This is a bit like what song the siren sang? Who knows. An altar would only be there if sacrifices of some kind would have been made. Perhaps its a romantic view but burnt offerings would rather destroy the peace of the grove. We need to mount an expedition to excavate the site and find cult objects. O hang on Scheria is “unreal” in a fictional account…
We have the text and your imagination. I think that’s enough!
Interestingly enough in line 6.9-10 we learn that Nausithous had
Hainsworth describes the “νηοὺς” as “an inadvertent anachronism, since monumental buildings are evidently intended. Homeric worship (sic) is normally performed at altars in the open air, eg 3.5 ff.”
Garvie says "the building of temples is significant; for temples rarely appear in Homer. That they belong to a recent stage in the epic tradition is consistent with the archaeological evidence. " Perhaps we should be excavating on Corfu as he also says “Corcyra [is] traditionally identified with Scheria”. (see also Thuc. 1.25.4)
Interesting question Sean but I am not sure we can answer it.
seneca2008 wrote: ↑
Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:03 pm
Secondly, I have noticed people talking about “fairy stories” in relation to Homer. I wondered if anyone has some references for this.
Page, D.L. 1955. The Homeric “Odyssey”. Oxford
1973. Folktales in Homer’s “Odyssey”.Cambridge, Mass.
Powell, B. 1977 Composition by Theme in the “Odyssey”. Meisenheim
Woodhouse, W.J. 1930 The Composition of Homer’s “Odyssey”. Oxford
Hölscher, U. 1978. "The Transformation from Folk-tale to Epic."In Fenik 1978, pp. 51-67
Fenik, B. 1978. Homer: Tradition and Invention (ed.). Leiden.
Mondi, M. 1983. “The Homeric Cyclopes:Folktale, Tradition, and Theme” _TAPA_113:17-38.
These are all from Mark W. Edwards’s suggestions for further reading in his “Homer: Poet of the Iliad”
This is an interesting point. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to ‘unsee’ that Mycenaean boar’s tusk helmet when I’m reading the Iliad (10.260ff) but then I don’t feel my vision of Ithaca is diminished by never having visited a Greek island. I suppose we collect bits and pieces of visual thread in our mind that we use to weave an Odyssey or Iliad that satisfies us.
Thanks Aetos for giving those references which I will look through. I have started reading West’s making of the Odyssey and he refers to pre-existing traditions and folk-tale narratives. I think its probably best to drop the “Fairy story” idea unless it can be shown in specific passages to be illuminating.
Sean you must visit a Greek island (or many!). I had several happy Summers “island hopping”. I am sure we all have our own vision of Ithaca and indeed we cannot but use our experience to “weave” ( a felicitous verb given the context ) our own odyssey.
Ha! Thanks for the tip off, and thank you to Aetos for the link. Particularly appropriate before we leave book 6, it seems to me - maybe Nausicaa needs her own version: