DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1038#0042
31
minations, which trade to every part of the Mediterranean,
and from which four might be selected capable of trans-
porting the whole army of Ulysses to the shores of Asia.
The number of inhabitants is estimated, on a moderate
computation, at 8,000, and of these 2,000 live in the city.
This allows somewhat more than four persons to each house,
a number which is usually admitted in calculating the po-
pulation of other Greek towns by the quantity of habita-
tions.
The number of sailors employed in the navigation of so
many vessels has reduced the value of land, with the means
of cultivation ; yet since the ruin of Naples, the Italian
sailors have entered into the commercial service of Ithaca,
and the want of hands may, perhaps, in a few years, be less
felt than at present. Many who have supposed that
Homer was an inhabitant of Ithaca, have imagined, per-
haps without reason, that the poet has introduced in the
Odyssey so many expressions of abhorrence, and dread of
the sea, that he might deter the Ithacenses, by a descrip-
tion of dangers and hardships, from a violent inclination
for a sea-faring life. We were informed, that even the
minations, which trade to every part of the Mediterranean,
and from which four might be selected capable of trans-
porting the whole army of Ulysses to the shores of Asia.
The number of inhabitants is estimated, on a moderate
computation, at 8,000, and of these 2,000 live in the city.
This allows somewhat more than four persons to each house,
a number which is usually admitted in calculating the po-
pulation of other Greek towns by the quantity of habita-
tions.
The number of sailors employed in the navigation of so
many vessels has reduced the value of land, with the means
of cultivation ; yet since the ruin of Naples, the Italian
sailors have entered into the commercial service of Ithaca,
and the want of hands may, perhaps, in a few years, be less
felt than at present. Many who have supposed that
Homer was an inhabitant of Ithaca, have imagined, per-
haps without reason, that the poet has introduced in the
Odyssey so many expressions of abhorrence, and dread of
the sea, that he might deter the Ithacenses, by a descrip-
tion of dangers and hardships, from a violent inclination
for a sea-faring life. We were informed, that even the