THERE are only two spots or districts, with the topography of which the Homeric poems deal in minute detail the Plain of Troy, and the island of Ithaca. The indications supplied by the Poet in the case of the Plain are numerous and minute, as they are in the case of the island; and his account of the geography of its neighbourhood, so far as he has given one, is clear and accurate. But the points extraneous to Ithaca, yet connected with it, are named in a manner which has led to much dispute, with little, if any, admitted progress towards a settlement: and the local data have not been examined with so much of precision and impartiality as those of the Plain. The quarto of Sir William Gell,1 dealing with an island not seventeen miles long, and of a maximum breadth under four miles, which sinks to a minimum of half a mile, though it is not without value, renders us less service than might have been expected. The author is too ready in his identifications, and does not sufficiently go to close quarters with the text of the Poet. To this text I shall adhere, without attempting a review of the controversy, such as may be found at great length in Buchholz.2 But

those who wish to see the fragments of information from the text in orderly arrangement, and severed from the infinity of discussion with which they have been overlaid, will find them in the third appendix to Mr. Merry's valuable edition of the Odyssey.3

With respect to the local traditions, which have been largely taken into view by some writers, I would observe that there was probably nothing to detract from their value in the time of Pausanias, of Strabo, or of the other ancients who have touched the question. But, in the troubles of the Eastern empire, Ithaca underwent grievous depopulation; and it seems to have been only by privileges which the Venetian Government found it expedient to offer, that new settlers were induced to replenish the body of its inhabitants.* This circumstance must tend greatly to abate the authority which any local tradition might have carried; particularly as to the identification of secondary points.

In considering the subject, I shall, as far as possible, divide the topography of Ithaca from the question of its geographical position, and its relation to the other dominions of Odysseus.

But it is necessary, at the outset, to dwell upon a distinction which has 3 Vol. i. p. 551. 4 Bowen's Ithaca, p. 9.

E E

not been sufficiently noticed, between the materials supplied by the two poems respectively. It is this: that they deal with different subjects. The Iliad treats only of the dominions of Odysseus; as its purpose is to give an account of the naval contingent which he led to Troy. The Odyssey does not deal with the dominions of Odysseus, as such, at all. It describes the body of Suitors, who were gathered together in the capital of Ithaca to woo Penelope, and who are there, not all as subjects, but all as neighbours. And it describes the places from which they came. These were entirely insular. But the dominions given in the Iliad included some strip or portion of the continent (Il. ii. 635) over against the islands and there, as we learn from the Odyssey, a portion of the live-stock belonging to the great chief were still kept after the War of Troy (xiv. 100). Let us now consider the passage from the Catalogue (Il. ii. 631-5) :—

Αὐτὰρ Οδυσσεύς ἦγε Κεφαλλήνας μεγαθύ

μους,

Οἵ ῥ' Ιθάκην εἶχον καὶ Νήριτον εἰνοσίφυλλον,

Καὶ Κροκύλει ̓ ἐνέμοντο καὶ Αἰγίλιπα τρηχείαν,

Οἵ τε Ζάκυνθον ἔχον, ἠδ' οἳ Σάμον ἀμφενέ

μοντο,

Οἵ τ ̓ ἤπειρον ἔχον, ἠδ ̓ ἀντιπέραι' ἐνέμοντο. Τῶν μὲν Οδυσσεύς ἦρχε, Διὶ μητιν ἀτάλ

αυτός.

Τῷ δ' ἅμα νῆες ἕποντο δυώδεκα μιλτοπάρῃοι.

