Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer’s Ithaca

By Robert Bittlestone

I totally dug this book, even though those bastards at the library didn’t let me renew it–I couldn’t read the last few chapters–and even though handling the book made me break out in hives (although that could be related to something else, considering I still itch and the book’s been out of the house for two days). I first heard about this book on an episode of “The Naked Scientists” podcast (one of my regulars; I’ll link to it officially soon); they interviewed the author. I was surprised to find out how long the book had been in print already, so it’s hardly news, I guess. I think the author is an economist by trade, so if you move in economic, or British, or Homeric circles, maybe this is even old news to you.

This is one of those books where the author ties literature to actual archaeological evidence, or tries to. You know how there are always those searches for the real Noah’s ark or the real gardens of Babylon? It’s one of my favorite kinds of stories to read–even if it’s completely fictitious. For book club we read an OK book–The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova–that was about combing through ancient records to discover Dracula (or maybe just vampires). It’s why I read both Foucault’s Pendulum AND The Da Vinci Code. I am all excited to resume my interrupted journey through Babylon 5 because I’ve hit this part where G’Kar refers to ancient documents that seem eerily similar to stuff that is going on at that scary planet. Battlestar Galactica follows what are basically biblical clues to find the planet Earth. Even the A.S. Byatt novel, Possession, is in this vein (I liked the movie, too). So that’s why I was drawn to this book, not caring that much about Greek Classics (although I like The Odyssey much more than The Iliad, which I am not entirely certain I’ve even read once). I have also been fascinated since I was a child with plate tectonics, so earthquakes and changing shorelines and the theory of Atlantis as Minoan culture blown sky-high by a volcano and swamped by a tsunami.

Turns out–and you probably know this–that people in their inexpert investigative ways of the 18th and 19th Centuries searched the world for the remains of Troy, and finally found it (they say that they found it, anyway) in Turkey. Maybe. Turns out that for centuries now, and milennia even, there has been an island in Greece called Ithaca, that so little resembles the Ithaca described by Homer in The Odyssey that everyone just assumed that Homer was wrong, that he (or the collection of voices now ascribed to a single storyteller) screwed up all the geographical details, even though so much of what he describes about life and sailing and agriculture and other details are correct. So people have been looking a long time for where Ithaca could be, and Bittlestone is the latest one to do so. This book presents his case. Boy, is it compelling.

First of all, the book is just beautiful. It’s heavy and it’s wide, but every single page is that glossy paper you see sometimes in the center of books with photographs printed on them. The photographs in this book are on almost every page, and they are all in color. There are satellite photographs, photographs that the author took on the ground (or that his professional photographer friend took), photographs of artifacts, topographical maps, everything. He cites passages from the poem to support his theories, and he often provides multiple translations for them, so you can see how different theorists have come up with their ideas about where Ithaca actually was. He cites geographies and travelogues from various centuries, and he is just so enthusiastic about this adventure he’s on that the book is a joy to read. (Some of the chapters are admittedly less interesting than others.) What makes this seem like more than some hack spinning threads of conspiracy (and there are lots of hacks with ideas spinning threads in the world) is his reliance on textual evidence, his descriptions of his thought processes, his correspondence with various experts in different fields, and his ultimate cooperation with local agents, a Greek language scholar (Diggle), and an actual practicing geologist (Underhill). Each contributor has a big appendix in the back to give readers the technical explanations that Bittlestone left out of the main narrative. I am so sad that the book had to go back–I didn’t get to flip through that part. I could re-request it, and I probably will. I didn’t get to the part where he was describing the town and the palace locales.

I don’t really know what to count as a flaw of the book besides its lack of portability. I suppose he spends too much time promoting the strengths of his version and not enough time to address the facts of the other side (although he does mention them and describe them by the paragraph). But he isn’t really making a case that this peninsula of Cephalonia (Kefalonia) is the location–he is making the case that Cephalonia is a reasonable candidate and that an extended exploration would not be a waste of resources. The problem is that there are no artifacts that can be specifically dated to the time that the Odyssey supposedly takes place. I think that’s the problem; like I said, I didn’t quite finish the book. It all looks great from the sky and on paper, but nothing’s really there to make the case more than circumstantial. That said, he explains at one point that any given strong resemblance could be coincidental, but then provides a formula for how to calculate the likelihood of coincidence that two or three strong resemblances would all be circumstantial.

What I really liked was when he would list all the “clues” from the poem and check each purported locale against the list. It’s very methodical. It’s very exciting. I mean, why not? If they prove this, I can’t wait to learn what they think Scylla and Charybdis were. The geological surveys and explanations of how earthquakes have rocked this island, and what kinds of dramatic changes are possible were fascinating. The photographs of land that has been raised above sea level are amazing. You really don’t want to be standing on it when these earthquakes hit. At one point, Bittlestone postulates that the violence of the earthquakes in the region made it absolutely certain that Poseidon would be in the story. I’ve felt a few earthquakes, but nothing like the ones he describes. The 1953 earthquake is terrifying to read about, as are the 19th century descriptions of other seismic events.

