Straipsniai Thrinacia, the Island of Malta
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ISSN 0258-0802. LITERATŪRA 2012 54 (3) Straipsniai THRINACIA, THE ISLAND OF MALTA Horatio Caesar Roger Vella Professor of Classics, Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta Introduction lines, groups of lines, motifs, personages in Homer.2 All these stories with differ- We do not know for sure whether the Tro- ent names seem to be moulded around one jan War really took place or not. If it did core of truthful accounts, which accounts not, then Homer, or whoever the author we can never fathom. It is this long oral was (for even his name has been put in tradition based on true facts that tempts us doubt), must be given the credit for being a to penetrate into the heart of the story and master in inventing hundreds of names and look not only for symbolism and allegory, incidents.1 The later theory goes against but also real persons with their own char- the identification of Troy by Heinrich acters and places with their own peculiar Schliemann and the acceptance of a long features. It is only by accepting this theory history of oral poetry ultimately going that I can approach this present study on back, surely, not to an invented story, but Homer’s Thrinacia. to a real one. Oral tradition is, in fact, be- Some years ago I have shown how the hind not only the Trojan War as described sister island of the Maltese Archipelago, by Homer, but also countless other stories, today called by two names, Għawdex and such as the Argonauts’ journey, the war Gozo, could not have been Ogygia, the is- at Thebes, and earlier stories such as the land of Calypso, and that this island could deluge and the creation of man. Oral tra- not have been placed in the far West of dition is behind the repetition of phrases, the Mediterranean, either.3 The arguments I brought then will be summarized at the 1 See, for example, A. Ballabriga (1998). R. Hen- 4 nig (1934), L. Edmunds (1997), 434–435, P. Fabre end of this paper. Today, however, I am (1994–1995), P. Fabre (1998), 81–93, and A. Ballabriga (2001), 59–67, discuss the two theories, the veracity of 2 B. Fenik (1974), 172–231. Homer’s account and the doubt it has recently fallen into 3 H.C.R. Vella (1995a), 19–22; H.C.R. Vella of whether it actually happened. Several other authors, (1995b), 10–18; H.C.R. (2002), 148–156. however, have talked about the importance of Homer 4 W.S. Anderson (1958), 6, refers also to Pliny and for our understanding of Greek adventure and coloniza- Dio Cassius. He says that Strabo located Ogygia in the tion in Italy and Sicily, for which see, for example, O. Atlantic Ocean. Hence, this contradicts Strabo himself Murray (1988–1989), 1–17. when elsewhere he identifies it with Gaudos. 7 proposing that Odysseus did come to Mal- important to appreciate the fact that in his ta, but to the bigger island as Thrinacia. journeys from Thrace to Phaeacia, Odys- This paper intends to first put Thrinacia seus was not travelling in a world of re- in the perspective of the itinerary of Odys- ality where he could decide where to go seus. To enable us understand the geogra- and what route to take, but in a world of phy of the Mediterranean and the reason fantasy where gods and monsters, and why certain routes were adopted and oth- ghosts from the Underworld had control of ers avoided, Odysseus’ itinerary is here his destiny for nine whole years. This last compared to that of Aeneas as reported in point, however, should not lead us to think Vergil’s Aeneid and, to a much lesser ex- that geography meant nothing for Homer tent, to that of Jason and the Argonauts as as it did for Eratosthenes and Aristarchus.6 given in Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonau- Other modern authors would postulate that tica. Following the discussion on the Is- the itinerary of Odysseus was real only in land of Thrinacia, this paper will also take the mind of colonists from Greece to Italy, the opportunity of discussing the location a theory supported by later Greek authors 7 of Ogygia, the landmark after Thrinacia, like Timaeus, Lycophron and Strabo. and the confusion that Classical and mod- Phillips would say that Odysseus’ journey ern authors created when they transposed from Circe’s island to the end could be re- Melite and Ogygia from the Adriatic Sea, traced geographically, but not the incidents 8 as indicated by Apollonius of Rhodes, to prior to that. The whole purpose of this our waters at the centre of the Mediterra- paper is, in fact, to identify the places Od- nean