DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0234
208
CRETE AND THE HOMERIC POEMS
Dr. Drerup 1 that the origin of the Odyssey is to be
sought for in Crete ; but it can be at once granted that
attention has been unduly concentrated on Ithaca,
Leukas, and Corcyra, while the numerous references in the
Odyssey to the topography of Crete 8 have been neglected.
We must not press too hard the alleged Southern char-
acter of the flora of the poem—its laurel, cypress, palm,
and lotus, and the cultivation of the fig and olive.3
The Phaeacians, however, themselves, mariners, artists,
feasters, dancers, are surely the Minoans of Crete.4 In
one passage in the Seventh Book,5 as Dr. Drerup suggests,6
the secret is out. Alkinoos is telling Odysseus that the
Phueacians will take him home, even if it be farther than
Euboea, the farthest place in the world, where they once
took Rhadamanthus. It is a bad comparison if the
point of view, as is ordinarily held, is that of Corcyra, a
good one if it is that of Crete. And was not Rhada-
1 Homer, 1903, pp. 130-5. Fick. V.O. p. 7, makes a similar
suggestion for his " Tisis," or second part of the Odyssey, but
the seventh-century date to which he still assigns it makes his
views irrelevant to the present argument.
5 iii. 291-300, xix. 172-9, 188-9, 200, 338.
' ix. 183, iii. 64, vi. 163, ix. 93, vii. 116, xxiv. 246.
4 vi. 266, 270, vii. 34, 86-102, viii. 247-50, 370-80; cp.
xiv. 224, for Cretan love of the sen. It may be noticed in passing
that viii. 246, which denies the Phn?acians boxing, is on this
theory an unfortunate line in view of pp. 34-5.
6 321-4-
* Op. cit. pp. 135, 145 ; I had myself independently drawn the
same inference from this passage, but Drerup anticipated me. I
may add that this very passage, with its miraculous journey
to Ithaca and back in a single day, might, when misunderstood,
have done something to create the belief in classical Corcyra
that it was Phaeacia (Thuc. i. 26, iii. 70). There may, too, have
been genuine Minoan traditions in the island to help this out.
As we have seen (p. 13), there was a Minoa there. Is Od. vi.
4-8, with its original home of the DuTacians " in Hypereia, near
the Cyclopes," a dim memory of the links that connected Crete
and Sicily ? See pp. 12-3, 42, 115.
CRETE AND THE HOMERIC POEMS
Dr. Drerup 1 that the origin of the Odyssey is to be
sought for in Crete ; but it can be at once granted that
attention has been unduly concentrated on Ithaca,
Leukas, and Corcyra, while the numerous references in the
Odyssey to the topography of Crete 8 have been neglected.
We must not press too hard the alleged Southern char-
acter of the flora of the poem—its laurel, cypress, palm,
and lotus, and the cultivation of the fig and olive.3
The Phaeacians, however, themselves, mariners, artists,
feasters, dancers, are surely the Minoans of Crete.4 In
one passage in the Seventh Book,5 as Dr. Drerup suggests,6
the secret is out. Alkinoos is telling Odysseus that the
Phueacians will take him home, even if it be farther than
Euboea, the farthest place in the world, where they once
took Rhadamanthus. It is a bad comparison if the
point of view, as is ordinarily held, is that of Corcyra, a
good one if it is that of Crete. And was not Rhada-
1 Homer, 1903, pp. 130-5. Fick. V.O. p. 7, makes a similar
suggestion for his " Tisis," or second part of the Odyssey, but
the seventh-century date to which he still assigns it makes his
views irrelevant to the present argument.
5 iii. 291-300, xix. 172-9, 188-9, 200, 338.
' ix. 183, iii. 64, vi. 163, ix. 93, vii. 116, xxiv. 246.
4 vi. 266, 270, vii. 34, 86-102, viii. 247-50, 370-80; cp.
xiv. 224, for Cretan love of the sen. It may be noticed in passing
that viii. 246, which denies the Phn?acians boxing, is on this
theory an unfortunate line in view of pp. 34-5.
6 321-4-
* Op. cit. pp. 135, 145 ; I had myself independently drawn the
same inference from this passage, but Drerup anticipated me. I
may add that this very passage, with its miraculous journey
to Ithaca and back in a single day, might, when misunderstood,
have done something to create the belief in classical Corcyra
that it was Phaeacia (Thuc. i. 26, iii. 70). There may, too, have
been genuine Minoan traditions in the island to help this out.
As we have seen (p. 13), there was a Minoa there. Is Od. vi.
4-8, with its original home of the DuTacians " in Hypereia, near
the Cyclopes," a dim memory of the links that connected Crete
and Sicily ? See pp. 12-3, 42, 115.