to get home. When you look at the traditional maps of the route of the Odyssey, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It is extremely illogical. Whereas, if we go by the coherent argument suggested by Tim Severin, then well, it makes a lot of sense. So from the north coast of Africa, Odysseus would head north towards Greece. That's where he's going. He's going towards Ithaca. So he heads north towards Greece. His next location then is is Crete. That's where he reaches next. So he reaches the the southwest corner of Crete. In the Odyssey at this point, he reaches a small island which is just next to the island of Polyphemus the Cyclops. So how does that match the route from North Africa back towards Greece? Well, going in that direction you'd pass the southwest corner of Crete. And there today there is no island. However, we do know that in the past Crete was tilted more towards that direction. The southwest corner was lower down into the sea, which means that the peninsula, which is just there in that region, that would have been further down. So, the neck of that peninsula would have been underwater and and its headland would have been an island. So, that would have been an island just next to Crete itself. Now, there are lots of reasons to believe that Crete was the island of Polyphemus the Cyclops. For one thing, Crete in Greek mythology was the island of the Telchines and other groups which in many respects are recognized by scholars as being similar to the Cyclopes. And in fact, Tim Severin pointed out that there's a local folklore on Crete, and this has nothing to do with trying to argue anything about the route in the Odyssey. This is just a local folklore on Crete that there's a race of of humans, a race of men with a third eye living in the mountains, in caves, eating people. That's a folklore that exists on Crete today. So, when we compare what the local folklore says and we we look at what Greek mythology, just standard Greek mythology, says about Crete and its associations with these mythological races, then well, I think there's a good case to be made that that was the island of Polyphemus the Cyclops. But then, where does Odysseus go next? Well, he's heading to Ithaca, so he goes in that direction. So, he heads further north, further towards Greece, and he stops off at the small island of Gramvousa, which is in the northwest corner of Crete. He stops off there to get his bearings, get prepared for the open sea journey towards Ithaca.

[00:05:46]This in the Odyssey would be the island of Aeolus, which is evidently a fairly small island, but surrounded by a massive bronze wall. Now, this matches Gran Canaria in as much as it's pretty much surrounded by a sheer cliff, and as Tim Severin pointed out, in the sun with the lights of the the sun, it does give off uh the appearance of bronze. But, of course, that's quite generic. That could apply to all sorts of islands. What's more interesting is that the name of the island in ancient Greek actually means leather bag. Now, given that the island of Aeolus is where Odysseus received a leather bag full of wind, which was supposed to help him get back to Ithaca, well, I think that's quite significant.

[00:06:27]But then, from there, what happens?

[00:06:30]Well, obviously, Odysseus tries to get back to Ithaca, and he almost makes it, but then his men open the leather bag when they shouldn't, and those divine winds blow them back towards where they had just been. So, they return to the island of Aeolus.

[00:06:44]So, then from there, Odysseus attempts a more cautious route back towards Ithaca.

[00:06:50]So, this is where Tim Severin suggests that Odysseus tried to very cautiously just hug the coast of Greece as he attempted to make his way north.

[00:07:00]And the next place that he arrives at in the Odyssey is the land of the Laestrygonians. Now, here, Odysseus arrives at a bay, which is a circular bay surrounded by a cliff all around it with a narrow entrance. The bay itself was small enough that the Laestrygonians were able to throw rocks at the ships, but it's big enough that the there was space for nine ships inside. But, Odysseus moors his boat by the entrance just outside the the bay itself. Now, think about this. If this was an enormous bay, then, obviously, it wouldn't be possible for there to be any danger from rocks being thrown from the cliffs because when you're in the middle of it, well, you'd be safe. And yet, there's no suggestion of that in the Odyssey. So, it must have been a small bay, but big enough just about for nine ships, and a cliff all around it, a narrow entrance, and a place to moor the boat just outside. All that is a perfect match for the Bay of Malea on the coast of Western Greece. Tim Severin pointed out that in all his years of sailing, he had never seen anything quite like it. This matches the description in the Odyssey in a way that other suggested locations just don't because they are simply way too big for either the entrance to be blocked off or for the Laestrygonians to throw boulders at them uh down there in the bay, which suggests that it was a small, contained location.

