The Odyssey and the Argonauts

It has been said the Odysseus voyage back to his ancestral home of Ithaka is nothing more that a trip around Sicily. If true then he and is crew seem to be inept sailors even allowing for a limitation of ships and navigation tools in ancient times. Perhaps Homer (or the storytellers who told Homeric poems) were familiar with this area and this could give more resonance to their tales.

In this article we shall look at the route taken by both Odysseus and Jason and determine what similarities and differences marked their voyages see [1]

The Voyage of Odysseus

• (A) Troy is the site of the Trojan was as recounted in Homer's Iliad. After the war was successfully concludes with the sacking of Troy, Odysseus and his crew start what will be their ten year journey back home to Ithaka.
• (B) Thrace. First Stop after Troy where he fights with the Kikones at Ismarus. This was more an act of piracy and plunder than a stop off for supplies.
• (C) Country of the Lotus Eaters. It is a nine day sail to this location. Poor navigation presumably means they have overshot Ithaka by four days. His crew spend a year here drugged by the Lotus Eaters although for the crew they do not sense the passing of time.
• (D) Land of the Cyclopes. Back to the island of Sicily where Odysseus blinds Polyphemos after losing at least two of his crew. At this point things go from bad to worse as Odysseus provokes Poseidon who is determined to make Odysseus' trip back home as awkward as possible. A little more diplomacy from Odysseus would have served him and his crew well. As it is his arrogance will prolong his journey and lead to the ultimate perish of his crew. Does he go back again?
• (E)Aiolia. It looks like another long sail to Aiolia. Odysseus meets the god of the wind Aeolos and strikes up a good rapport with the god. He provides Odysseus a west wind to propel him back to Ithaka as well as a bag of winds. As they are in sight of Ithaka, his crew convinced the bag contains gold opens it only to release the wind that pushes them back to Aiolia (not shown) Aiolos is not willing to help again given their apparent greediness and the sail off to the land of the Laestrygonians.
• (F)Telepylos This looks to be another long journey and yet again the crew fail to see the right turn that would lead them to Ithaka.
• (G) Here Odysseus is enchanted by Kirke and some of his crew are turned in to pigs and back again. Hermes provides Odysseus the antidote and knowledge to subdue the witch. Yet he stays here with the remainder of crew for a further year. At the end of the year, he asks for Kirke's advice on how to get home. Her recommendation was to travel to Hades and consult with the blind prophet Teiresias. Being the underworld, this is not a location that can truly be located on a map. Some suggest that Hades was Gibraltar or via Gibraltar. This makes some sense as one would think that it would be thought to exist at the periphery of the Ancient Greeks known world. Wherever the underworld is, Odysseus provides his crew with a rather meandering route to it.
• (H) After running back to his ship after his appointment with Tiresias, the crew sail back to Kirke;s island and she gives him some more navigation tips and tells him to beware the enchanting song of the Sirens
• (I)Skylla and Kharybdis These are places and monsters or maidens turned in to monsters by Zeus. These monsters create giant whirlpools that suck unwary sailors in to the monsters clutches if they get too close. It is an allegorical between a rock and a hard place . The body count rises by another six after this misadventure
• (J)Thrinacia This is where Odysseus loses the rest of his crew after they slaughter Helios' cattle
• (K)Ogygia Odysseus is now on his home when he washed ashore on Kalypso's island. He will remained imprisoned here, with no means of escape for seven years. Plenty of time to reflect on his failings after the glory of Troy
• (L)Skherie is a kind of purgatory or halfway house between Odysseus the flawed warrior and Odysseus the post redemptive King of Ithaka. Skherie or modern day Corfu becomes a cathartic episode in Odysseus' journey. He is literally stripped of clothes and metaphorically stripped of all the psychological baggage he has acquired over the past 20 years. It is only by acquiring the persona of a poor beggar, bereft of power, hangers on, money can his true Kleos shine through. If indeed he possesses it. If he is to prove he is worthy of greatness then all the inbuilt advantages of power, status, strength must be removed and he must rely on his metis and polymetis
• (M)Ithaka. Touched by his story Alkinoos provides a boat for Odysseus to travel to Ithaka where in disguise he takes his time to reacquaint himself with his kingdom and its people before embarking on his final quest to return as the rightful King of Ithaka bathed in glory.

