There is an Island ...ASTERIS Tel 2

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HENRITTE PUTMAN CRAMER, GERASIMOS METAXAS

SERIES: HOMERIC TOPOGRAPHY

There is an island

called Asteris

(Homer Od. 4.844-847 )THE ISLAND OF THE SUITORS

Reithron

Athens 2010


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This offprint entitledASTERIS: The island of the suitorsis one of several self-contained,

popularized excerpts from a much longer work on the Homeric geography andtopography of Western Greece.


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Bearing in mind the particular readership for which this paper is chiefly intended,

we have deliberately eschewed analysis of specialized issues and excessive use of

citations and footnotes, which are mainly of interest to specialists in Homeric studies.

In this series we shall in the near future be publishing books, D.V.D, articles andpapers addressed primarily to academics and scholars and all readers of the learned

journals dealing with the subject.

The purpose of this offprint is to bring to the attention of anybody interested in the

subject, summarily and in an easily readable form (with more illustrations and fewer

citations), the new theories and hypotheses put forward concerning the prehistoric

era in Western Greece, giving those who so wish to be involved in and supporters of

the systematic study of the subject at every level of scholarly endeavour.

The Society for the Study of Prehistoric Kephallenia, which actively supports theproject outlined above, welcomes any collaborative effort that might help it to

achieve its objects. (See phone no. and email address at foot of this page)

Bearing in mind the dictum of the famous poet Seamus Heaney that the only

weapon of resistance left to contemporary man is memory, this booklet is dedicated

to two members of our research team who have recently passed away.

To the memory of Yannis Valsamis we have dedicated the chapter entitled

Travelling with the suitors and Telemachos to the isle of Asteris. We have

embellished (perhaps over-embellished!) the text of Homers narrative withnumerous pictures of ancient ships, which Yannis liked to paint, and reproductions

of the frescoes from Thera, which were his favourite subject.

To Yannis Zouganelis we have dedicated the Postscript; or rather, to be more precise,

he has dedicated the Postscript to us as an offering to the prefix amphi-, which has

enriched the Greek language with so many inimitable compound words. The

adjective amphidymos(), referring to the twin harbours (one on either side)

of Asteris, is added to the long list of 67 compounds with the prefix amphi- which he

retrieved from oblivion, and we dedicate it to his memory.

Society for the Study of Prehistoric Kephallenia:https://www.facebook.com/EtaireiaMeletonProistorikesKephallenias?ref=hlInformation: Tel. 0030 26740 72220, Mobile 0030 695 630 0564 & 0030 694 777 7150,

email: [email protected]


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ASTERIS

THE ISLAND OF THE SUITORS


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Henritte Putman Cramer - Gerasimos Metaxas

ASTERISTHE ISLAND OF THE SUITORS

,

[ ,]*

,

. (Od. 4.844-847)

There is a rocky island in the middle of the sea,

[midway between Ithaka and rugged Samos,]*

called Asteris. It is of no great size, but it has safe harbours, one on each side;

and there the Achaians set their ambush [for Telemachos] and lay in wait.

he quest for Homeric Ithaka usually starts with what is theoretically the

thorniest problem of Homeric geography, which has to do with the existence

and precise position of the islet of Asteris. It is the island where the suitors

vying for the throne of Ithaka spent twenty-eight days lying in wait for Telemachos

with the intention of killing him on his way back from Pylos.

As anyone interested in Homeric geography will know, the crux of the

problem of identifying Homeric Ithaka and confirming the accuracy of Homers

geographical data is the location of Asteris, known as the island of the suitors. It is

the rock on which, up to the present time, all theories have come to griefthe theories

put forward by the latter-day suitors of Homeric Ithaka in their attempts to discover

its whereabouts. If it could be established that Asteris exists, and in a position that

matches Homers description, Homeric geography would undoubtedly be proved

accurate and reliable and there could be no further argument about the positions of

Homeric Same and Ithaka in relation to Asteris.

Even now, after 3,200 years, Homeric Asteris remains a phantom floating in

the Ionian Sea, looking for its true home on every island and islet, every rock and reef

in the waters between Kephallenia, Ithaka and Leukas. After 150 years of fierce

T


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argument and vain searching, scholars the world over have assigned this ghost island

to the world of Homeric myth together with the islands of Ogygia,1Aiaia,2Aiolia,3

Thrinakia4and others.

It is true that ancient geographers and historians, with their apparently

disjointed opinions (which turn out not to be so disjointed after all, as we shall see),

failed to clear up or throw sufficient light on the precise position of Asteris and

question whether the island as described by Homer did or did not exist. Strabo

(C 457.16, C 59-60), who never actually visited the islands of Western Greece to see

the lie of the land for himself, gives us his own opinions about Asteris and records the

views of Demetrios of Skepsisand Apollodoros:

( '

)

' .

,

' .

Between Ithaka and Kephallenia is the small island of Asteria (the poet calls it

Asteris). The Skepsian says it is no longer as the poet describes it:

It has harbours providing safe anchorage, one on either side.

Apollodoros, however, says that it remains so to this day and mentions a small town

called Alalkomenai on the island, situated on the isthmus.

Strabo (C 453), who took the view that Homeric Samos was the historical

Kephallenia and had been told of the existence of a small rocky islet (now called

Daskalio5) between Kephallenia and Ithaka, eventually concludes that that islet must

have been Homers Asteris. He attributes the absence of 6 []

7(safe harbours on both sides of the islet, which is not much more than a

reef) to subsequent changes resulting from natural causes, rather than to the poets

ignorance or misrepresentation of the facts. However, as he says himself,

[ ] (The matter is unclear and I leave it for every

man to judge for himself (C 59-60)


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,

, .

,

,

, , '

' .

,

.

[ ] .

And one of the Echinades Islands, too, which used to be called Artemita, is

now part of the mainland; and they say that the same has happened to some of the

other islets near the mouth of the Achelos owing to the silting up of the sea by that

river; and the rest of them too, as Herodotus says, are in process of fusion with the

mainland. Again, there are certain Aetolian promontories which were formerly

islands; and Asteria, which the poet calls Asteris, is no longer what it was:


called Asteris. It is of no great size, but it has safe harbours, one on each side,

There is not even a good anchorage there now. Furthermore, in Ithaka there is neither

the cave nor the shrine of the Nymphs described by Homer; but it seems more correct

to attribute this to physical change rather than to Homer's ignorance or to his

romancing to suit the fabulous element in his poetry. However, the matter is unclear

and I leave it for every man to judge for himself.


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The rocky islet of Daskalio between Kephallenia and Ithaka

Strabos view is accepted by Stephanos of Byzantium,8who retails Homers

statements about Asteris with the difference that he says between Kephallenia and

Ithaka instead of midway between Ithaka and Samos. Eustathios9 repeats the

information that there is a small town on Asteris, which some people call Asteria.

Hesychios in hisLexicon10has the entry Peirieis island, also called Asteria(i.e. an

island lying in a channel, in a useful position for a ferry crossing). The islet of Asteris

and another one called Prote are mentioned by Pliny the Elder11 in his Historia

Naturalis (IV.54-55): he describes it as lying in the open sea about fifteen miles off

Cape Araxos in the Peloponnese:

Ab ea Araxum Peloponnesi promunturium XV. ante hanc in alto Asteris, Prote.

