Talk:Odysseus Unbound/Archive 2

message: A line just added has the initial paragraph of the article reading, "This identification dates back to at least 1903, when Gerasimos Volterras published his A Critical Study of Homeric Ithaca..."
Would someone who has read Volterras please confirm, and quote him? The reference to his work in the study (p. 77) says, simply,
"...a few other writers over the last 100 years have also considered Paliki as a possible solution to Strabo's comment that 'where the island is narrowest it forms an isthmus so low-lying that it is often submerged from sea to sea'. In 1903 the Palikian G. Volterras published a book in Greek entitled A Critical Study of Homeric Ithaca which made this proposal..."
Volterras full cite is: Volterras, Gerasimo. <U>Kritiki Meleti peri Omerikis Ithakis (A Critical Study of Homeric Ithaca)</U> (Athens: ?, 1903) -- I'd be interested to know the extent to which he really did identify Paliki as "Homer's Ithaca", and particularly how he did it, his methodology: did he use the Homeric text and if so which one, and did he identify sites on Paliki at all close geographically to those identified in the study?
The study (p. 78) says Tsimaratos also suggested the isthmus as "Strabo's Channel", but that he identified central Kefalonia as the site of "Ithaca" -- so it would be interesting to learn exactly where Volterras thought <U>his</U> "Ithaca" really was. The point really, I suppose, is the geology or lack of it: without that, plenty of places might look like "Ithaca".
I'll put the Volterras & Tsimaratos results up on Homer's Ithaca, if anyone comes up with anything. I ask the question here just because this latest edit here raises it. A full "peri Omerikis Ithakis" translation would be great to see, too; altho someone pls suggest what the copyright status of that would be?
--Kessler 23:16, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gerasimo Volterras? 

message: Peter Jones (former senior lecturer in Classics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne):
:Bittlestone thinks he can prove that Paliki was Odysseus' homeland by showing that, in describing Ithaca, Homer was actually describing Paliki - down to the very last path, grove, spring, beach and hill. Most of this magnificently illustrated book is taken up with this "proof"...
:Bittlestone has diligently worked out where Homer's sites can be located to match Paliki's landscape - a landscape Homer describes in terms of paths, groves, springs, beaches, hills and views (not exactly rare on Greek islands) - but without distances or compass directions, he pretty much has carte-blanche.
:Paliki-as-island is a sensational hypothesis. The rest is gossamer fantasy, unworthy of a scholarly publisher.
An article in the Friday 10 May 2006 Wimbledon Guardian quotes Robert Bittlestone:
:Wanted: a sympathetic oil baron, company or chief executive to help solve one of mankind's greatest mysteries.
:It may sound like a tall order but a Kingston businessman is hoping the allure of his ground-breaking project to prove Homer's island of Ithaca existed, will attract enough funding to allow his team to complete the second and crucial phase of their research...
:Mr Bittlestone said: "We have put together our geographical case but it hasn't yet been proven. [emphasis added]
:"We need to see through all this rock with x-ray eyes and date the bottom layer of rock.
:"The oil industry uses sophisticated technology which would be perfect for this so I hope we can find a sympathetic donor.
:"I'll be very surprised if I'm wrong...
--Akhilleus 00:38, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Even more direct quotes