Ogygia

Ogygia (Ancient Greek: Ὠγυγίη or Ὠγυγία; Ogygiē/Ogygia), is an island mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, Book V, as the home of the nymph Calypso, the daughter of the Titan Atlas, also known as Atlantis (Ατλαντίς"Atlantis" means the daughter of Atlas. See entry Ατλαντίς in Liddell & Scott. See also Hesiod, Theogony, 938.) in ancient Greek. In Homer's Odyssey Calypso detained Odysseus on Ogygia for seven years and kept him from returning to his home of Ithaca, wanting to marry him. Athena complained about Calypso's actions to Zeus, who sent the messenger Hermes to Ogygia to order Calypso to release Odysseus. Hermes is Odysseus's great grandfather on his mother's side, through Autolycos. Calypso finally, though reluctantly, instructed Odysseus to build a small raft, gave him food and wine, and let him depart the island.
The Odyssey describes Ogygia as follows:
==Location==
One possible location for Ogygia is in the Ionian Sea. Some have identified either Ogygia or Phaeacia with the putative sunken Atlantis. A long-standing tradition begun by Euhemerus in the late 4th century BCE and supported by Callimachus,Strabo 7.3.6, referencing Callimachus' account in relation to Euhemerus. Also, Ernle Bradford (1963), Ulysses Found'.' endorsed by modern Maltese tradition, identifies Ogygia with the island of Gozo, the second largest island in the Maltese archipelago. Aeschylus calls the Nile Ogygian, and Eustathius the Byzantine grammarian said that Ogygia was the earliest name for Egypt.
Some scholars, having examined the work and the geography of Homer, have suggested that Ogygia and Scheria were in the Atlantic Ocean. Among them were Strabo and Plutarch.
Many modern scholars are reluctant to place Ogygia or indeed any of the locations Homer describes in any existing geography, and the literary tale is acknowledged as a work of fictional mythical intent.
==Geographical account by Strabo==
Approximately seven centuries after Homer, the Alexandrian geographer Strabo criticized Polybius on the geography of the Odyssey. Strabo proposed that Scheria and Ogygia were located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
==Geographical account by Plutarch==
Plutarch also gives an account of the location of Ogygia:
The passage of Plutarch has created much controversy. W. Hamilton indicated the similarities of Plutarch's account on "the great continent" and Plato's location of Atlantis in Timaeus 24E – 25A.W. Hamilton, "The Myth in Plutarch's De Facie (940F – 945D)" Classical Quarterly 28.1 (January 1934:24-30). Kepler Introductory notes at the Loeb Classical Library on pages 21, 22 and 23. in his Kepleri Astronomi Opera Omnia estimated that “the great continent” was America and attempted to locate Ogygia and the surrounding islands. Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh used Ogygia as a synonym for Ireland in the title of his Irish history, Ogygia: Seu Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia ("Ogygia: Or a Chronological Account of Irish Events"), 1685. Wilhelm von Christ was convinced that the continent was America and states that in the 1st century sailors travelling through Iceland, Greenland, and the Baffin Region reached the North American coast. G. MairG. Mair, Pytheas' Tanais und die Insel des Kronos in Plutarchs Schrift Das Gesicht im Monde in 1909 suggested that the knowledge of America came from Carthaginian sailors who had reached the Gulf of Mexico.
==Primeval Ogygia==
Ogygia is associated with the Ogygian deluge and with the mythological figure Ogyges, in the sense that the word Ogygian means "primeval", "primal", and "at earliest dawn",Entry Ωγύγιος at Liddell & Scott which would suggest that Homer's Ogygia was a primeval island. However, Ogyges as a primeval, aboriginal ruler was usually sited in Boeotia,Entry "Ogygus" in N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press: 1970. where he founded Thebes there, naming it Ogygia at the time.Entry "Ogyges" in E. H. Blakeney, ed., Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary, Everyman's Library, London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1937.
In another account of Ogyges, he brought his people to the area first known as Acte. That land was subsequently called Ogygia in his honor but ultimately known as Attica.
==Notes==
==External links==
*Plutarch - Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon
Category:Greek Mythology