Dörpfeld spent a lot of time and energy trying to prove that Homer’s epics were based on historical facts. He proposed that the bay of Nidri, on the eastern coast of Lefkada, was Ithaca, home of Odysseus. Dörpfeld compared several passages from the Odyssey to the actual geographical location of Lefkada, and concluded that it must be the Homeric Ithaca. He was especially convinced by the passage: I dwell in shining Ithaca. There is a mountain there, high Neriton, covered in forests. Many islands lie around it, very close to each other, Doulichion, Same, and wooded Zacynthos— but low-lying Ithaca is farthest out to sea, towards the sunset, and the others are apart, towards the dawn and sun. It is rough, but it raises good men. Homer, Odyssey 9.1: Lefkada is connected today to mainland Greece by a causeway and floating bridge, but in ancient times it was connected to the mainland through a narrow strip of land making it a peninsula rather than an island. The strip of land was cut through by the Corinthians in the seventh century BCE. Modern geographers and hydrographers, however, have claimed that ancient Lefkada was an island. They noted that the causeway that connects it to the mainland today is a recent product of silting in the channel, and so Lefkada may have experienced varying degrees of connection with the mainland over the last few thousand years. Dörpfeld may have believed that Lefkada was a free standing island (or was regarded as such) at the time of Homer’s descriptions, in accordance with the above passage. Dörpfeld may also have felt that the difficulty of crossing the narrow causeway was referred to in Homer’s enigmatic and repeated jest, “For nowise, methinks, didst thou come hither on foot.” Homer, Odyssey 14.190,[1] 16.224.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 13:32:07 +0000
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