The existence of Asteris is also mentioned in the History of the Byzantine

historian Niketas Choniates12 (12th c.), who incorporated many memoirs from

ancient writings in his accounts of events and states that the island

Asteris lies in the Sound of Kephallenia. According to Choniates, the Venetians

ambushed the Byzantine fleet at Asteris in the reign of Manuel II Komnenos, when

the two powers were at loggerheads because they were vying with each other to

capture Corfu from the Normans:13

(,

)

(It is interesting to note that the island known as Asteris both in the Homeric age and in the Byzantine

period is mentioned as a place well suited to naval ambushes. Is this mere coincidence, or was there

really an island called Asteris used for their own purposes by pirates active in the Sound of

Kephallenia? It is a point worth thinking about.)


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17th-century map marking Asteris S.E. of Kephallenia! Fotis Kremmydas Coll ection

During the Renaissance the science of cartography developed apace and

European mapmakers, influenced by Homeric geography and Strabos Geographica,

marked an island with the name of Asteria or Asteris in the channel between

Kephallenia and Ithaka, in roughly the same position as Daskalio Rock or a bit further

south. This they drew on their maps with all the distinguishing features of Homers

Asteris. Presumably Daskalio was christened Asteris in an attempt to validate the

accuracy of Homers geography, even though it has not the slightest indentation in its

coastline,14nor has it undergone any such morphological changes as to explain why

its present appearance is so completely different from the description given by Homer.

Leaving aside the commendable attempts by Renaissance cartographers to

resurrect an island between Kephallenia and Ithaka where there had never been one,

opinion among Homeric scholars as well as the general public is largely divided

between two schools of thought:

(a) That Homer, who lived and composed his epics in Ionia, far away from

Western Greece, was first and foremost a poet, not an infallible geographer; that his

descriptions are coloured by poetic licence, since his object was to describe places and

things in the way that best suited his narrative; and that therefore the location of the

isle of Asteris belongs in the context of a work of literature and a narrative structure

that is not obliged to follow the rules of a geography lesson; or

(b) That Homer was describing an island that has since disappeared without

trace or has changed shape, probably as a result of violent geological upheavals, and


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the places he describes truly existed in his time, so he is as far as we are able to

know - the only one who thousands of years ago saw and described places that we

cannot now locate.

Since the second theory is dismissed by most geographers, the first has come

to prevail in the field of Homeric studies. Among the factors contributing to its

acceptance have been the unsuccessful attempts of many scholars to identify Asteris

with Daskalio15and other islets in the Ionian Sea, such as Vardiani,16Arkoudi17and

Atokos,18or parts of the mainland opposite Kephallenia and Ithaka19or even semi-

submerged reefs,20 all of which actually helped to consign Asteris to the world of

Homeric myth once and for all.

Aerial view of the rocky islet of Daskalio. Its very small size, the absence of any trace of two safe

harbours on opposite sides or indeed any kind of anchorage, and the absence of high, windswept peaks

has led most historians and researchers to consign Asteris to the world of Homeric myth or to look for

it in other, larger islands or reefs presumed to be submerged islands in the Ionian Sea.

Although these two hypotheses have come to dominate the debate at every

level up to now, we have to take a third parameter into consideration (Odysseas

Metaxas, personal communication), namely the question whether the controversiallines of Homer referring to Asteris are entirely authentic: whether they have been

corrupted or altered or other lines interpolated, as has happened so often in Homer.

The possibility that the original text may have been tampered with, either to make

Homers references to Asteris fit in with the geography of the islands in historical

times (in which respect Daskalio Rock must have seemed like a godsend confirming

the bards words) or to corroborate (so to speak) Homers topography as understood

by the copyists in the light of the state of knowledge of their time, was a matter that

needed to be examined in detail. The differences between the renderings of many


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lines in surviving manuscriptsand there are a great many of them, due either to the

copyists or to commentators on Homer leave us no option but to give serious

attention to all the new data that have come to light and will presumably continue to

come to light, considering that research on the subject (cf. Odysseas Metaxas) is

constantly in progress.

Since in this case too (as in the case of the not very big Ithaka) 21there seem

to be strong indications or firm evidence answering the questions raised above, we

feel it would be a good idea to organize a conference for the discussion of this issue

and several others. The conference would address the evolution of the Homeric text

and consider any other important observations that might arise, which could be the

subject of separate papers, and the presentation of such papers would be of enormous

help towards our understanding of the complex Homeric problems we have inherited

from earlier scholars.

Here we shall be accepting the text as it stands because, whether or not the

line suspected of being an interpolation is included, the conclusion to be drawn

regarding the identification of Asteris remains the same. This controversial line in the

Odyssey(4.845) is enclosed in square brackets at the beginning of this study. Why it

is there and what its presence signifies are extremely interesting questions, because

careful examination of the matter may well lift the veil that has kept lost Asteris

hidden up to now, and they deserve close scholarly analysis.

We therefore feel that the time has come, following the story told by Homer

(and the Homeridae!) to go on a voyage with the Mycenaean suitors and Telemachos

to the isle of Asteris, hoping that Athena, the goddess of wisdom, will send us a

favourable breeze to speed us safely on the way to the first point on the coast of

Ithaka.


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Following Homers narrative:

A VOYAGE WITH THE MYCENAEAN SUITORS AND TELEMACHOSTO THE ISLE OF ASTERIS

In memory of Yannis Valsamis

A replica of the legendaryArgo, in which the Argonauts sailed on their expedition in 1400 B.C. Similar ships were used by the Greeks in thecampaign against Troy. The suitors vessel would almost certainly have been of similar design.

, But give me a fast ship and twenty men,

670 and I will set an ambush to catch him

, as he sails home through the channel between Ithaka and rugged Samos.

. Then all his voyaging in search of his father will come to a grim end.( . 669-672) (Od. 4.669-672)


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, Thereupon he picked the twenty bravest men

. and they went off to the swift ship on the seashore.

,780 First of all they ran the ship down into deep water,

, stepped the mast and rigged the sails in the black ship,

, fixed the oars in the leather thole-straps,

, all shipshape, and spread the white sails.

. Meanwhile their willing menservants brought them their weapons.

, 785 They moored the ship well out in the harbour, went back ashore

, . and there had their supper, waiting for nightfall.

(. , 778-786) (Od. 4.778-786)

Fresco from Thera depicting Bronze Age ships.

Meanwhile the suitors had embarked and were sailing the seas,

. plotting foul murder against Telemachos.

, There is a rocky island in the middle of the sea,

, 845 midway between Ithaka and rugged Samos,

, called Asteris. It is of no great size, but it has safe harbours,

. one on each side; and there the Achaians set their ambush for Telemachos.(. 842-847) (Od. 4.842-847)


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, . And I will tell you something else: take heed of what I say.

The bravest of the suitors are lying in wait for you

. in the channel between Ithaka and rugged Samos,

, .30 intent on murdering you before you reach your native land.

But I do not think they will succeed: sooner than that, several of the suitors

, . who are devouring your substance will themselves be laid in the earth.

, However, keep your good ship well clear of the islands

and sail on through the night, and the immortal deity

. 35 who guards and protects you will send you a following breeze.

, When you reach the first point on the coast of Ithaka,

, send the ship and all your companions on to the city;

, you yourself must go first of all to the swineherd

, . who keeps your pigs and is fond of you.

