DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0085
68 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
" double harbor." But there is time for many changes
in three thousand years. Taking this little island as
a fixed and necessary point in the identification, we
are obliged, then, to assume some other place for the
town of Ithaca than the present site of Vathy. The
fact that Poll's means " city " in Greek, and that this
name has been applied to the harbor on the north-
west coast for centuries, creates a presumption that
the ancient city may have been there.
There are other questions which meet the Homeric
student: Where was the cave of the Nymphs, and
where did Odysseus land when he returned to Ithaca?
About a mile and a half to the south of Vathy is a
cave with stalactites, called Paljcokropi, which might
have served as the grotto of the Nymphs, — though
if the Nymphs do not belong to the world of reality,
their grotto might be easily and pardonably myth-
ical. The description of the harbor of Phorcys is
quite definite. Some find its correspondent in the
Bay of Dexia, and others in the Bay of Vathy.
The result of examination—the ascent of Aetos,
the wet trip to Stavros, and a study of Vathy and
the Gulf of Molo — convinced me that many of the
topographical allusions in the Odyssey cannot be
easily identified in detail. A theory which fits one
locality and one allusion is sure to involve contradic-
tion and misfit with another allusion. On the other
hand, if we may dismiss as the mistake of some
rhapsodist who had never been to Ithaca, the state-
ment as to the westerly position of the island, we
cannot fail to find a striking general resemblance to
the rugged, far-seen, rocky isle described in the
Odyssey. It seems to me that the original rhapso-
" double harbor." But there is time for many changes
in three thousand years. Taking this little island as
a fixed and necessary point in the identification, we
are obliged, then, to assume some other place for the
town of Ithaca than the present site of Vathy. The
fact that Poll's means " city " in Greek, and that this
name has been applied to the harbor on the north-
west coast for centuries, creates a presumption that
the ancient city may have been there.
There are other questions which meet the Homeric
student: Where was the cave of the Nymphs, and
where did Odysseus land when he returned to Ithaca?
About a mile and a half to the south of Vathy is a
cave with stalactites, called Paljcokropi, which might
have served as the grotto of the Nymphs, — though
if the Nymphs do not belong to the world of reality,
their grotto might be easily and pardonably myth-
ical. The description of the harbor of Phorcys is
quite definite. Some find its correspondent in the
Bay of Dexia, and others in the Bay of Vathy.
The result of examination—the ascent of Aetos,
the wet trip to Stavros, and a study of Vathy and
the Gulf of Molo — convinced me that many of the
topographical allusions in the Odyssey cannot be
easily identified in detail. A theory which fits one
locality and one allusion is sure to involve contradic-
tion and misfit with another allusion. On the other
hand, if we may dismiss as the mistake of some
rhapsodist who had never been to Ithaca, the state-
ment as to the westerly position of the island, we
cannot fail to find a striking general resemblance to
the rugged, far-seen, rocky isle described in the
Odyssey. It seems to me that the original rhapso-