Just beyond the pages of the book lurk the author’s family members, too. This dude seems like he is always on a weekend getaway to Greece (nice work if you can get it, I suppose), and more than once jokes about how his family thinks he has completely lost it. It’s interesting to think about why people form obsessions. Not that I want to call this an obsession, exactly–it’s an unsavory word that implies an inability to keep food in the house or your hair clean. But at one point his curiosity blossomed from a what-if to a quest. It’s not the worst quest in the world; it’s on a beautiful island in your time zone or a couple over, in a place with cars and bathrooms… it’s turned into at least one book deal… it’s based on classical literature upon which many tenets of Western society are based. He’s not looking for reptilian aliens in a cave in New Mexico or anything. It’s a pretty high-brow pastime, so far as pastimes go, and it’s definitely conferring high status at cocktail parties. But does one do when your fancy is captured so entirely by something so far outside of your profession? He’s a commerce specialist. All the press on him refers to him as an amateur archaeologist. You get the impression while reading that he never expected to be that guy, and yet here he is, Mediterranean traveler on the media circuit.

The other question that I can’t fully answer for myself is so what? So what if the Odyssey was inspired by true events? So what if Ithaca isn’t Ithaca? In my limited way I’ve been trying to come up with a way that this could enhance or undermine Western culture. I suppose if it were true, there would be renewed interest in tracking down sources for other popular stories and legends, which would be way cool. I’m not saying that way cool isn’t a good enough reason to do things. I just wonder if it will change anything. Would it just be this amazing psychological experience, to think that stories really can live so long? One of the big things about Odysseus was that he could never keep his mouth shut. Sure, he was in a hurry to go home, but he can’t just get there without telling everyone who he is and what he’s been up to. It’s a poem as much about fame as the Iliad is about glory (I think–remember, I’m not sure I’ve read it). People think sadly of Troy and admire from afar the tragic and heroic figures in it, but do you know what they really remember? That stupid horse. You know who thought of that horse? Odysseus. You know what else? He got a whole poem all to himself after that… and they made a frikkin noun out of his name, and then a frikkin minivan. A minivan that we might actually buy!

Suck that, Hector!

So what would it mean for Odysseus to be real? It’s not like there aren’t documents of real people surviving from that far back in history. The personal connection to our ancestors is a powerful one to make, but it’s there. We know individuals. Events lately online have gotten me thinking about how long our legacy can last, even when we don’t want it to. Would Odysseus be happy to learn that his name has been carried on the wind through time (OK, that’s a pompous phrase… sorry)? It’s like reality TV will never go away. Odysseus came out pretty good in the retelling, if you think about it. Or does he? If we learn where Troy was and then where Ithaca was, and if they are anywhere near where it looks like they were, he’s going to have some splaining to do. It’s not even a twenty-year walk.

Catching Up, Grab Bag, Loose Ends, Whatever

Daily Dig
This is almost too boring to mention, but I have no willpower. Some unnamed (not by me–I don’t know who) Freedomain Radio member sent a note to Liberating Minds’s Conrad’s former employer with a link to the Molyneux article that gives Conrad’s Real Name, saying that Conrad is aggressive and bad and not a good representative of the kind of work that belongs on such a positive and upbeat website/publication (I don’t know what it is, exactly). Conrad talks about it here and there’s not a lot said. It’s just a sad little event. The member was acting alone–he or she had gone rogue, as it were. It is not an endorsed action. /Daily Dig.

Ugly Betty (Season 3, Episode 10: Bad Amanada)
Why oh why did I slam Betty and Daniel in my Marc St. James post? They are great! They are perfectly normal and their perfectly normal problems are touching, and I can almost always totally relate. But Marc did get in some great lines. I’ve said it so many times that I should just have it tattooed on my forehead, but Marc and Wilhelmina have a great dynamic. So do Wilhelmina and Christina. Betty and Amanda’s is a little cliched, but I fell for it. At least I was aware at the time of falling for it that I was being manipulated. All the other emotional manipulations were subtle enough that I didn’t notice. I did not think, however, that the red dress was that great. It fit her funny and was pouchy in parts. But yeah, yeah, scarlet woman, red fire of love, got it.

Sarah Connor Chronicles
So it boils down right now to two things for me:
1. Is Cameron trustworthy?
2. Is Cameron reliable?

