''Odysseus Unbound'' is a 2005 book by Robert Bittlestone, with appendices by the philologist

James Diggle James Diggle, (born 1944) is a British classical scholar. He was Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Cambridge between 1995 and 2011. Early life and education Born in 1944, Diggle was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge; he ...

and the geologist John Underhill. The book investigates the location of

Homer's Ithaca Ithaca (; Greek: Ιθάκη, ''Ithakē'') was, in Greek mythology, the island home of the hero Odysseus. The specific location of the island, as it was described in Homer's ''Odyssey'', is a matter for debate. There have been various theories ...

, arguing that

Paliki Paliki ( el, Παλική) is a peninsula and a former municipality on the island of Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece. At the 2011 local government reform it became part of the municipality Kefalonia. In 2019 this municipality was divided int ...

, a peninsula of

Kefalonia Kefalonia or Cephalonia ( el, Κεφαλονιά), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It ...

, was an island at the time of the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...

, and that it was the island referred to as Ithaca in the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

''. The accuracy of Homer's geography has been disputed since antiquity, and Bittlestone's book is one of several published by non-academic authors in the 1990s and 2000s that attempts to identify Homer's Ithaca based on the geographical evidence given in the ''Odyssey''. Bittlestone's argument that Paliki should be identified with Homer's Ithaca has received favourable reviews, with Mary Beard considering that there is "a very fair chance indeed" that he is correct, and Peter Green calling it "almost certainly correct". However, reviewers criticised the hyperbolic claims made for the book. G. L. Huxley and Christina Haywood both criticised ''Odysseus Unbound'' for not taking the argument that Homer's Ithaca was the same island as modern Ithaca seriously enough, and Huxley argues that even if Bittlestone's case that Paliki was once a separate island from Kefalonia is accepted, the book does not prove that it is the location of Homer's Ithaca. Haywood concludes that Bittlestone "was carried too far by his enthusiasm", while Beard, though convinced by the argument that Paliki was an island in the Mycenaean period, concludes that "the end of the book descends into fantasy", and criticises Bittlestone for his excessive concern with speculatively identifying every geographical feature of Ithaca mentioned in the ''Odyssey'' with a real location on Paliki.

References

Works cited

* * * * *

External links

''Odysseus Unbound'' websiteJames Diggle, Emeritus Professor of Greek and Latin, Cambridge University
{{Odyssey navbox Odyssey Ithaca Cephalonia Hypotheses 2005 non-fiction books Ancient Greek geography Homeric scholarship