Sea. ysseus visits, Thrinacia in particular, and to form the correct picture of his itinerary, The adventures of Odysseus which still is not clear to scholars. The Odyssey’s world of fantasy is basi- The adventures of Odysseus may be classi- cally a real world, geographically speak- fied under three different worlds: the world of fantasy, which was a world of punish- ment for Odysseus’ men for having com- those of the Sirens, Polyphemus and Scylla and Cha- rybdis. Further on, the adventures of Odysseus, see K. mitted hybris in the land of the Thracians Reinhardt (1996), 63–132. after leaving Troy; the world of idealism, 6 E. Lévy (2004), 273. For the absence of real geo- that is, Phaeacia, where Odysseus, the graphy in Odysseus’ account, see G.K. Gresseth (1970), 208, and E. Pellizer (2004–2005), 59–71. On the con- sole survivor from the world of fantasy, is trary, the reality of these countries visited by Odysseus treated like a god in ideal circumstances; in the world of fantasy has been confirmed by similar travels in the footsteps of Odysseus, of which we may and the world of realism which he has to mention E. Bradford (1963), T. Severin (1987), J. Cuise- face on reaching Ithaca and his palace be- nier (2001), and S. Huler (2008). On the identification of set by his wife’s suitors.5 This statement is places visited by Odysseus around Sicily and elsewhe- re, see V.D. Pantazis (1996) and L. Palermo (1997), 95–124. On a symbolic interpretation of Odysseus’ tra- 5 H.C.R. Vella (1991), 148–162. E. Abrahamson vels, see A. Moreau (1994), 25–66. On a comparison (1956), 313–316, divided these adventures into two: of Odysseus’ navigation with those of the Myceneans Calypso and the Phaeacians, making a world of super- and Greeks in the 8th century, see F. Rodríguez Adrados humans, reported by the poet himself, and the world (1999), 57–68. of suffering, narrated by Odysseus himself, where the 7 See, for example, E.D. Phillips (1953), 53–67. narrator’s curiosity meets various challenges, such as 8 E.D. Phillips (1953), 61. 8 ing, but immersed in a mythological one. referred to this technique of representing The expression that “a world is mytho- two worlds in one and the same work as logical” is often taken to mean “an unreal “tales in different dimensions”.11 world”. But mythology is reality camou- The ancient Greeks considered their flaged by an outer dress we do not always centre of their world of reality to be based understand. Homer imagined that for his at the omphalos within the shrine of Del- epic’s hero there were three worlds, as phi, despite the fact that they established, mentioned above, which co-existed, and in due course, various omphaloi in various that there were boundaries among them. locations out of cultural pursuits. The pe- These worlds were not created by Homer, riphery of their world of reality excluded, but adopted by him from other sources in primitive times, the areas of central like those of Apollonius of Rhodes’ Ar- and western Mediterranean,12 froth with gonautica. Only the punishable people uncivilized and dangerous folk, immortal found themselves thrown into this world and possessive goddesses and great storms of fantasy, and they could be saved from at sea.13 It is in this geographical scenario it depending on their willingness to purify that we have to fit the geographical real- themselves of their sins. The similarity of ity of Odysseus’ mythological encounters stories in the Odyssey and the Argonautica in his Apologoi, that is, his report to King can be compared to other non-Greek tales,9 Alcinous and the Phaeacians. but these tales, often mixed with real ones, In all, Odysseus passed by or visited were the medium used to recall some real the following places from Troy to Ithaca: and important events, as that of the return Book IX: The land of Cicones (39–61: of heroes after a long military enterprise 23 ll.), the Island of Malea (80: 1 l.), the overseas. Island of Cythera (81: 1 l.), the land of the In the Odyssey, only Odysseus, out of a Lotus-Eaters (82–104: 23 ll.), and the Cyc- fleet of twelve ships, makes it back to the lopes (105–566: 462 ll.). Total: 5 places; world of reality, and that after nine years of Book X: The Island of Aeolia (1–27: great suffering. Cape Malea in the South of 27 ll.), the Island of Ithaca (28–52: 25 ll.), the Peloponnesus set him off into this world Aeolia again (53–79: 27 ll.), the land of the of fantasy, while Scherie, after Ogygia, Laestrygonians (80–132: 53 ll.), and the served as transitional return to the world Island of Aeaea (133–574: 442 ll.).