40 Spend the night there and then send him to the city

, to tell wise Penelope

. that you are safely back from Pylos.(. 27-42) (Od. 15.27-42)

Merchant vessel of the Homeric age similar to the one Telemachos borrowed to go to Pylos.


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Merchant vessel of the Homeric age similar to the one Telemachos borrowed to go to Pylos.

Telemachos called to his men and told them

. to lay hold of the tackle. They obeyed at once,

hauled up the fir mast, stepped it in its hollow box,

, , 290 made it fast with forestays

. and hoisted the white sail with plaited thongs of oxhide.

, And flashing-eyed Athena sent them a boisterous wind

, blowing strongly from astern through the clear air,

. to send the ship racing across the briny sea.

.295 So they sailed past Krounoi and Chalkis with its beautiful streams.

Now the sun set and all the ways grew dark.

And the ship drew near to Pheai, sped by the favourable wind of Zeus,

, . and on past goodly Elis, where the Epeians rule.

, From there he steered for the Pointed Islands,

. wondering whether he would come through alive or be caught.

(. , 287-300) (Od. 15.287-300)


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. 495 Soon Dawn was on her golden throne and the ship was nearing the shore.

, Telemachoss comrades struck sail, lowered the mast quickly

, and rowed the ship to her anchorage with their oars.

, Then they dropped anchor, made the stern cables fast,

, jumped ashore and prepared their meal

. 500 and mixed the fiery wine.

, When they had eaten and drunk their fill,

wise Telemachos broke the silence:

, Row the black ship round to the city, he said,

while I pay a visit to the fields and the herdsmen.

. I will come to the city this evening, when I have looked over my lands.( . , 495-505) (Od. 15.495-505)

Warship of the Homeric age, similar to that of the suitors and those of Odysseus at the time of the Trojan War.

, Then spoke Antinous, Eupeithes son:

, . Damn it all, the gods have delivered this man from destruction!

365 Day after day watchmen have sat upon the windy heights,

one shift following another, and after sunset

, we have never spent a night ashore but have waited for the bright Dawn

, sailing the sea in our swift ship,

, lying in wait for Telemachos to catch him and finish him off;

. but meanwhile some god has brought him home.(. .363-370) (Od. 16.363-370)


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Two Mycenaean rhyta in the shape of warships. Below, drawing of a ship on a sherd of Bronze Age pottery.


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thena warns Telemachos, who is on a visit to Sparta, that the suitors are

planning to set an ambush for him in the channel used by ships sailing

midway betweenrocky Samos and Ithaka, intent on murdering him. She

allays his fears, however, by telling him that for his return journey from Pylos she will

send him a favourable (southerly) wind so that he can steer well clear of certain

unnamed islands and land safely at the first (i.e. southernmost) point on the coast of

Ithaka (Od. 15.27-42).

Meanwhile the suitors have rigged and launched their ship and anchored well

out in the harbour, and in the evening they set sail for a smallish island named Asteris

with two safe harbours, one on each side, lying in the channel midway between

Samos and Ithaka (Od. 4.669-672, 778-786, 842-847). There they wait for

Telemachos for four weeks, spending the days keeping watch from the islands

windswept peaks ( ) and the nights out on patrol to catch him on

his return from Sparta and Pylos (Od. 16.363-370). From Asteris they can also watch

the route from Pylos to Ephyra22 in Thesprotia, in case Telemachos decides to go

there to get poisoned arrows to use against them (Od. 2.325-330).

It is soon after midday when Telemachos sets sail from Pylos on his return

journey. During the afternoon his ship, staying close to the coast, passes Krounoi23

and Chalkis.24By nightfall, with the favourable wind Athena has sent him, he is near

the cape called Pheai (now Katakolo); and in the early hours of darkness, as he skirts

the coast of Elis steering for the Thoai (Pointed Islands), he starts worrying about his

prospects of escaping alive from the ambush set by the suitors (Od. 15.295-300).

With the help of Athena and the favourable south wind, he keeps well clear of

the islands and presumably far enough away from Asteris and at dawn he lands

safely at the nearest point on the coast of Ithaka (Od. 15.495-500).

That same day the suitors, who may have been informed of Telemachosreturn by a god or may have seen his ship sailing past, return frustrated to the port of

Homeric Ithaka (Od. 16.342-370).

A


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Satellite photo of the coast of Western Greece. It was in these waters that Telemachos sailed from

Ithaka to Pylos and back.

MessenianP los

Pheai

katakolo

Krounoi, Chalkis

Dyme

AraxosITHAKA

Thoai

(Oxia)

Triphyllian

Pylos

ELIS

Beautiful lake(Lake Agoulinitsa)

EPHYRA


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If we wish to find out whether Homers geography of Western Greece is based

on reliable sources and so to confirm that the places are in the right order in relation to

Homers accounts of the voyages and the times taken, we have to answer the

following basic questions about the outward and journey:

Do the accounts of Telemachos voyages to and from Pylos conform to the

standard guidelines for navigation in that period?

What results do we get if we compare the place-names with the courses,

sailing times and wind directions given by Homer?

What were the normal speeds of ships at that time?

The accounts of both Telemachos voyages, which many scholars believe to

have been the nucleus of a separate epic that was gradually incorporated into the

Odyssey, would appear to have been intended mainly, though not exclusively, for the

purpose of recording the geographical and navigational data of the waters of Western

Greece in those times.

It can therefore be taken for granted that the geographical information and

coastal place-names given by Homer must have been recognizable to local seafarers

of the Late Bronze Age as descriptions of the places they actually passed on their

voyages. And the same is true of the seaways between the islands and the

Peloponnese and the Late Bronze Age navigational methods.

Anyone who knows about the weather and wind conditions considered

suitable for sailing in the Ionian Sea and the method of sailing a square-rigged boat of

the kind then in use is bound to agree that a sailor wishing to go from Ithaka or

Kephallenia to the Peloponnese would normally wait until the late afternoon or early

evening, when the north-west wind (zephyros) and the northerly land breeze coming

off the mountains of Kephallenia start to blow. That is exactly how Telemachos timedhis departure from Ithaka for Pylos in Homers account (Od. 2.388-425, 3.1-6).

The same goes for a vessel sailing from the southern Peloponnese to

Kephallenia and Ithaka. Since the prevailing winds in the Ionian Sea are northerly to

north-westerly, this presents much more of a problem. One has to start by sailing

along the coast of the Peloponnese as far as Cape Araxos, taking advantage of the

land breezes blowing down from the mountains as a result of inversion. From Araxos

one can catch the wind setting from the Gulf of Patras, which gives one a fairly easy

run to Kephallenia and Ithaka with the wind on the quarter, passing outside the islands


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(~5 knots), the distance between Homeric Ithaka and Pylos could not have

been more than 60-65 nautical miles; and

(d) No matter which island was Homeric Ithaka (see p. 000), no Mycenaean

ship could have gone as far as Pylos in Messenia in the time stated, assuming

that the sailing time and the maximum speed are as estimated above, as

Messenian Pylos is at least 85-90 nautical miles from the southern tip of

Kephallenia, giving a sailing time of at least eighteen hours. However, the

figures would be right for a voyage to and from Pylos in Triphyllia, which is

about sixty nautical miles from Kephallenia and about seventy from the

southern end of Ithaka, so that the sailing times would be approximately

twelve and fourteen hours respectively. Triphyllian Pylos is ideally placed to

give the right ratio of speed and time to distanceonly just right in the case of

Ithaka but exactly so in the case of Kephallenia.

