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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:"-//Durham University/Events"
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:DUEVENT2364
SEQUENCE:0
DTSTAMP:20130522T031747Z
DTSTART:20080121T130000Z
DTEND:20080121T134500Z
STATUS:CONFIRMED
TRANSP:OPAQUE
LOCATION:ES 230
SUMMARY:Professor John Underhill, University of Edinburgh
DESCRIPTION:Where was Odysseus' homeland? The geological, geomorphological
  and geophysical evidence for relocating Homer's Ithaca.John R. Underhill 
 Grant Institute of Earth Science, School of Geosciences, The University of
  Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JW, UK(emai
 l address: jru@staffmail.ed.ac.uk)  Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are two of t
 he world's oldest texts. The Iliad describes events at the end of the Troj
 an War, believed to have taken place in the 12th century BC during the Myc
 enaean era, while the Odyssey tells the story of the subsequent return of 
 Odysseus from Troy to his palace on the island of Ithaca. The geographical
  description of Ithaca in the Odyssey has long provoked controversy and re
 mains very puzzling. In the Odyssey the location of his homeland is descri
 bed:  Around are many islands, close to each other, Doulichion and Same an
 d wooded Zacynthos. Ithaca itself lies low, furthest to sea Towards dusk; 
 the rest, apart, face dawn and sun. Odyssey 9.19-26 (trans. James Diggle) 
 The natural interpretation of the phrase "towards dusk" is west-facing, wh
 ile dawn is clearly east-facing. So Homer described Odysseus' Ithaca as a 
 low-lying island that is furthest out to sea on the west of Greece, with t
 hree other islands nearby: Doulichion, Same and Zacynthos. A glance at the
  map makes it clear that the island of Ithaki is not west-facing, nor is i
 t farthest out to sea, while a digital elevation model confirms that it is
  mountainous rather than low-lying. Furthermore, although Zacynthos contin
 ues to exist today, and almost all experts regard Homer?s Same as today?s 
 Kefalonia, the island of "Doulichion" has never been traced: it has remain
 ed a mystery for three thousand years. One solution to this obvious contra
 diction is that perhaps Homer was simply a poor geographer who did not kno
 w his east from his west, his dusk from his dawn nor the difference betwee
 n low-lying and mountainous islands. Nevertheless, an explanation based on
  the assumption of a geographically incompetent Homer left many classicist
 s and some archaeologists feeling very uneasy. The main clue for an altern
 ative location for ancient Ithaca came from the work of the geographer Str
 abo who also wrestled with the problem of these islands. In his Geography 
 he makes an unusual and very specific observation of Kefalonia: "Where the
  island is narrowest it forms an isthmus so low-lying that it is often sub
 merged from sea to sea".  The application of geoscience entered the pictur
 e in 2003 in an attempt to address the all-important question: could a mar
 ine channel, subsequently described by Strabo as a low-lying isthmus, have
  separated Paliki, the westernmost peninsula of Kefalonia, from the rest o
 f the island during the late Bronze Age? Because if it did, then Paliki wo
 uld then have been a free standing island that precisely met Homer's descr
 iption "lies low, furthest to sea and towards dusk". The talk will summari
 se the results of all the geological, geophysical and geomorphic methods t
 hat have been used over the past three years in an attempt to test the val
 idity of Strabo's Channel as a historical reality. The results may yet pro
 vide us with an elegant solution to a 3,000 year old mystery.  See more ab
 out "Odysseus Unbound" related events at http://www.odysseus-unbound.org/e
 vents.html
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