1. We have here the gentile name Kephallenes, covering the whole dominions of Odysseus.

2. Coming to place-names, we have 'those who held Ithaca and Neritos, and dwelt in Krokuleia and Aigilips.'

3. As to Neritos, we know from the

"The gallant Cephallenes Odysseus led. Them Neritos, with high leaf-waving head, Them Krokuleia, and rough Aigilips Had reared in Ithaca. Twelve red-prowed ships

The isle, with Samos and Zakunthos, manned,

And with the Plains of the opposed strand. He, matching Zeus in counsel, ruled the band."

express testimony of Od. ix. 21 ( Sooos aury), that it is in Ithaca: so that Kai has here the force of "namely," or "including." This mode of expression is used elsewhere in the Catalogue: comp. 532, 3; 536, 7. There is therefore no improbability in supposing the names which follow Neritos, viz., that is to say, Krokuleia and Aigilips, to be in Ithaca also. But Heracleon, cited by Steph. Byzantius, says there were in his time four departments or districts of Ithaca; Krokuleia was one, and Aigireus, which bears an important resemblance to Aigilips, was another. Strabo, without argument, connects these names with Leucas. If Homer had intended this connection, he would without doubt, at the least, have marked off the line by the expression of rɛ, as he has done for Samos and Zante. If Odysseus had any concern with Leucas, it must have been for his continental settlement: for that district was then part of the mainland, and it may very well have been the Epeiros named in v. 635. But then Krokuleia and Aigilips would not have been named before Zakunthos and Samos, but after them, and would have been mentioned in connection with it. On the whole it seems plain that they were in Ithaca. This is the decided conclusion of Leake.

4. We next come to Samos; and we know expressly from the Odyssey (see inf.) that it was an island, that it lay very close to Ithaca (ix. 23), and that the two (Od. iv. 845) were separated by a mere strait. And the local name of Samos is still given to the remains of buildings, near the head of the bay so-called, in the island of Cefalonia.

5. As to Zakunthos, it is by all identified with Zante. It, too, is declared in the Odyssey to be an island, and to lie very close to the other islands. The shortest distance to it from Cefalonia is, however, eight miles.

6. We have lastly the Epeiros, a portion of the mainland ruled by Odysseus, and described as the avrimépaia to the islands, i.e., as facing them. This 2 Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 49.

seems to apply in an especial manner to the projection of Leucas; for it most pointedly faces the islands, and it is the nearest part of the mainland. The question is not immaterial, but may be postponed.

Thus we have the dominions of Odysseus clearly enough defined, as consisting of the three islands, with a morsel of the continent.

The only subject for surprise is that these territories, taken together, should have supplied no more than eleven ships, while Salamis alone gave twelve. But the whole narrative of the Odyssey appears to show that the kingdom of Odysseus was recent, and no more than partially organized. His genealogical line is short, beginning only with his grandfather Arkeisias. The Suitors do not deny the hereditary title of Telemachos; but, in the discussion with him, the question seems to be on both sides only this, who shall be king in Ithaca (Od. i. 387, 395, 401). It is probable, therefore, that the rule of Odysseus was but imperfectly established, and that he could not turn the whole resources of the islands to account. Even in Ithaca, on his return, a considerable part of the population took part against him (Od. xxiv. 463, 4).

But

We now change the scene: and we are introduced not to a political, but to a geographical aggregation. Odysseus gives an account of himself to Alkinoos, whose hospitality he had enjoyed, and whose favour he had won. he speaks of the country he inhabits, not of what he rules (Od. ix. 21).1 Ναιετάω δ' Ιθάκην εὐδείελον· ἐν δ' ὄρος αὐτῇ, Νήριτον εἰνοσίφυλλον, αριπρεπές· ἀμφὶ δὲ νῆσοι Πολλαὶ ναιετάουσι, μάλα σχεδὸν ἀλλήλῃσιν,

1 Thus rendered by the lamented Worsley: "And sunward Ithaca, my country dear, I boast. Still Neritos stands waving there His green trees visible for many a mile, Centre of soils divine, which, clustering near, Stars of the blue sea, round about him smile, Dulichium, Samè steep, Zacynthus' woodcrowned isle.

Thus lies the land high-tabled in the main Westward: the others take the morning sun."

Δουλίχιόν τε, Σάμη τε καὶ ὑλήεσσα Ζάκυν θος

Αὐτὴ δὲ χθαμαλὴ πανυπερτάτη εἶν ἁλὶ

κεῖται

Πρὸς ζόφον αἱ δέ τ' ἄνευθε πρὸς Κῶ τ'
Ηέλιόν τε.