Bearing all this in mind, and following the itinerary in the precise order given

by Homer, and with the same timings, we find that Telemachos sailed past the island

called Asteris (keeping well clear of it) in the period between midnight or just after,

when he was off the coast of Elis (Od. 15.287-300), and dawn, when he was mooring

his ship at the first point on the coast of Ithaka (Od. 15.495-506).

Commonsense suggests that Asteris must have been close to, or one of, a

group of islands which Athena had warned him to steer well clear of (Od. 15.33-35):

,

.

However, keep your good ship well clear of the islands

and sail on through the night, and the immortal deity

who guards and protects you will send you a following breeze.


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PENTECONTER (model). A warship of the Homeric age with fifty oars and square sails:

a precursor of the trireme. Hellenic Maritime Museum.

So which were those islands that Athena advised Telemachos to stay away

from? Could Asteris have been one of them? And, if so, what connection could

there have been between them and the Thoai ( , i.e. Pointed

Islands) that Homer mentions (Od. 15.299) as being the last place he would pass

by now quaking with the fear of death before landing at the nearest point on

the coast of Ithaka?

,

From there he steered for the Pointed Islands,

wondering whether he would come through alive or be caught.

When Athena warns Telemachos that the suitors are lying in ambush for him

in the channel between Ithaka and Samos (Od. 15.29), curiously enough she says

nothing about any island called Asteris: all she does tell him (Od. 15.27-33) is that he

must steer well clear of certain islands which she does not specify. That Asteris must

be one of them seems quite clear, for we know that it, too, was in the channel betweenIthaka and Samos (Od. 4.669-672, 4.844-847). Therefore it must be one of a group of


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islands; and, since it was chosen by the suitors for their ambush, it must obviously be

one of the islands that Athena warned Telemachos to avoid on his way back from

Pylos.

Homers references to Asteris are so numerous and so specific that one simply

has to take note of its various distinguishing features as he describes them:

(1) It is in the channel between Ithaka and rugged Samos ( ) (Od. 4.671);

(2) It is midway between or perhaps equidistant from ()Ithaka and Samos, in the middle of the sea ( ) (Od.

4.845);

(3) It is a rocky () island (Od. 4.844);(4) It is an island of no great size ( ) (Od. 4.846);(5) It has sheltered harbours offering safe anchorage on opposite sides

of the island ( [] ) (Od. 4.846-

847);

(6) It has windswept heights [or headlands] ( (Od. 16.365).

Given that Asteris is midway between or equidistant from Ithaka and

Homeric Samos, it is not necessary to be sure of the precise location of Homeric

Ithaka before one can fix the location of Asteris. That is because, no matter which

island was actually the site of Homeric Ithaka whether modern Ithaka or

Kephallenia or even Leukas, the choice favoured by some scholars the position of

Asteris in relation to Homeric Ithaka and Samos is not affected. It is therefore worth

inquiring to see whether the islands (in the plural) that Telemachos was warned to

steer clear of on his return voyage ( ) [Od.

15.33]) and the islands (again in the plural) called the Thoai or Pointed Islands

( ) [Od. 15.299]), the sight of which

caused Telemachos to wonder whether he would come through alive or be caught

( ) [Od. 15.300]), are the same group of

islands in both cases, or whether there was some connection between them, and

whether one of them was in fact Asteris.


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We have it on the authority of Strabo (C 458.19), Herakleitos (Homeric

Problems, 45), Eustathios (305.41,46 and 1782.3) and Heliodoros (V.17) that the

Thoai were the islands now called Oxis (Sharp Islands) off the mouth of the River

Achelos: they are the southernmost of the Echinades Islands. In antiquity there were

more of them, according to Strabo (C 59-60), but several have since been joined to the

mainland by silt from the river. According to myth, the Thoai took their name from

the River Achelos, which in very early antiquity was called the Thoas, but the most

probable derivation is from the verb , to make sharp or pointed. In more recent

times they have been called Oxis, because in fact they do have sharp-pointed peaks

(see photos).

The biggest and most sharp-pointed island of the group is Oxia. Locally, it is

commonly called Oxis in the plural, indicating that there used to be more islands in

the immediate vicinity: as we know from ancient literary evidence, 26 the rest have

gradually been joined to the mainland by silt from the Achelos. Without a doubt,

they are to be identified with the Thoai islands (also in the plural) north of Elis,

mentioned by Homer ( , Od. 15.299).

Aerial photo of Oxia Island. The mouth of the River Achelos can be seen at the far left. Behind Oxia is what used

to be the island of Artemita, which has been joined to the mainland by silt from the Achelos and is now called

Kotsilaris.


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Satellite view of Oxia, one of the southern Echinades Islands.

The Thoai are the southernmost group of the Echinades Islands, which in the

Venetian period were called the Curzolari or Kourtzolaires.27 This name was

presumably given to them by Venetian geographers because of their proximity to

Cape Kostilaris, the seaward headland of the Achelos alluvial plain in the south-east

of Akarnania.

Detail of a 16th-century map on which the OxisIslands are clearly marked as Insulae Curzolari.


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The time has now come for us to ask ourselves how likely it is that the island

called Oxia or Oxis (the plural form of its name indicating that there used to be more

than one island here) is to be identified with Homers Asteris, and whether

Oxia/Oxis was one of the islands (also referred to in the plural: ) that

Athena warned Telemachos to avoid.

If we assume that Oxia/Oxis was Asteris, then it has to fit Homers

description, that is to say:

(1)It must be midway between or perhaps equidistant from Kephalleniaand Ithaka (

[: in the middle, midway, at the half-way point28], assuming

that one of those two islands is Homers Samos. Clearly Oxia does not lie

between Ithaka (whichever island Homer may be referring to) and any

neighbouring island which may then have been called Samos. Although it

is equidistant from Kephallenia and Ithaka and right in the middleof the

seaway connecting the Peloponnese with those two islands, and the word

might legitimately be interpreted as an adverb denoting that

Asteris was in some sense in the middle, midway, at the half-way point

without necessarily being between two places which, of course, is the

most natural way to understand the word (and it is used in that sense

elsewhere in Homer). But then again, we should not forget that the line in

question is suspected of being an interpolation. Whatever interpretation

one may place on an interpolated line of verse, the purpose of interpreting

it is to arrive at a sensible understanding of a passage in which the

temporary acceptance and translation of that line should not be allowed to

distort the reality or conceal the essence of the descriptive narrative.

(2)The island must be rocky ().(3)It must have safe harbours on opposite sides of the island (

).

(4)It must have windswept heights [or peaks] ( ).(5)It must be an island of no great size ( ).


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(6)It must be in the middle of the sea ( ) in the channel used byships sailing to Kephallenia and Ithaka (

);

(7)It must be one of a group of islands, to justify Homers use of the plural( [Od. 15.33])

(8)It must be in such a position that Telemachos would be expected to sailpast it on his way to Ithaka or to Homeric Ephyra, in Thesprotia, where the

suitors thought he might be going to obtain poisoned arrows (

, , ,

[Od. 2.328-329]).

Map of 1798 marking the route taken by ships plying between the Gulf of Corinth and Italy. The main ports of

call were: Isthmus of CorinthNaupaktosOxisNikopolisButrintoSaseno (Sazan) Island and finally

Otranto in Calabria. Fotis Kremmydas Collection


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Satellite photo of the Ionian Islands from the west, showing the strategic position of Oxis (Oxia) at the mouth of

the Gulf of Patras.