[00:08:27]So, this Bay of Malea is a perfect match for what Homer describes, uniquely so.

[00:08:33]But then, what happens next? Well, this is where it gets a little bit interesting because it's only at this point when Odysseus arrives at the island of Circe that he suggests that he is lost. At no point prior to that is there any indication that that Odysseus doesn't know where he is.

[00:08:48]So, something must have happened between being attacked by the Laestrygonians and arriving at the island of Circe, something which Homer doesn't actually describe. But there must have been something that happened that made Odysseus get lost. Now, Tim Severin creates a very convincing route down from Paxos near Corfu to the north of Ithaca down towards Ithaca, and he identifies the various locations in the Odyssey from that point onwards with those locations between Paxos and Ithaca. And uh some of these I actually pointed out in my previous video on the subject.

[00:09:23]But the issue, of course, is that this is to the north of Ithaca, not to the south. How could Odysseus be coming from the south, and yet the next locations are all to the north of Ithaca?

[00:09:34]Well, that doesn't seem to make to make much sense, does it?

[00:09:38]Well, Tim Severin argued that these are actually two separate traditions which Homer just combined into one long tale.

[00:09:44]Of course, that's possible, but I prefer to go with with an alternative conclusion.

[00:09:51]So, there's a wind called the Sirocco wind which blows from the southeast to the northwest and it's associated with low visibility, lots of dust. It can blow unabated for several days and it blows along the western coast of Greece.

[00:10:06]So, what I believe happened is that Odysseus, while trying to escape from the Laestrygonians in a rush, may have gone quite far from the coast and then been caught along in the Sirocco wind and then been blown to the northwest in low visibility and completely lost his bearings. Well, he evidently would have known that he was going in in the northwesterly direction, so he would have known to go east again to head back towards Greece. But, the point is he wouldn't have known exactly where he was. So, that's why when he gets to the island of Circe, he doesn't know where he is. He's lost.

[00:10:43]So, that I believe is the explanation for how Odysseus then ends up at Paxos which Tim Severin identifies as the island of Circe. Now, Paxos isn't associated with an awful lot in Greek mythology. There aren't many records about it in terms of its mythological associations, but one thing that we do know is that there's a record of a sailor sailing past it and then a voice from the island calls out to tell him that Pan, the god, is dead. So, that suggests that Paxos was associated with Pan. Now, Pan was a nature god and the son of Hermes.

[00:11:20]That ties in with the fact that Circe was a nature goddess or nymph and while Odysseus is on that island, he he meets Hermes. So, that fits the connection between Pan and Hermes and the island of Paxos. And then from there, Odysseus goes to the Oracle of the Dead at the river Acheron on the coast.

[00:11:41]Now, this matches the fact that just next to Paxos, on the coast of Greece, there is in fact the river Acheron. And there is indeed, or there was historically, an Oracle of the Dead. And in fact, archaeology has even found evidence of the very type of sacrifices that Odysseus was said to have performed there at the Oracle. So, where does Odysseus go next? Well, it's at this point that he finds out where exactly he is, and he knows where to go to get back to Ithaca. And he receives instructions to go past the Sirens, and then he'll get to a point where he needs to make a decision between either going down the channel where he needs to face Scylla and Charybdis, or going an alternative route where he needs to go past the Clashing Rocks. So, when we look on a map of Western Greece, we see how this makes a lot of sense. From the region of Paxos, just next to the river Acheron, because to be clear, Odysseus returns to the island of Circe before he continues on his trip. So, from Paxos, sailing down towards Ithaca, you first go past the small island of Antipaxos, a small, basically uninhabited island with not much going on. That, I believe, is the island of the Sirens. Then, going on from there, Odysseus would have arrived at Lefkada. That would be the large island in between him and his destination of Ithaca. So, at that point, he has to make a choice, just like the Odyssey says. He can either choose to go down the narrow channel between Lefkada and Greece, which obviously now isn't open, but it was an open channel in the past. So, he can either go that route, past Lefkada, or he can go to the west of Lefkada, which historically is a famously dangerous route. And there's a rock formation which looks like two rocks fused together, called Sisola. So, that would match the Clashing Rocks. Whereas, to the east, in that channel between Lefkada and Greece, there's Mount Lamia.