This is one of a number of passages? which fix, beyond all doubt, that in the mind of Homer not Ithaca only, but all the other three places or regions named were islands.

And this may be the place to observe that, in my opinion, a false method has been far too much observed in dealing with Homeric geography. It has been a practice to take the map as we know it, and the text of the poems; and then, assuming that these are the proper and only materials of comparison and judgment, to found inquiry upon this narrow and inadeBut Homer had no map. quate basis. He had his eye,3 and he had the reports of others; and out of these he had to construct a map in his own brain. And a valuable one it might be for a small district, which the eye could embrace, and which his eye probably had embraced, such as the Plain of Troy. Again, great and familiar lines of passage over larger spaces might so adjust themselves as to be conceived in a manner approximately right. Under the first of these heads he has given, as I myself can in some degree testify from having visited the place, a good and just account of the general conformation of Ithaca. Under the second, he seems to have had a reasonably true conception of the coast of Greece, from the Gulf of Lepanto round to Negropont, as to its general outline, and of its position relatively to the Archipelago and the west coast of Asia Minor. But, except as to cases governed by such rules, he had no means of approach to accuracy as to measurements and directions; and it is an entire mistake to take the map for an authoritative standard in interpreting the text, and to suppose our only choice Od., i. 246; ix. 24; xvi. 123.

3 See an instance of this, in respect to Samothrace and Imbros, in Eothen, ch. iv. ad finem.

is between this laid down in it. is carefully to construe the text as it is, and then to construct a geography according to it: and however wide this may be of the map, it is the true, and the only true, Homeric geography.

place and that, as What we have to do

We are here then in a serious difficulty. Three of our four islands, subject to questions of detail, we have got; Ithaca, Samos or Samè, and Zante. But now we are introduced, by words as plain as words can be, to Doulichion as a fourth island; while there is no corresponding fourth island in rerum naturâ.

For, observe, it must lie quite close to the remainder of the group (v. 23). Nor is this all. Because we might look out for some small and insignificant island situate close at hand, and fasten on it this name. There are two such islands at least which might just serve the turn, lying within five miles of the coast of Ithaca. But from this supposition we are debarred by copious and conclusive evidence in the text to the relative importance of Doulichion. First, there is the precedence uniformly given to this island over the considerable names of Same and of Zante. Secondly, it is against the method of Homer to introduce a place a place quite insignificant among others that are significant, without noting the difference, and without cause for failing to note it. Thirdly he has, for each of these islands, its distinctive epithet. Zante is well-wooded (vý Od. ix. 24, et alibi), Samè, or Samos, is rugged, craggy (aadóes 01. iv. 845), and Doulichion is πολύπυρος, rich in corn (Od. xvi. 396), and ones, rich in herbage (Ibid.) These words are absolutely inapplicable to the small and barren islets of which I have spoken, and likewise to the mere rocks at the mouth of the Alpheios, which are called Echinades, from their resemblance to the rough bristling appearance of the urchin. But there is yet more conclusive evidence of the relative

1 Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 51.

importance of Doulichion; and this in both the poems.

In the Iliad, Meges leads a contingent of no less than forty ships, drawn from Doulichion and the Echinades, or Echinai, as they were then called. Those islands being so small and rocky, it is felt that the bulk of this force must have been from Doulichion (Il. ii. 631-5). In the Odyssey, Homer, following the method of the Greek Catalogue, conveys to us his estimate of places and districts, as to comparative resources, through his account of the numbers proceeding from them respectively of ships in the one case, of suitors in the other. Ithaca yields 12 suitors; Zante 20; Samè 24; and Doulichion no less than 52, with a supply of six dрηoτñρes or tableservants (Od. xvi. 248). The inference according to Homeric rules would be that Doulichion was, speaking roughly, about equivalent to all the rest in importance and this, or more than this, would also be suggested by the passage in the Iliad.