Oxia Island near the mouth of the River Achelos, which in earliest antiquity was called the Thoas.

(Phot.. Panoramio google, By matlavmac)

It seems clear from these descriptions that Asteris must have been somewhere

near the half-way point () of a voyage from the Peloponnese to Ithaka and

Homeric Samos. So let us take a pair of compasses and draw a circle with Oxia at its

centre, the radius being equal to the distance from Oxia to the nearest point on the

coast of any of those three places, i.e. the island now called Kephallenia, the island

now called Ithaka and the Peloponnese.


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To our surprise, we find that Oxia is:

exactly equidistant from Kephallenia, Ithaka and the Peloponnese(about 18.5 nautical miles);

midwaybetween or perhaps equidistant from Ithaka, Kephalleniaand the Peloponnese, taking each one separately and all three together!

It is also right on the route taken by a ship sailing to Ephyra inThesprotia and in the middle ( ) of the channel (

) used by ships sailing from


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Kephallenia and Ithakaespecially the latterto Epiros (the mouth of

the Achelos) and Elis (Araxos, Kyllene) in the north-western

Peloponnese. The Peloponnese was, of course, the centre of the

Mycenaean world and the main destination of boats sailing through the

Sound of Kephallenia and indeed the whole of the Ionian Sea.

It is beyond question that, by a strange coincidence, Oxia is equidistant from

all three of the places mentioned by Homer, in a strategic position of great importance

at the meeting-point of all the seaways through the Ionian Sea.

Satellite photo of the Ionian Islands from the east, showing the strategic position of Oxia.

The island completely controls all the routes taken by ships entering or leaving

the Gulf of Patras on their way from or to Zakynthos, Kephallenia, Ithaka, Leukas,

Thesprotia, Corfu and Italy.


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The strategic position of Oxia in the Ionian Sea.

But is Oxia rocky? Has it got safe harbours on opposite sides of the island? Has it got sharp-pointed, windswept peaks? Is it one of a group of islands? Would the suitors have been able to stay there for four weeks?

Indirect answers to all these questions were given about 120 years ago by the

historian Antonios Miliarakis29in his bookModern and Ancient Political Geography


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of the Prefecture of Kephallenia, although at the time he did not know which island he

was describing.

This is how Miliarakis describes Oxia as one of the Echinades Islands,

repeating almost word for word but without realizing itthe same information that

Homer had given three thousand years ago when describing the physical features of

Asteris with its two safe harbours on opposite sides of the island (the italics are ours).

The Echinades lie close to the south-western shores of

Akarnania. All these islands belong to two main groups. The

southernmost of them all is Oxia, which lies off Cape Skrofa, the

south-westernmost point of the Akarnanian mainland. This island, as

its name implies, is rugged and steep along its entire length, with a

high, sharp-pointed peak in the north rising to an altitude of 426

metres. Its coastline is 6 nautical miles long, its length is 4,650

metres from N to S, its greatest width 1,250 metres in the northern

part of the island and 620 metres in the south, and its area is 5.4

square kilometres. It consists of two land masses connected by a very

narrow isthmus about 300 metres in length, with bays on either side

( ). Flocks of sheep and goats graze on the island

and some grain crops are grown. The few farmers and shepherds on

the island obtain their water suppliesfrom cisterns.

Let us remind ourselves of Homers description:


[midway between Ithaka and rugged Samos,]*called Asteris. It is of no great size, but it has safe harbours, one on each side;

and there the Achaians set their ambush [for Telemachos] and lay in wait.

It seems to us that no comment is necessary. Here we have Antonios

Miliarakis, writing 120 years ago, unwittingly describing Oxia in the very words used

by Homer to describe Asteris 3,000 years ago: one of a group of islands, with a

sharp-pointed peak and rocky terrain and, most significant of all, the distinctive

feature of harbour s on opposite sides of the island. There could hardly be more


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convincing evidence that Homer and Miliarakis, each knowing every detail of the

actual picture of this island, were both using the same words (allowing for the

chronological difference) in the same standard terminology to describe the very same

landscape, the very same island.

The law of probabilities leaves little likelihood of error and it seems hardly

likely that all the natural features mentioned by Antonios Miliarakis, describing Oxia

120 years ago, and by Homer, describing Asteris 3,000 years ago, should have

conspired to mislead the present-day reader.

Oxia Island at the southern end of the Echinades Islands.

Photo of Oxia Island with its sharp-pointed, windswept summits.


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he ancient Greeks used the adjective amphidymos(--) to give a precise description ofharbours and bays lying on opposite sides of an island or headland and separated by a narrow isthmus.Apollonius Rhodius (ArgonauticaI.937-941), copying Homers description of Asteris and paraphrasing the

relevant lines of Homer, uses Homers terminology to describe the two bays on either side of the Arktonnesos

peninsula in the Propontis (see map).

,

,

Strabo (C 257) likewise describes the peninsula of Scyllaeum, near the River Metaurus in Italy, as .

To convey the same meaning as amphidymos, the adjective amphialos() was often used in ancientGreek literature, though usually with reference to larger land masses having deep indentations of the coastline on

either side. The shape of the Amphialipeninsula west of Piraeus conforms to the rule linguistically, semanticallyand topographically.

According to an ancient scholiast, the adjective naulochos(), rendered here as safe or providing safeanchorage, can also be applied to harbours in which ships can hide, lying in ambush.

The safety of the harbours in the Echinades Islands, which included the Oxis, is mentioned by Kallimachos in

hisHymn To Delos(line 155):,

and also by Strabo (C 459.21),both of whom thus corroborate Homersaccount of the safety of the two harbours

of Asteris.

Satellite photo of the island of Oxia/Asteris.

The islands excellent strategic position, its two safe anchorages on either side of a narrow

isthmus, its rugged terrain and its windswept peaks provide emphatic corroboration of

Homers description of Asteris and evidence of its rich Homeric past.

T


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The Oxis Islands and the Kourtsolaris or [Kostilaris peninsula viewed from the east.

Oxia Island, at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras, viewed from the east.

Oxia Island from the south-east.

Oxia Island from the west.


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Oxia Island from the north-east, viewed from the mouth of the Achelos.

( Phot. Panoramio google, By Vangelis Doutsios)

o, on the assumption that all these similarities are the result not of aningeniously constructed deception but of the absolute identity of the two

islands, one fundamental question needs to be answered:

Why did Athena warn Telemachos to steer well clear of those islands, and

in particular why did she promise to send him the favourable south wind that he

needed in order to avoid them?

Would Telemachos have been able to steer clear of those islands, sailing

from south to north, if he had not had the south wind in his favour?

Would that really have been the natural course to steer in a vessel of that

period sailing northwards for Kephallenia, Ithaka or Leukas?

As already mentioned, with the northerly to north-westerly winds generally

prevailing in the Sound of Kephallenia,30 the helmsman of a Mycenaean square-

rigged boat sailing northwards would have had no option but to sail parallel to the

coast of the Peloponnese as far as Araxos, taking advantage of the beam wind blowing

down from the mountains as a result of inversion. From there he would have caught

the wind and current setting from the Gulf of Patras and, with the wind on the quarter,

S


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he would definitely have had no optionbut to pass close to Oxia before steering for

Kephallenia, Ithaka and Leukas.