Analysis of Odysseus' Journey

It seems apparent that the precise locations of the Odyssey were not that important but they needed to be somewhat believable. If the story of Iliad was believed to have actually happened then the subsequent sequels such as this and the Oresteia and the Aeneid must be equally believable. Consequently, not being too clear about exactly what land the poets were referring to would work to their advantage. If you locate the islands and lands too close to ancient Greece then you risk the audience having first hand knowledge and make them skeptical. Locate these islands too far away then it is impossible for Odysseus and his crew row and sail these vast distances. Hence, having the action take place in and around Sicily and the northern Mediterranean make sense. The Greek audience may have vague knowledge of their existence from other tales but they would still be a source of bewilderment and unfamiliarity.

Dating the Odyssey and the Argonauts

The Athenian Peisistratos, who ruled between 546 and 527 BC, is believed to have established a Commission of Editors of Homer to edit the text of the poems and remove any errors and interpolations, thus establishing a canonical text. Apollonios Rhodios who wrote the definitive version of the journey was living in the 3rd Century BC. It seems very likely he knew the Odyssey text well and would draw on episodes and characters such as Skylla, Kirke and the Sirens to give some authentication to his work. Interestingly, in chronological terms the search for the Golden Fleece predates by some sixty to seventy years (1246BC and 1181-1171BC) which lends even greater legitimacy to the work. On the other hand Homer would have been aware of the Jason myth, also

The only coursing ship that ever passed this way was Argo, famed of all, when voyaging from Aeëtes: and her the waves would soon have dashed on the great rocks, but [[character::Hera] brought her through from love of Jason. Odyssey 12.69-72 (Trans. Palmer)

The Journey of the Argonauts

• (A) Iolkos in Thessaly and the ancestral home of Jason
• (B) Lemnos Jason meets some Thracian women who all but use the men as sperm donors
• (C) Imbros It is not certain that Jason actually landed here but the island is mentioned in the Argonautica (ll. 922-935) Thence did they row with eagerness over the depths of the black Sea, having on the one side the land of the Thracians, on the other Imbros on the south; and as the sun was just setting they reached the foreland of the Chersonesus (Crimea)
• (D)Doliones Jason lands there twice. Once as friends then as suspected marauders. Jason is forced to kill the king and many inhabitants.
• (E) Samothrace the island of Elektra
• (F) Propontis. After a storm here they make their ill-fated trip back to the Doliones
• (G) Mysia Here Jason loses Herakles and assumes full control of the Argonauts
• (H) Bebrykes Things hot up when Polydeukes fights King Amykos and breaks his skull. At the moment the Argonauts are not making much headway
• (I) Salmydessos Jason helps Phineus capture the birds who have been stealing his food. In gratitude he tells them how to navigate the Clashing Rocks
• (J) Symplegades With Phineus and Athena's help Jason navigated this treacherous stretch of water
• (K) Thynias. They rested here having navigating the Clashing Rocks
• (L) Aretias. They chase away some birds and meet up with the shipwrecked Argos
• (M) Kolkhis. The Argonauts finally get the land where Golden Fleece is located. Jason asks for Aeetes' help. Aeetes is somewhat duplicitous and ends up losing the Fleece and Medeia
• (N) Brygean Islands Where Absyrtus is slain by Jason.
• (O) Aiaian isle Zeus orders the Argonauts to Kirke's island for purification after the murder. Kirke is the sister of Aeetes.
• (P) They sail pass the Sirens. Orpheus drowns out the enchanting songs of the sirens.
• (Q) The Sea Nymphs Nereids help the Argonauts avoid Skylla and Kharybdis and navigate Planctae (Wandering Rocks).
• (R) The Argonauts reach the Phaeacian island of Skherie. The Kolkhians catch up. King King Alkinoos would have given up Jason and Medeia had they not already slept together.
• (S) Crete Now firmly on their way back home they land in Crete and destroy the bronze man of Crete Talos

Notes:

• Mysia is mentioned in the Iliad