I don’t think she is reliable, and I think it’s pretty clear from the show that the audience is supposed to wonder if her programming/decision-making is working right. I mean, she’s wondering about it herself. However, I do think she is trustworthy, or used to be. I don’t think she is purposefully trying to undermine what Sarah and John and Derek are doing. Her behavior may be screwed up, but she thinks she is helping. I can’t see her right now as a double agent, and I think it would detract from her character if she was. It will also make it very, very interesting if John, Sarah, and Derek figure out that she isn’t reliable anymore and have to decide what to do. But whatever you do, don’t try to glean information from reading the seven or eight different timelines that are out there on the Web to figure stuff out. Your head will explode.

Odysseus Unbound
I am totally digging this book, and now I am in a terrible hurry to finish it. It was borrowed from one of the university libraries through the local network and they want it back early. I have a shitload of work to do for money, Pride and Prejudice to read for book club, a check book to balance, bills to pay, and Guilder to frame for it, but I can’t do any of that until I finish up this book. In my sick, sad set of priorities, this is the top of the list. Making it worse is the fact that I appear to be allergic to it. It still reeks of the four-color ink all over every single glossy page (which is every single page), and when I read it, my hands itch. They are itching right now just thinking of it. I had first attributed it to something from the desert, because we’d gone on that slot canyon hike the day before coming home and you basically touch every part of your arms and legs to the rocks. I knew the time line wasn’t working right, but who is actually allergic to books? I’ve never been allergic to a book before. It’s quite uncomfortable, in fact. It’s definitely odd.

My Beautiful Leftovers Meal
Who would have thought? The pork chops were pre-seasoned from the store, but the vegetables were a bunch of odds and ends. I cooked the pork chops perfectly, per instructions (see my Perfect Pork Chop post), and I just reheated the green beans and pasta from last night. Because I was actually watching the green beans steam, and because they started fresh (instead of flash frozen), they were crispy and bright. Microwaving them tonight made them floppier, but not darker. I had some spaghetti noodles from a few days ago that I mixed with butter, garlic pepper, and shredded parmesan cheese. Then I had this rapidly softening bag of mini-peppers: red, orange, and yellow. You buy a bunch of these at once at Costco, and they last a pretty long time. I didn’t know what to do with them, so I baked them more or less according to this recipe: Oven-Roasted Fennel, Rainbow of Mini-Peppers, and Potatoes. I will definitely be cooking this sometime soon. Look at it!

I already have the perfect dish to serve it in. But tonight I just tossed the peppers that I had (about half a pound) with olive oil, fennel seed, and garlic. I didn’t measure it out, and I forgot to toss them with salt and pepper, so I sprinkled it over the top. I probably baked them at 350 for about 22 minutes. They were soft, and they were blistered in parts but they were not burned. With the green beans, and the paprika-colored pork, and the spaghetti flecked with cheese and pepper, on white plates and my autumn leaves placemats? Gorgeous. How come these meal components weren’t this pretty the first time around?

Unenriched Jasmine Rice from Thailand
It does not taste as good as enriched. At least, Golden Star unenriched does not taste as good Mahatma enriched. Does it taste worse than half as good? Not sure. It’s palatable enough, but it lacks some kind of sweetness or riceyness…. you know how when you cook some rice it sorta smells like popcorn? This sorta didn’t at all. You had to search for it. I have ten pounds of it, and I’m not so picky as to throw it away, so I’ll be making do. Hopefully by the time I run out of it the rice problems will be solved and Mahatma will cost what it used to cost, which is less that $11.49 for five pounds. It makes me bummed about my favorite breakfast: rice with a hardboiled egg mashed up in it, mixed with butter and soy sauce. It’s probably a blessing in disguise, though–I won’t be eating double servings of it.

Blavatar
I like having this word in my lexicon. Thank you, WordPress! I’ll have to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about what would make a good blavatar, and I’m sure I’ll overthink it, but I’ll fun doing so. What I do want to change is the avatar associated with my profile. I picked the fancy square patterns because they reminded me of quilts, and then I had to get the suckiest one of all. I asked them to regenerate it, and they were very nice to reply to my email in a timely manner, but they told me that I’d have to delete my account and start over. Screw that! I’ll review what the monster guys look like, but I wasn’t a big fan of my monster either. I’ll just rip one off from someone else and put another doppelganger in motion.

As long as we’re on the subject of WordPress, I would like to formally state that I do like the new Dashboard. The way it was laid out on the screen threw me with its unfamiliarity, but it’s much more convenient to have tags and categories in a column instead of at the bottom of the textbox, and to have the dashboard options at the side instead of across the top. Who’s with me?

All-Nighter
I have this feeling that one good all-nighter would solve all my problems. I wonder if I can pull it off. I will say yes right now so I can waste some more time before doing my to-do things. It’s just so much easier to get stuff done when no one else is awake. I’ll probably just go to bed, though. Not right now. Now I have to go read my Odysseus book. I’ll see what alcohol I can scare up to take my mind of the hives.