#possibe hints of history in homer

[katerinaaqu]

I have a question I've had for a while now and i was wondering if you had any insight on it. In the Odyssey, Sicilian people are mentioned a couple of times, like Laertes' maid. Then we have Trinacria, the island of Helios with the ancient name of Sicily, as well as the island of the Cyclopes (?). So I was wondering, what reality is Homer (or the earlier tradition) trying to describe here? Sicilians as indigenous people prior to historical Mycenaean and later colonization or as Greek citizens of the forming Magna Graecia of his time? Would these Sicilians have shared their land with Cyclopes and/or the Sun god in myth?

That is a very good question. Arguably Homer mentions various locations by name for example Egypt (not only as the place of shipwreck of Menelaus but also in the Iliad Achilles says that "even if you gave me gifts as rich as in Egyptian Thebes" ) while other locations are either hinted (Tynisia for Lotus Eaters for example) or not named as some official name we recognize (Scheria, Ogygia etc) and Sicily is a famous place to check as well which is probably yet another reason why Butler suggested the theory that the woman he believed that wrote the Odyssey lived in Sicily (see my other ask)

Trinacria is by general decision placed indeed at a small island off the coast of Sicily and some accounts and researchers believe that the isle of Sicily itself is the land of Cyclops as well as the passage between South Italy and Sicily is said yo be the passage of Skylla and Charybdis due to the dangerous currents there I even had done a small research on the area while studying on greek colonies at university at postgraduate degree. The area around it is also linked to myths like the sirens as well. So yeah it does seem like Odysseus did a tour around Italy many times over hahaha 😆 even the land of Kimeria is mentioned most likely to the passage between Italy and Spain. In fact there are many people who place the land of Scheria off the coasts of Spain instead of the isle of Corfu (Kerkyra) because of the location being too far from Ithaca and fitting the homeric description.

The area of South Italy and Sicily is a precious area for the ancient Greeks for it was one of the most famous area they built their colonies (earning the name Magna Grecia aka Big Greece). The are is linked to various of myths as well including Titanomachy (Zeus vs Typhoon), Skylla and Charybdis, Sirens even as you said the Land of Helios and Aeolia. Some of the earliest colonies the Greeks had in the area was the one I studied, the placed named Pythekoussai right off the coast of modern day Napoli and was inhabited already by Homer's time.

I would say your question has one possible answer; both!

We do know the area was known to Greeks before otherwise they wouldn't have inhabited it so early. We also know that the Mycenaeans traveled a lot across the Mediterannean sea by the zenith of their palatial system (around 15th century BC). In fact people from nowadays Greece were traveling around. We discover pottery from the renounced Kamares of Minoan times to North Africa and Egypt as far back as Middle Kingdom. Depictions of Ramses's favorite wife, Nefertari, show the queen wear a silver earring that resembles a Minoan axe in shape as well (and by the way Silver was mostly an imported good in Egypt for Egypt was poor in silver) We even discovered a papyrus that is estimated to depict Mycenaean warriors working in the pharaonic army. They are drawn obviously in an egyptian style but this yellowish helmet is estimated by some to represent the boar tusk helmet.

There was also a palace that I studied during my postgraduate degree when we studied the cultural exchanges in Mediterannean sea in northern Egypt that has a Minoan decoration and is dating from the time of Hatsepsut and Tuthmoses III. It is estimated the designer must have been Minoan and either temporarily or permanently living at the area when he was commissioned this building's decorations possibly by an Egyptian.

When the Mycenaeans extended their areas of exploring in order to exchange goods they probably followed known roads. We do discover in Neolithic times for example obsidian that came only from the small island of Melos all over Europe. Probably Mycenaeans already knew some of the roads and based on products and new cultivated plants they probably did reach the coasts of Spain if not already Gibraltar (given how Atlas is said to hold the sky there). We also know or we estimated that local populations already lived there when they arrived. We do not have too many pieces of information on colonies already built at that time like remains of Cities purely greek or anything but it does seem that the locals and the Greeks interacted in various occasions.

I believe one crude way you can use to distinguish when we talk about Greeks or at least Greek influence in Sicily or any other place Odysseus visited vs totally local foreign populations is the custom of Xenia. If Odysseus visited a place and was offered hospitality according to the custom of Xenia then it seems like Homer insinuating Greeks or Greek influence to the locals. If the locals offer some different form of it or not at all or abusing it then we talk about local populations that either never met the Greeks or if they did they rejected them and their customs.

Another crude way would be to see if the area or the people are linked to some Greek God. For example Polyphemus and the Cyclops are definitely linked to Greeks through the myths such as Poseidon or the several genesis myths in mythology but they also represent the locals who know nothing of Greek culture or that they deliberately reject it aka a threat to the Greeks that are linked to possible conflict or wars between locals and Greeks when they tried to establish their culture or their commerce in the area.

For example Odysseus visiting the land of Lotus Eaters we can talk of a land that never interacted deeply with Greeks before because they are naturally hospitable people but do not know the custom of Xenia for they do not ask the strangers who they are or where they come from or offer them food and a place to stay but rather hospitable people that simply give you what they have (lotus) but they do not follow the customs. Scheria is definitely the opposite. Their story even implies a colony as they do seem to travel there and establish their city and civilization there. The customs of Xenia are impeccable in the Odyssey as they treat Odysseus eactly as the Greek Customs of Xenia. And they even recognize the employing ritual (see my other post here) when Odysseus makes a plea to the queen Arete. Polyphemus and the cyclops on the other hand represent the exact opposite. They have almost nothing of what the Greeks estimate as civilization such as agriculture and looming. Polypemus is a son f a greek god and he is aware of the laws of Xenia but he mocks them and even twists them beyond recognition. He knows what it is (he even mocks Odysseus with it when he gets drunk by asking his name after he receives his gift and then says that his own gift back is to "eat him for last") so maybe here we have a clear representation of Greeks being in the area but the local populations antagonizing or even fighting them. Circe and Calypso COULD be added to the category since both are technically goddesses thus Greek gods in the area=Greek presence in the area. Both goddesses though seem to abuse the laws of hospitality for example Circe does invite his en according to custom but she twists it and turns them into pigs holding them hostage (a possible hint of struggles between Greeks and locals and the existence of hostages? Perhaps). Odysseus has to act accordingly to save his men. But Circe is aware of the laws for not only does she do it all emplying ritual and eventually she honors the custom of Xenia to the T (perhaps a hint that the greeks eventually passed their culture in the area? Perhaps that would be me taking stuff out of a magic hat here XD)

Of course one needs to keep in mind that by the time Homer synthesized his poems, Greeks were already forming colonies. We do not know for sure if that was a thing in Bronze Age but we know they moved around for as I said before we can trace the products, toponyms such as Egypt or Ethiopia in Linear B tablets as well as the rare occasions when we discover shipwrecks (one was discovered off the coast of Turkey from Cyprus and, loaded with bronze for commercial purposes towards the Mediterannean sea, possiby Crete)

(here's an experimental replica) and we do find similar findings in the sea to connect the dots of history. So it could be partially Homer's anachronism but judging from the data he is surprisingly accurate according to period. Maybe is too early to assume that there were actual colonies of Greeks in the areas as Scheria seems to hint but I have no doubts that Greeks were already in regular contact with populations there even potentially have small settlements for better distribution of goods to the several ports.

I hope this answers your question. Sorry for the long answer.