The course that a northbound vessel of the Homeric age would have had to steer against the prevailing

north-west wind of the Ionian Sea.

With a south wind, however, the helmsman would not have needed to go right

up to Oxia: he could cut straight across, leaving the Kyllene headland well off on his

beam when halfway to Oxia, and, with the wind behind him ( ), could

have an easy, more or less problem-free passage to Kephallenia, Ithaka and Leukas.


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The course usually followed by northbound vessels with a south wind blowing from astern.

That is exactly how Homer describes it. Knowing that Telemachos could

escape from the murderous ambush only with a tail wind( ), and so,

sailing by night ( ), he asks Athena to send him the necessary

south wind so that he can avoid Oxia, then called Asteris, and make a safe landing at

the first (i.e. southernmost) point on the coast of Homeric Ithaka. (These very sailing

directions for vessels returning from the southern Peloponnese with either a north wind or a south wind in the

twentieth century we were lucky enough to hear confirmed down to the last detail by the last living shipmasters of


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all-sail vessels of that period (none of which, alas, are still existence), Spyridon Odyssea Galiatsatos and

Themistoklis Konstantinou Batistatos.

.

.


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Why does Homer choose that island for the suitors murderous ambush?

What was so special about it?

who had left the isles of the Echinades, where sailors cannot land(Euripides,Iphigenia at Aulis, 287-288)

We have it on the authority of ancient Greek and Latin historians that the

island of Oxia/Oxis in the Sound of Kephallenia was in the middle of an area where

maritime piracy was rife, as it remained until relatively recently.31 Evidently the

frequent passage of ships through the channel tempted the Kephallenians into piracy

from the earliest times.32. The activity of pirates among the Echinades Islands, of

which Oxia is one, is attested by Thucydides33(I.5), Euripides34(Iphigeneia at Aulis,

283-288) and Livy35 (XXXVII.13.11-12). The suitors vying for the throne of Ithaka

were true descendants of the Taphians, whom Homer describes as bandits or

pirates (); and when they picked Oxia as the best place to lie in wait for

Telemachos in order to kill him they were doing no more than carrying on the great

tradition of maritime piracy in the Ionian Sea. Knowing this, Homer makes them set

their ambush on an island that had a justified reputation as the island of pirates.

Oxias strategic position, its size and, above all, its two safe all-weather harbours on

opposite sides of the islandmade it one of the most notorious pirate lairs then and for

long thereafter.

In the OdysseyHomer, through the mouth of Athena, the goddess of wisdom

and knowledge, gives us yet another piece of information on the way in which

mariners avoided (or ought to avoid) passing close to the Oxis Islands because of the

hazard of piracy. Apart from anything else, Telemachos voyage appears to have a

position, value and significance of its own in the structure of the Odyssey, at least as

far as navigation in the Ionian Sea is concerned.


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Detail from a 16th-century map marking the Oxis Islands as CURZOLAR and showing pirate ships

in the thick of an engagement between Kephallenia and the Oxis in the Sound of Kephallenia, where

they had their lairs to keep watch on shipping through the straits.

The place-name Sarakiniko is found both on Kephallenia (the port of Poros) and Ithaka. In these places

the last generation of pirates, known as Sarakini (Saracens), carried on the great tradition of maritime

piracy that had existed since the earliest times.


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Why was it that in earliest antiquity Oxia was called Asteris, a name it

shared with the islands of Delos, Crete and Rhodes?

According to Pliny36and Hesychios,37Rhodes, Crete and Delos were all called

Asteris in early antiquity, and Homer38 (Il. 2.735) also mentions a town called

Asterion in Magnesia. Stephanos of Byzantium39 informs us that the town was so

called because it stood on a hilltop and therefore looked like a star from down in the

plain. Evidently the name Asteris or Asterion was given to conspicuous places that

could be seen from afar and served as beacons for the guidance of travellers by sea

(like modern lighthouses) or by land.

Obviously this would be a good reason for Crete and Rhodes to be called

Asteris, since one or other of them was the first (or last) landfall for ships on their

long voyages from or to the east and south. They were well-known landmarks

enabling mariners to check their position and set the right course. While Kallimachos

(Hymn To Delos)40tells us that Delos had been called Asteria in ancient times because

it fell from the heavens like a star (), its name also exemplifies the practice of

applying the name Asteris to islands that are reference points for the whole of the

surrounding area.

, :

( . 300-301)

Fragrant Asteria, around you the islands

formed a circle and surrounded you like a group of dancers.

,

.

(Kallimachos, Hymn to Delos, 325-326)O Delos, you who are the centre of the islands and have a fine position,

hail to yourself! and hail also to Apollo, and to her whom Leto bore!

Strabo (C 486.4) makes his own opinion on the matter quite clear: Delos, he

says, is strategically placed for those sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia (

).

Oxia, too, like Delos, occupied an excellent strategic position, for it controlled

the seaways leading into and out of the Gulf of Patras and lay on the route normally

taken by ships bound for Kephallenia, Ithaka and Leukas. With its height, its safe

anchorages and its conspicuous visibility, it served as the equivalent of a lighthouse,


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an aid to navigation for Mycenaean seafarers. With good reason, then, was it called

Asteris, just as there was good reason for applying that name to the Aegean islands

with the same properties.

The lighthouse on Oxia Island, one of the most important in the Ionian Sea, attests to the

strategic significance of Oxias geographical position through the ages; and, shining out at

night like an earthly star, it offers a new reason for the islands original name of Asteris. It has

been contributing to the safety of mariners in western Greek waters since 1899.

The lighthouse was built in 1899. The height of the stone tower is 8 metres and its focal height is 71 metres. It

stands on the islet of Oxia in the Gulf of Patras, south-west of the Prefecture of Aitoloakarnania. The lighthouse is

served by launch from Astakos, 55 kilometres from Mesolonghi. The islet of Oxia belongs to the uniform

ecosystem of the Achelos delta, but administratively it belongs to the Prefecture of Kephallenia. It is a rocky

island lying off the Achelos delta and is covered with maquis vegetation and junipers. It is home to a colony of

griffon vultures, and short-toed eagles, peregrine falcons and other raptors also nest there. Black vultures and

imperial eagles are frequent winter visitors. For further information and photographs visit the website

www.faroi.com


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ssentially, Homers description of Asteris is a sailing direction

for Mycenaean seafarers, telling them that at the junction of the

Sound of Kephallenia and the Gulf of Patras there is an island

called Asteris (signifying that it is a beacon or conspicuous landmark), and

that from this rocky island lying right on their route they can confidently

calculate their positions in relation to the principal destinations in the

vicinity, such as Kephallenia, Ithaka and the Peloponnese. It also informs

them that the island has two harbours, one on each side, providing good

anchorage and excellent shelter in stormy weather ( ),

while simultaneously warning them (by describing the suitors ambush)that it is a perfect lair for pirates and should therefore be approached only

with great caution. It suggests that sailing by night is safest, presumably

because of the presence of pirates. The island can only be avoided if one is

sailing north from the Peloponnese with a tail wind ( ).

Satellite photo ofGreece, Peloponnese,the Ionian Islands and the Italy from the east, showing the

strategic position of Oxia (Homeric Asteris).

E

Oxeia = Asteris


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Detail from the map by Laurenbergio (1690), marking the Thoae islands (Oxis).

