Corfu, Homer and the Petrified Ship of Odysseus

Odysseus whitethorn person made landfall adjacent the rocky headlands of Paleokastritsa, according to legend. Credit: Greek Reporter/Mike Millard

Odysseus’ ship, which took him location to Ithaka from Corfu, was turned into stone by an aggravated god, according to legend. And wherever mightiness a hopeless Odysseus person washed ashore successful Corfu connected his travel backmost from Troy?

Long earlier moving to Corfu, erstwhile I was a kid increasing up successful a tiny American municipality successful the mountains of Oregon, my parent had a humble bookshelf successful our surviving country wherever she kept her favourite volumes beneath a romanticist framed representation of a three-masted woody vessel nether afloat sail successful a turbulent sea.

One of her cherished books was by Richard Halliburton, a celebrated escapade question writer during the 1920s and ‘30s, called The Glorious Adventure, which purported to retrace the way of Odysseus returning location from the Trojan War, arsenic related successful Homer’s Odyssey.

Near the extremity of his ain journey, Halliburton visited Corfu and motored crossed the land “under the endless olive groves” successful a 1920 Ford to the occidental shore, wherever helium believed Odysseus indispensable person landed. Halliburton wrote:

“There we recovered glorious scenery — large five-hundred-foot cliffs stretching retired of show each on the coast, with a azygous little interval wherever the walls relented and made country for a tiny bay, fringed with beach.”

Odysseus’ vessel was turned into rock, according to legend

Here, on the melodramatic coastline of modern Ermones and Paleokastritsa, the adventurer and his friends would person recovered the iconic Kolovri Rock, which section fable says is the vessel that took Odysseus location to Ithaca, aboriginal turned to chromatic by the aggravated oversea god, Poseidon.

The “petrified ship’”of Kolovri Rock. Credit: Greek Reporter/Mike Millard

Today, it shares this contested designation with Pontikonisi, oregon Mouse Island, connected the eastbound broadside of Corfu — with the existent roots of the story being mislaid successful the mists of time.

The homeward way of Odysseus successful Homer’s Odyssey

The Trojan War itself whitethorn person been fought successful the 11th oregon 12th period BC adjacent what is present Hisarlik, Turkey, according to excavations by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann successful 1868. He besides dug successful Mycenae connected the Greek Peloponnese successful his attempts to place different locations described by Homer.

And portion astir world archaeologists whitethorn disagree with those who effort to hint the homeward way of Odysseus without further grounds — namely artifacts extracted from the world — others, including artists and writers, look much consenting to analyse the Homeric substance for geographical clues and to speculate. Many person done so, and nary uncertainty others volition continue.

The substance of The Odyssey tells america that a profoundly homesick Odysseus leaves the land of the goddess Calypso connected a homemade raft, past is astir drowned successful a tempest sent by Poseidon, who is inactive aggravated that the clever Greek and his men had slain his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, earlier successful their journey.

Odysseus hardly makes it to shore, wherever helium finds a stream that breaks the rocky coastline, and manages to crawl up beneath immoderate olive trees, making a furniture of leaves and falling dormant successful a authorities of utter exhaustion.

He has travel ashore successful the onshore of the sea-faring Phaecians, arsenic Homer’s communicative would person it, which galore place arsenic the land of Corfu, ruled by King Alcinous. The king’s daughter, Nausicaa, secretly urged by the goddess Athena — who has been aiding Odysseus — has travel with her maids to lavation their apparel successful the flowing waters adjacent the spot wherever Odysseus has collapsed.

The blessed shouts of the princess and her maids playing shot connected the formation awaken the shipwrecked mariner and helium emerges from the bushes, unkempt aft 20 days astatine sea. He beholds the beauteous Nausicaa, praises her and asks for her mercy — arsenic good arsenic immoderate items of cleanable covering she mightiness lend him — and to amusement him the mode to her town.

She tells her maids, who are cowering successful fear, that helium is evidently successful distress and they indispensable beryllium benignant to him. They cleanable him up, provender him and instrumentality him to town, wherever Odysseus presents himself astatine the tribunal of King Alcinous and is welcomed with a banquet.

When the bard Demodocus sings of the woody equine and the sacking of Troy, Odysseus cannot assistance but weep, which Alcinous notices and inquires aft the root of specified unhappiness. The revelation follows: “I americium Odysseus, lad of Laertes, renowned among mankind for each mode of subtlety, truthful that my fame ascends to heaven.” Having revealed his identity, Odysseus tells the king of his travel frankincense far, his communicative unfolding implicit the adjacent respective chapters.

Where mightiness Odysseus person washed ashore successful Corfu?

Nikos Dimitrios Mamalos, a historian, doctoral campaigner and Corfu native, spoke to maine astir his land and Homer. “Some places successful The Odyssey are wholly mythical,” helium allows, portion others whitethorn beryllium identified arsenic places that would person been good known by past trading cultures, including “Naples, Sicily, North Africa, Malta, and different destinations astir the Mediterranean.”

Coming from the isle of Calypso, helium believes Corfu’s occidental seashore adjacent Ermones whitethorn person been the constituent of Odysseus’ arrival. “If you enactment the kingdom of Alcinous adjacent Paleokastritsa, Angelokastro, the monastery, Ermones, those places are each connected,” helium says.

Angelokastro is simply a Byzantine castle astir apt built successful the 11th period AD, portion Paleokastritsa is simply a bid of gorgeous bluish bays tucked successful betwixt the towering rocky headlands of westbound Corfu, location to a monastery and depository that dates backmost to 1228.

Paleokastritsa’s “glorious scenery” Credit: Greek Reporter/Mike Millard

You tin easy ideate the formation of Ermones successful Corfu, present a haven successful the summertime months for sun-and-sand worshipers from astir Europe and beyond, arsenic the spot wherever The Odyssey says that Odysseus “came to the rima of a river, and present helium thought would beryllium the champion place, for determination were nary rocks, and it afforded structure from the wind.”

There is simply a watercourse that tumbles down from the hillsides and empties into the oversea astatine Ermones. The “small bay fringed with beach” of Halliburton’s statement mightiness besides pb 1 to judge it is conscionable wherever helium and his friends re-enacted the country of maids playing shot connected the beach, though helium ne'er specifically identifies the location.

Halliburton and his friends followed this by recreating the banquet of King Alcinous with “pheasant from Albania and champagne from France,” helium relates.

Halliburton himself aboriginal rowed a skiff retired to the “petrified ship” of Mouse Island disconnected the eastbound coast, purposely ignoring the inconsistency that “the islet is connected the other broadside of Corfu from the Homeric city,” due to the fact that the “story is excessively sacred, and the island, beneath its past cypresses, excessively lovely.”

Halliburton was tragically mislaid astatine oversea successful 1939 portion trying to transverse the Pacific Ocean connected a Chinese junk, nary uncertainty jotting down each incidental and escapade on the way.

Odysseus, The Odyssey tells us, had amended luck on with the assistance of King Alcinous and his Phaecian ship, yet sailing location to his household connected Ithaca, an land successful the Ionian Sea to the southbound of Corfu.