Archeologists make historic discovery
Saturday, August 27, 2005
By Thomas Elias - Columnist - The Madera Tribune
POROS,
Island of Kefalonia, Greece - The tomb of Odysseus has been found, and
the location of his legendary capital city of Ithaca discovered here on
this large island across a one-mile channel from the bone-dry islet
that modern maps call Ithaca.
This could be the most important
archeological discovery of the last 40 years, a find that may
eventually equal the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann’s 19th
Century dig at Troy. But the quirky people and politics involved in
this achievement have delayed by several years the process of reporting
the find to the world.
Yet visitors to Kefalonia, an
octopus-shaped island off the west coast of Greece, can see the
evidence for themselves at virtually no cost.
The discovery of
what is almost certainly his tomb reveals that crafty Odysseus, known
as Ulysses in many English renditions of Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,”
was no mere myth, but a real person. Plus, passages in the “Odyssey”
itself suggest that modern Ithaca and its main town of Vathi probably
were not the city and island of which Homer wrote.
Rather, this
small village of Poros on the southeast coast of Kefalonia now occupies
part of a site that most likely was the much larger city which served
as capital of the multi-island kingdom ruled by Odysseus and his father
Laertes.
Archeologists have long and often times looked for
evidence of Odysseus on modern Ithaca, but never found anything
significant from the Bronze Age. This led many scholars to dismiss
Homer’s version of Ionian island geography as strictly a literary
creation.
But two pieces of fairly recent evidence suggest
archeologists were looking in the wrong place. In 1991, a tomb of the
type used to bury ancient Greek royalty was found near the hamlet of
Tzannata in the hills outside Poros. It is the largest such tomb in
northeastern Greece, with remains of at least 72 persons found in its
stone niches.
One find there is particularly telling. In Book
XIX of the “Odyssey,” the just-returned and still disguised Odysseus
tells his wife (who may or may not realize who she’s talking to; Homer
is deliberately ambivalent) that he encountered Odysseus many years
earlier on the island of Crete. He describes in detail a gold brooch
the king wore on that occasion.
A gold brooch meeting that
precise description lies now in the archeological museum at Argostoli,
the main city on Kefalonia, 30 miles across the island from Poros.
Other gold jewelry and seals carved in precious stones excavated from
the tomb offer further proof the grave outside Poros was used to bury
kings.
Greek archeologists also found sections of ancient city
walls extending for miles through the hills around and well beyond
Poros. These surround both the village and a steep adjacent hill which
bears evidence it once served as an acropolis, what the Greeks called
hilltop forts in most of their major cities. The stones of the walls
date to about 1300 B.C., the approximate time of events described in
the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.”
Most likely, the royal capital at
Ithaca was a much larger city than Poros or any other town on either
modern Ithaca or Kefalonia. It would have needed a major source of
water. There is none on modern Ithaca, but streams abound near Poros,
where there is also a small man-made lake. This area had the necessary
water. The island now called Ithaca likely did not.
Several
other ancient settlements found elsewhere on Kefalonia also suggest the
island was a major population center at the time of Odysseus.
And
Homer described two major landmarks near ancient Ithaca: He says it sat
beneath an impressive mountain, the “tree-clad Mt. Neriton,” which
dominated views from the “wine-dark sea” for many miles around. That
description fits Mt. Aenos, just above Poros, the highest peak in the
Ionian islands. Homer also describes the legendary Cave of the Nymphs
as within a day or two walk from the city of Ithaca. A spacious, dark
cave with large stalactites and deep blue water matching Homer’s
description is currently a tourist attraction about 15 miles northwest
of Poros.
Why hasn’t all this been reported before? Because of
local politics and economics. The most active promoter of the Poros
area as Homeric Ithaca is the current mayor, who at one time was
governor of the prefecture (county or small state) including both
Ithaca and Kefalonia.
Gerasimos Metaxas, an author and amateur
archeologist who gladly shows visitors remains of the ancient city call
and innards of the tomb, was defeated for reelection as governor when
he began promoting the Poros-as-Ithaca idea in Greek publications. Why?
If Poros is Ithaca, who would ever go to the barren island now using
the name? And if tiny Poros ever gets a huge tourist and cruise ship
influx, what happens to Argostoli, now the center for those trades on
Kefalonia?
As a result, the entire find has never been reported
in the non-Greek press. And so far, major world media show little or no
interest in the tale. But for lovers of Homer’s sagas, there’s now no
place more appealing than Kefalonia.
The Madera Tribune