A pirate ship can be seen sailing between the Oxis (Thoai) and south-eastern Kephallenia, where the

Saracen corsairs had their lair at the place known as Sarakiniko, where the new town of Poros was built

after the devastating earthquakes of 1953. In those days the harbour at Poros was used as a supply

depot and a base for keeping watch on the channel linking Kephallenia with Zakynthos, Ithaka, Aitolia,

Akarnania and the Peloponnese. This area was the centre of the piratical operations recorded since

early antiquity and continuing until very recent times. Fotis Kremmydas Collection


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esides its rich Homeric past, the island of Oxia was associated with another

event of worldwide interest when it found itself at the centre of one of the

greatest naval battles seen anywhere in the world up to that time, the battle

of Lepanto (Naupaktos).41 That famous battle was fought on 7th October 1571

between the combined fleets of Spain, Venice, Genoa, Naples and Sicily and the Holy

See on the one hand and the united fleet of the Ottoman Empire on the other, in the

waters of the southern Echinades Islands (the Oxis) off Cape Skrofa. The outcome

was the total destruction of the Ottoman fleet.

The battle is known by this name not because it took place off the town of

Naupaktos but from the name of the gulf where it was fought, since in those days the

whole of the Gulf of Patras was known by the Venetians as the Gulf of Lepanto (or

Lepando).

The battle of Lepanto was one of the most momentous sea-battles in world

history, on a par with the one fought by Mark Antony and Cleopatra against Octavian,

which also took place in Greek waters off Aktion (Actium) in 31 B.C. Its historical

importance has been rated second only to the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.

In the words of Nikos Patouchas,42 the battle of Lepanto was, apart from

anything else, a historic turning-point in naval tactics and shipbuilding. This battle

spelt the end of oared ships and the dawn of sailing-ships in sea-battles. A history of

oared seafaring going back 2,500 years or more, starting with the expedition of th

Argonauts, had come to an end, giving way to sail as the principal means of

propulsion.

15th-century naval galleon similar to those that took part in the battle of Lepanto.

B


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One of those who fought at Lepanto as a non-commissioned officer on board

the galley Marquesa was the famous writer Miguel de Cervantes, who received a

serious wound to his left hand. He later described the battle as the grandest occasion

the past or present has seen, or the future can hope to see.

" 43

The Battle of Lepanto. Etching by Fernando Bertelli, Naval History Museum, Venice.On the left of the picture are the Oxis Islands. Drawn up in line of battle in front of them is the

combined European fleet; in the centre the united fleet of the Ottoman Empire can be seen in total

disarray under the massed cannonade from the six galleasses.44

The victory of the European allies was greeted with jubilation in the West. Great

contemporary painters, including Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, painted canvases depicting the battle

and El Greco painted a portrait of the victorious commander, Don John of Austria.

Admiral Jurien de la Gravire wrote, Three times the fate of the world has hung on the outcome of a

great naval engagement: Salamis, Actium, Lepanto. In the words of Voltaire, Never since the battle of

Lepanto have Greek waters witnessed such a large fleet or so momentous a sea-battle. The Venetian

historian Paolo Paruta described it as one of the outstanding events of all time.


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rom all this evidence:

It now becomes clearer why Oxiaor rather Asteris, as it was then known

occupies such a dominant position in the Odyssey: because, thanks to its

crucial strategic position, it was and has remained through the ages at the

epicentre of maritime action, leaving it indelible mark on every period of history.

It now becomes clearer why, when Telemachos was sailing by night, heading

for the waters around the Thoai (Oxis), he was overcome by the fear of death.

Obviously one of the Thoai was Asteris, where the suitors, ensconced on its

windswept heights or hidden in its safe harbours by day and patrolling the sea by

night, were lying in wait to kill him.

It now becomes clearer why Strabo (C 457.16, C 59-60) presumably having

heard some rather vague story about the areas mythological background to do with

the silting up of the sea and the changes made by the River Achelos to the coastline

at its delta, which was probably the location of Asteris felt the need to mention

Asteris (Asterida) in the paragraph where he says that Artemita (the island next to

Oxia) had become attached to the mainland by silt from the Achelos, but without

making any comment because he knew very little about the physical conformation of

the islands of Western Greece. It is well known that Strabo, who loved Homers

works but unfortunately had not been to Western Greece when he wrote his

Geographica, made a fair number of factual mistakes, not deliberately, of course, but

through lack of information.

It now becomes clearer why Apollodoros,45 who was extremely

knowledgeable on the subject of Greek mythology, knew about the position and

morphology of Asteris (presumably from the myths) and describes it exactly as it had

been described by Homer. The alleged connection between Asteris and the small town

of Alalkomenai, for which Strabo cites Apollodoros as his authority, is now being

investigated to establish whether or not it is true, and further papers on this subject

will be published in due course. Be that as it may, the fact is on the isthmus of Oxia

one can still see ruined dwellings and cisterns built to collect rainwater for the needs

of the farmers and graziers who occupied that small settlement through the ages.

It now becomes clearer how it was possible for the suitors to spend twenty-

eight consecutive days and nights on the island, for it offered them two safe havens

for their ship and ample supplies of water and food, as it has done through the ages forthe farmers and graziers living there.

F


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It now becomes clearer why Asteris is described by Hesychios in hisLexicon46

as Peirieis island, also called Asteria (i.e. an island lying in a channel, in a useful

position for a ferry crossing), for Asteris/Oxia does lie right at the mouth of the

Achelos in the channel giving access from the mainland to Kephallenia, Ithaka and

the Peloponnese. On the relationships of the ferry boat sailors, mentioned by Homer,

with the Achelos delta area where Asteris (now called Oxia) is situated, see the

analysis in the accompanying offprint entitledIn the Land of Ithaka.

It now becomes clearer why the islet of Asteris and another one called Prote

are described by Pliny the Elder47in hisHistoria Naturalis(IV.54-55) as lying in the

open sea about fifteen miles off Cape Araxos in the Peloponnese: Ab ea Araxum

Peloponnesi promunturium XV. ante hanc in alto Asteris, Prote. Fifteen miles is the

actual distance between the island now called Oxia and Cape Araxos.It now becomes clearer why Homer chooses Oxia (then called Asteris) as the

island where the suitors vying for the throne of Ithaka set their murderous ambush,

because the Oxis islands were at the centre of the area notorious for piracy from

earliest antiquity until fairly recently: see Thucydides48(I.5), Euripides49 (Iphigeneia

at Aulis, 283-288), Livy50(XXXVII.13.11-12) and Niketas Choniates.51

It now becomes clearer why Oxia is mentioned by Antipater,52 in his elegiac

epigram on a certain Aristagoras who was shipwrecked in the harbour of Skarpheia,

as one of the three most notoriously dangerous places in the Mediterranean for

contemporary seafarers.

It now becomes clearer why Strabo (C 59-60) omits the disputed line of the

Odyssey (4.845) when quoting Homers description of Asteris and does so

consistently whenever he quotes that passage in his work; and also why he ignores the

adverb(especially when used with reference to Asteris). This latter word he

never mentions nor comments on, presumably because the allegedly interpolated line( ) was added to Book IV of the

Odysseyafter the period when Strabo was writing his Geographica (circa20 B.C.

A.D. 20).