We cannot then find the Doulichion of Homer in any of the insignificant islands in the vicinity which remain free for appropriation to Homeric names and no other island is avail

able for the purpose. Plainly therefore the poet is not in accordance at this point with the actual geography. That is, he is in error. But his error may have been no more than partial. Was it so ? Is there any supposition, inaccurate indeed, yet such that he may easily have been led into it by the facts of the actual geography imperfectly comprehended?

The answer is not far to seek. We have only to suppose that both the names Doulichion and Samè had for him their counterpart in the modern Cefalonia. He believed it not to be one island, but two.

This suggested solution of the difficulty should be tried by three tests. First and foremost, by the text of the poems.

Secondly, by the testimony of the ancients to the local traditions.

Thirdly, by the facts of geography. I. As to the text of the poems. If we divide Cefalonia as is now proposed, Homer's description of the group of islands as all lying close together, at once becomes just. The maximum distance is that of Zante, which is eight miles from the nearest point of Cefalonia. The strait between this island and Ithaca is from two to four miles broad. If Homer conceived of it as divided into two, the notion must have been founded either on the bay of Samos, which pierces it from the east, or, and perhaps more especially, on the remarkable harbour of Argostoli, which goes far towards cutting off a large slice of the island on the west. It is of a mile or more in breadth.

Again, we must further consider the epithets by which Homer distinguishes his islands. Zante is wooded (vλý); Samos is towering and beetling (aTalós); Doulichion is rich in corn (ToUupos); it even exported grain, and a Thesprotian ship is represented as coming to fetch it (Od. xiv. 335). Fabulously represented, it is true, in a fictitious tale of Odysseus; but this shows all the more conclusively that the traffic was familiarly known, as the object of course was to frame a narrative which, from its conformity to notorious facts, would be unlikely to create suspicion. Of these threethe wooded island, the craggy island, and the corn-island-it is plain that, relatively to size, the last would be by far the largest in resources. We are therefore to suppose, in dividing Cefalonia, that Homer assigned to the name Doulichion either the largest, or the most fertile and populous part of the island. What we know from the text is, that the Poet placed Samos on the side of the island nearest Ithaca, while he called it beetling and craggy. Now Cefalonia contains one great mountain of 5,000 feet high, called Mount Elato, and by the Italians Mount Nero. It is a very conspicuous object indeed I have myself seen it from Mount Salvador at the north

:

eastern extremity of Corfu. It is quite certain that Mount Elato was the foundation of the Homeric epithet paipaloeis, for there is no other eminence in the island which approaches it, though a ridge of perhaps one-third the height runs along the whole on the western side, up to the northern extremity. It rises over the remains of the town of Samos, and lies in the southern and eastern corner of the island. Thus the descriptive epithet of Homer is borne out and we have the whole western portion of the island free for a rich and fertile Doulichion, such as he conceived it. Near it, to the westward of the pro longed ridge running from Elato, down to this day we find all the principal towns and the principal culture of the island: Argostoli, Lixuri, and Livadho.' The culture has changed, it is true, from corn to currants. This change may have been connected with the disappearance of wood and diminution of moisture; but the presence of the population on the western side leaves the comparison very much where it was. The ridge running close along the eastern coast, from the northern point to the bay of Samè, sufficiently explains to us why that name alone is associated in the Odyssey with the strait, which had a ferry over it (d. iv. 845, xx. 127). From this very spot the route, which I have myself traversed, still crosses to the western side of the island.

But here we have to encounter an adverse argument from Strabo, who, differing from the general sense of antiquity, refuses to associate Doulichion with Cefalonia, and sets the name upon one of the barren rocks called Echinades. In this paradox he does not seem to be followed with confidence by the moderns. Leake, for example, apparently forgetting the positive proof from the Odyssey that Doulichion was an island, verbally assents to Strabo, yet supposes it may have been wholly or principally on the Acarnanian shore, opposite the 1 Leake, vol. iii. pp. 60, 1. 2 Vol. iii. p. 51.