Incidently, this is the first time I've used Google Earth...I see another time sink in my future...
Posted on 09/23/2005 7:37:53 PM PDT by wagglebee
But wait! The prophecy concerning Ulysses was that when he finally got home from Troy he would place an oar upon his shoulder, walk inland and when someone asked him why he was carrying a winowing fan on his shoulder, that would be the place he would settle down.
Maybe that was the place.
There are a lot of details in Homer that seem to be authentic Bronze Age features (not only with weapons, armor, the walls and location of Troy, etc. but also details about Odysseus' ship and such) that had changed by the time of Homer, suggesting the stories have at least a Bronze Age core to them. I'm not sure if archaeology will ever answer questions such as wether the Trojan War was really started over Helen and ended with a wooden horse, though.
My thoughts exactly. The existence of this brooch is not proof. Homer's work was so widely performed that most people would have heard it, and anyone who was interested and who had the money could have had such a brooch created for them.
Be pretty cool if this is true, though!
Incidently, this is the first time I've used Google Earth...I see another time sink in my future...
LOL. I just suffered through his audio narration of the L.A. King Tut exhibit. What a drama queen! There was interesting stuff to see but the exhibit was so badly organized and the signing was so bad you had to be very determined to get through it all, especially with Zahi's overripe commentary. I think he's mostly a creation of National Geographic.
Could be an direct ancestor of Mullah Omar.
Man I was there last september. My wife is greek and she has a home not 5 miles from Poros in Valeriano. My father in law always said theat Odyssous was from Kefalonia. I guess he was right all along.
ping
Wine dark sea bump.
This is so cool. FYI: Victor Hanson has written about Greek warfare.
That's what I was thinking. If I lived in the area in ancient times and had the financial means to duplicate the brooch, I sure would have. Much like finding a copy today of the necklace described in the Titanic movie would not validate the story of Jack and Rose.
Or a modern Chamber-of-Commerce type could have had a forgery made, with an eye to revving up the tourist trade.
-ccm
I'm happy to know both men lived, and it gives some degree of pleasure to contemplate that their legends have managed to survived the passage of time to our day.
Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
Well, we already know where to find Harpies; Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer.
Now, where would we look for Medusa?
"Many moons ago when I was contemplating college, archaeology was a strong draw. But then I thought, how could a 17 yr old from Illinois ever become an archaeologist. My regret."
Maybe. I regret not having the common sense to pick a major that would have given me a good-paying job, and the struggles that have ensued. I suspect I would envy the choice you made and I would not, personally, recommend that anyone try to become an antrhopologist. (I was an English major.)
Yea man , I can hear Jack Bruce singing it now .
Excellent post but I'm not convinced the evidence presented proves all that much .
"I think it is fascinating that this find supports the theory that Odysseus was a real king, not something dreamed up to pass time around a campfire. It has been reported in recent years that Gilgamesh, too, was a historical figure due to finds in Iraq.
I'm happy to know both men lived, and it gives some degree of pleasure to contemplate that their legends have managed to survived the passage of time to our day."
Fascinating yes. Surprising to me, no. I don't know if you know about Colonel Anthony Herbert (Soldier, The Making of Soldier). He was the most decorated American soldier in the Korean War. His career ended in Vietnam, when he was essentially driven out of the military in large part by a set of trumped up charges brought by jealous colleagues (legally, the charges failed). General Westmoreland sued him for $1 million because Herbert called him a liar in reference to body counts (the lawsuit failed.)
If a fictionalized version of this guy survives into the future, it will be as a myth. His story (the combat in Korea) is, in a practical sense, unbelievable. Yet it happened. His story made me realize that there are people who take life to another level. When the area of life is combat, the results are incredible. Hence, the origin of myths, in my opinion.
Actually, Anthropology rather than archeology can answer some of the questions surrounding the Trojan War.
Wife stealing is not an unknown phenomenon in many cultures and is still, in this day and age, a cause for war in many primitive cultures. However, whether Helen actually existed or is merely a metaphor for something else remains to be seen --- it's quite possible that Paris did in fact steal something or give offense, but that propaganda required him to be villified in the worst possible way in order to form an alliance of Greeks. Accusing him of stealing another man's wife would most certainly have offended the civilized Greeks.
As for the Trojan Horse, anthropology might explain that too. The Greeks were the inventors of face-to-face annihilation battle. Honor and the "rules of war" as they existed at the time required a battle to be won by sheer musce power and numbers, not by trickery. Anyone who would have used brains instead of brawn on the battlefield would have been suspect. Somehow, Odysseus managed to trick the Trojans into defeat, but his explots might have disgraced him back at home.
Which might explain why Odysseus wandered for so long; he won the war, but in a dishonorable way, which caused the other Greeks to exile him.
Anyway, just an idea or two...
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