It now becomes clearer why the disputed line (4.845), like other interpolated

or altered lines that have crept into Homers epics, have frequently deflected scholarly

research down blind alleys, as in the case of Asteris (cf. Odysseas Metaxas). The

example of the rocky islet of Daskalio, which was pronounced to be the ancient


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Asteris in an attempt to vindicate Homers accuracy while identifying Homeric

(Mycenaean?) Ithaka with the Ithaka of historic times, is a case in point.

It now becomes clearer why, after 3,500 years, Oxia (Homers Asteris) is still

as useful, valuable and irreplaceable for mariners as it was then, so much so that one

of the most important lighthouses in the Ionian Sea53has been built on the west side

of the island. And, with its two safe anchorages providing shelter in stormy weather, it

will always be an excellent place of refuge or an excellent hide-outfor as long as

seafarers sail the Ionian Sea (see descriptions in portolans).

Odysseus slaying the suitors. Gustav Schwab, 1882.


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NOTES

1The mythical island home of Kalypso (Od. 1.85, 6.172, 7.244, etc.).2The mythical island home of Kirke (Od. 9.32, 12.268, 12.275 [the home of Aietes]).3The mythical island home of Aiolos (Od. 1.155).4The mythical island home of the daughters of Helios (Od. 12.135).5

Daskalio: a corruption ofscoglio, da (di) scoglio.6: A harbour in which ships lie at rest [translated from theMega Etymologikon Lexikon]7: Harbours having two entrances [translated from theMega Etymologikon Lexikon]8Stephanos of Byzantium,Ethnicorum, Berlin,1849, p. 138.9Eustathii Commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam, Lipsiae 1828, p. 195.10Hesychios of Alexandria,Lexicon, anastatic edition, Georgiadis 1975, p. 1210.11Pliny,Natural History II, Harvard University Press 1947, pp. 156-158.12Niketas Choniates,Histoire de Manuel Comnne, Livre II, Paris13Michail S. Kordosis, ( ), Athens 2007.14Schliemann,Ithaque, le Ploponnse, Troie, p.75.15Leake 1835; Partsch 1890; Berard 1902; Vollgraff 1907; Rennell 1927; C.H. Coekoop1990; Livadas 1998.16Volteras 1903; Tsimaratos 1998.17Drpfeld 1927; Doukas 1995.18Schliemann,Ithaque, le Ploponnse, Troie, p.19

Gell 1807; Luce 1974.20Schliemann 1869; A.E.H. Coekoop 1908.21Vangelis Pantazis, , , vol. 8, pp.267-274, Argostoli

1999.22A city in Epiros, in the land of the Thesprotians, later renamed Kichyros.23A small town in Triphyllian Elis.24A small town in Triphyllian Elis.25An exact replica of an ancient merchant vessel found off Kyrenia, Cyprus.26Strabo, C 59-60.27Antonios Miliarakis,Modern and Ancient Political Geography of the Prefecture of Kephallenia, Athens 1890, p.166.28Kofiniotis,Homeric Lexicon.29Antonios Miliarakis,, Athens 1890, p. 164.30See the wind tables of the Greek National Meteorological Service and the Ministry of Merchant Marine.31V. Katsaros,, vol. 13, pp. 1527-1528; Hlne Yannakopoulou, Quelques repaires de pirates en Grce

de lOuest, lieux de commerce illgal (du XVIe au XVIIIe sicles), in conomies mditerranennes, quilibres etintercommunications XIIIe-XIXe sicles, Actes du IIe Colloque international dHistoire, vol. II, Athens 1985, p.526.32Georgios Souris, , , p. 113; Joseph Partsch,Kephallenia and Ithaka, p. 112.33Thucydides, I.5 : For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as communication

by sea became more common, were tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men; the

motives being to serve their own cupidity and to support the needy. They would fall upon a town unprotected bywalls, and consisting of a mere collection of villages, and would plunder it; indeed, this came to be the main sourceof their livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some glory. An illustration ofthis is furnished by the honour with which some of the inhabitants of the continent still regard a successful

marauder, and by the question we find the old poets everywhere representing the people as asking of voyagers

Are they pirates? as if those who are asked the question would have no idea of disclaiming the imputation, ortheir interrogators of reproaching them for it. The same rapine prevailed also by land. And even at the present day

many parts of Hellas still follow the old fashion, the Ozolian Locrians, for instance, the Aetolians, theAcarnanians, and that region of the continent; and the custom of carrying arms is still kept up among thesecontinentals, from the old piratical habits.34Euripides,Iphigeneia at Aulis, 283-288: Likewise he led the Taphian warriors with the white oar-blades, thesubjects of Meges, son of Phyleus, who had left the isles of the Echinades, where sailors cannot land.35Livy, XXXVII.13.11-12 [: Then the praetor sent two triremes of the allies from Italy and two from Rhodes, withEpicrates the Rhodian in command, to defend the strait of Cephallania. The Spartan Hybristas with the young menof the Cephallanians was making this dangerous with his piracy, and the sea was already closed to supplies fromItaly.36Pliny,Natural History II(V.36.1, IV.66), Harvard University Press 1947.37Hesychios of Alexandria,Lexicon, anastatic edition, Georgiadis 1975, p. 246.38Homer,Il. 2.735.39Stephanos of Byzantium,Ethnicorum, Berlin,1849, pp. 138-139.40Kallimachos,Hymn To Delos, 36-38.41

Nikos Patouchas, Wikipedia.42Nikos Patouchas, Wikipedia.43Yannis Zouganelis, Gone with the wind, letter to Nikos Karouzos.


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44The galleass was the three-masted battleship of that period.45Schliemann,Ithaque, le Ploponnse, Troie, p.46Hesychios of Alexandria,Lexicon, anastatic edition, Georgiadis 1975, p. 1210.47Pliny,Natural History II, Harvard University Press 1947, pp. 156-158.48Thucydides, I.5 : For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as communicationby sea became more common, were tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men; the

motives being to serve their own cupidity and to support the needy. They would fall upon a town unprotected bywalls, and consisting of a mere collection of villages, and would plunder it; indeed, this came to be the main source

of their livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some glory. An illustration ofthis is furnished by the honour with which some of the inhabitants of the continent still regard a successfulmarauder, and by the question we find the old poets everywhere representing the people as asking of voyagers Are they pirates? as if those who are asked the question would have no idea of disclaiming the imputation, or

their interrogators of reproaching them for it. The same rapine prevailed also by land. And even at the present daymany parts of Hellas still follow the old fashion, the Ozolian Locrians, for instance, the Aetolians, the

Acarnanians, and that region of the continent; and the custom of carrying arms is still kept up among thesecontinentals, from the old piratical habits.49Euripides,Iphigeneia at Aulis, 283-288: Likewise he led the Taphian warriors with the white oar-blades, thesubjects of Meges, son of Phyleus, who had left the isles of the Echinades, where sailors cannot land.50Livy, XXXVII.13.11-12 : Then the praetor sent two triremes of the allies from Italy and two from Rhodes, with

Epicrates the Rhodian in command, to defend the strait of Cephallania. The Spartan Hybristas with the young men

of the Cephallanians was making this dangerous with his piracy, and the sea was already closed to supplies from

Italy.51Niketas Choniates,Histoire de Manuel Comnne, Livre II, Paris52Antipater, Greek Anthology(in Greek), vol. VI, Kaktos Editions, Athens 2004, p. 146.53www.faroi.com
http://www.faroi.com/http://www.faroi.com/http://www.faroi.com/http://www.faroi.com/


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There is an Island ...ASTERIS Tel 2

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