Théophile Cailleux (1816–1890) was a Belgian lawyer, born in Calais in France and the author of a work on

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

ic geography published in 1878. The title is ''Pays atlantiques décrits par Homère: Ibérie, Gaule, Bretagne, Archipels, Amériques. Théorie nouvelle'' ("Atlantic lands described by Homer: the Iberian peninsula, Gaul, Britain, the Atlantic islands, the Americas. A new theory"). As the title suggests, Cailleux took the unusual view that the geographical background to the events described in the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

'' and ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

'' was the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, and not the shores of the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

and

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

. The book was published in Paris by Maisonneuve.

Theoretical work

Cailleux wrote that

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

was situated in East Anglia where he had discovered two huge war-dykes between

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

and

the Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it is fed by the riv ...

. Here, he identified the river Cam with the ''

's''

Scamander Scamander (; also Skamandros ( grc, Σκάμανδρος) or Xanthos () was a river god in Greek mythology. Etymology The meaning of this name is uncertain. The second element looks like it is derived from Greek () meaning 'of a man', but t ...

and the river

Great Ouse The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the W ...

with

's Simoïs. He was convinced that Homeric Troy was once situated on the heights outside Cambridge known as the

Gog Magog Hills The Gog Magog Hills are a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge in England. The highest points are situated either side of the A1307 Babraham Road, and are marked on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps as ...

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

, he believed, should be sought in south-west Spain, in the delta of the

Guadalete The Guadalete River is located almost entirely in the Spanish Province of Cádiz, rising in the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park at an elevation of about , and running for into the Bay of Cádiz at El Puerto de Santa Maria, north of the city of C ...

, somewhere between

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the c ...

and Cadiz. He found the spring Arethusa: the present Fuente Amarga near

Chiclana de la Frontera Chiclana de la Frontera () is a town and municipality in southwestern Spain, in the province of Cádiz, Andalucía, near the Gulf of Cádiz. It belongs to the association of municipalities of the Bay of Cádiz (Bahía de Cádiz), the provincial c ...

, well known for its therapeutic waters, and identified Ithaca's Mount Neriton with the Nertobriga (briga meaning mountain in Celtic), a height figuring on a map of southern

Celtiberia The Celtiberians were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples inhabiting an area in the central-northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries BCE. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors (e.g. Strab ...

by the 2nd century Greek geographer

Ptolemaeus Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

. Cailleux's work followed fairly soon after

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeolog ...

's triumphant demonstration that Troy and

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; grc, Μυκῆναι or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. ...

existed as powerful cities at the right time and in the right place to have fought a

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 ...

such as the epics describe (see for example Schliemann's ''Ithaka, der Peloponnesus und Troja'', 1868). The need for geographical speculation had thus been to some extent removed, and Cailleux was not taken seriously by Homeric scholars or archaeologists.

Bibliography

*''Origine celtique de la civilisation de tous les peuples. Théorie nouvelle'', Paris, 1878. *''Pays atlantiques décrits par Homère. Ibérie, Gaule, Bretagne, Archipels, Amérique'', Paris, 1878. *''Poésies d'Homère faites en Ibérie et décrivant non la Méditerranée, mais l'Atlantique'', Paris, 1879. *''Belges et Bataves, leur origine, leur haute importance dans la civilisation primitive, d'après les théories nouvelles'', Bruxelles, 1881. *''Théorie nouvelle sur les origines humaines. Homère en Occident. Troie en Angleterre'', Bruxelles, 1883. *''Troie en Angleterre. Ménélas à Paris. Résumé de huit conférences faites à Paris'', Paris, 1885. *''La Judée en Europe : la vérité sur les Juifs, leur origine et leur religion'', Paris, 1894.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cailleux, Theophile 19th-century French writers People from Calais French people of Belgian descent 1816 births 1890 deaths French male writers 19th-century French male writers

Theoretical work

Bibliography

See also

References

External links