DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1755#0410
IS THE MODERN ITHACA THE ITHACA OF HOMER?
355
but of which no sailor who had seen the place, could, by tracing for him with his
finger a map upon the sea-shore, have ever given him an idea. In order, there-
fore, to delineate for ourselves the Homeric chart of the kingdom of Ulysses,
we are called upon to treat the modern Ithaca with the same contemptuous
usage with which it is said the Sublime Porte once menaced some refractory
islanders, when they were told that, if they did not obey the edict which had
been sent them, they and their country should be swamped in the sea; if
Thiaki is permitted to survive any longer, it is ordered to sail from its present
position, and, after a short cruise in the Ionian sea, to cast anchor on the
western, instead of the eastern, side of the island of Cephai.lonia.
CEI'HAI.LONIA IIIIIM THE SKA.
We are assured, that, however we may lament the fact, the sentence of
transportation has been passed upon Ithaca, in the lines of the Odyssey in
which Ulysses gives a history of himself to Alcinous. They occur near the
commencement of the ninth book.
" I dwell in sunny Ithaca, where waves
With woods the hill of Neritos ; around.
Close to each other, many Islands lie,
Dulichiura, Same, woody Zacynthus—
It stedfast stands, highest above the wave,
Westward ; the rest apart, to eastern sun.
Hugged, hut kindly, nurse of youth; and I
A land more dear than this shall never see."
It is alleged that, in these verses, Ithaca is placed to the west of the other
elands, whereas, in fact, it is to the east of them; nor can it be denied that
2 Y
355
but of which no sailor who had seen the place, could, by tracing for him with his
finger a map upon the sea-shore, have ever given him an idea. In order, there-
fore, to delineate for ourselves the Homeric chart of the kingdom of Ulysses,
we are called upon to treat the modern Ithaca with the same contemptuous
usage with which it is said the Sublime Porte once menaced some refractory
islanders, when they were told that, if they did not obey the edict which had
been sent them, they and their country should be swamped in the sea; if
Thiaki is permitted to survive any longer, it is ordered to sail from its present
position, and, after a short cruise in the Ionian sea, to cast anchor on the
western, instead of the eastern, side of the island of Cephai.lonia.
CEI'HAI.LONIA IIIIIM THE SKA.
We are assured, that, however we may lament the fact, the sentence of
transportation has been passed upon Ithaca, in the lines of the Odyssey in
which Ulysses gives a history of himself to Alcinous. They occur near the
commencement of the ninth book.
" I dwell in sunny Ithaca, where waves
With woods the hill of Neritos ; around.
Close to each other, many Islands lie,
Dulichiura, Same, woody Zacynthus—
It stedfast stands, highest above the wave,
Westward ; the rest apart, to eastern sun.
Hugged, hut kindly, nurse of youth; and I
A land more dear than this shall never see."
It is alleged that, in these verses, Ithaca is placed to the west of the other
elands, whereas, in fact, it is to the east of them; nor can it be denied that
2 Y