[00:13:34]Now, Lamia is the name of a beast, a creature, in Greek mythology, which is a female serpentine creature that devours people. So, that really does match Scylla. And as for Charybdis, the whirlpool monster, well, there is some basis for believing that there may well have been a whirlpool in that spot when the channel was open in the past. But, I'll look at that in detail in another video focused on Scylla and Charybdis.

[00:14:00]For now, as we go past this channel, as we continue through it, the next location that Odysseus comes to is the island of Thrinacia, which is where there's the sacred cattle. So, that seems to match the island of Meganissi, which looks broadly like a trident, in that it has a very long body, which then terminates in multiple headlands, like a fork, as it were, like a trident. The only major difference being that it's curved rather than straight.

[00:14:29]Interestingly, there's an ancient writer, an ancient Greek writer, who refers to Erytheia being identified as that that area of western Greece, just next to the island of Meganissi. And Erytheia, of course, is where Helios was said to have had his sacred cattle. So, that idea of Meganissi being the true location of Thrinacia with the sacred cattle in the Odyssey, that makes a lot of sense with this statement, this ancient allegation that Erytheia was, in fact, that portion of western Greece, just next to Meganissi. Now, at this point in the Odyssey, Odysseus can't continue on his journey to Ithaca because he's prevented by a southern wind, a wind coming from the south, preventing him from going on. So, that suggests that Thrinacia was directly to the north of Ithaca, which is a perfect match for Meganissi. And then, after he does go and try to get to to there's a storm and then another southern wind comes and pushes him back past Charybdis and Scylla, which again suggests that Charybdis and Scylla were also to the north of Thrinacia. So, that suggests the sequence of Charybdis and Scylla and then Thrinacia and then Ithaca in that geographical sequence, which is exactly what we find in the real-world geography of western Greece, where we've got Ithaca and then north of it there's Meganisi and then north of it there's the channel between Lefkada and mainland Greece. So, that in my opinion is a very logical and coherent route, a route which actually makes sense of what the Odyssey describes. And after that, Odysseus then drifts through the sea for quite some time before eventually arriving at the island of Calypso. The island of Calypso traditionally has been identified with Malta.

[00:16:17]Now, interestingly, the the sea current the surface current from Lefkada does in fact take you broadly near Malta. So, as well as being a traditional location, I do think it's plausible in a real-world sense that that Odysseus could have ended up there or at least near there and there aren't any other islands in that area. So, I do think that Malta seems like a a good convincing location.

[00:16:42]There definitely doesn't seem to be any better location that I'm aware of.

[00:16:46]And then from there, after spending 7 years with Calypso, he then travels towards Ithaca. He doesn't quite make it though, he gets his bearings a bit off and he ends up at the island of the Phaeacians, which traditionally has been identified with Corfu and again I agree with the traditional identification in in this case. And then from Corfu, he's taken back to Ithaca. So, with these final two locations, I do agree with the traditional identifications, Malta and Corfu. They would seem to be the most logical, coherent, convincing locations for the island of Calypso and the island of the Phaeacians respectively. But for all the rest of the route in the Odyssey, I agree with Tim Severin that it all took place much closer to the shores of Greece itself, not all over the Mediterranean.