HOMERIC TROY AND HOMERIC ITHAKA
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All the descriptions of Ilios and its environs contained in the
Iliad, like all the descriptions of Ithaka and its environs
contained in the Odyssey, reflect geographical and archaeological
realities to be found along the length of Croatia's Dalmatian Coast,
where the town of Gabela on the right bank of the Neretva River
corresponds with the celebrated Ilios of the Iliad, and
the ruins of Donja Vrucica situated at the far end of the Peljesac
Peninsula with the Ithaka of the Odyssey. |
THE ILIOS/TROY KNOWN TO THE GREEKS
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That the Greeks identified Troy with Hissarlik at the southern entrance
to the Dardanelles, and Ithaka with an island by the same name at
the mouth of the Gulf of Patras has nothing to do with what the
Iliad and the Odyssey have to say about these
places, for these identifications were not made until some four
centuries after the fact, once Homer had appeared suddenly on the
Greek literary scene. |
EIGHT GEOGRAPHICAL COMPARISONS BETWEEN HOMERIC TROY AND GREEK TROY
THOUGH
HOMER WAS THE VERY SOUL OF GREEK LITERARY LIFE, THE GREEK INTELLIGENTSIA
IN GENERAL —WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS— DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE HISTORICAL
AND GEOGRAPHICAL TRUTHS IMPLICIT IN THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY,
AND EASILY BELIEVED THAT THESE EPICS REFERRED TO THEIR RECENT PAST ALREADY
IN THE REAL OF MYTH. FROM THIS ERRONEOUS PREMISE ARE DERIVED, FIRST,
ENORMOUS LACUNAE IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF THESE WORKS, AND, SECOND, ENORMOUS
MISTAKES IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AN HISTORICAL PAST FROM WHICH THEY
EVOLVED.
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