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The
Troja plain; in the distance, a tepe, a Homeric hero's tumulus tomb.
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To general
perspective of interpretation of Homer's text, I will add two remarks both
deduced from history and navigation practice. According to most recent work
by archaeologists and historians of homeric times, such as Luce, it would
seem that the author or authors of the Iliad and the Odyssey had
a very precisely documented knowledge of at least the sites of Troja and
Ithaka. This does not imply that they had a personal practice of sea routes
in the confines of the Hellenic world, or still less a technical knowledge
of them, such as captains of merchant ships or warships could have. For
merchants and soldiers secret has a price, disinformation too. Some sea
routes might be perfectly known by "professional" navigators, merchants,
pirates or warriors, but not divulged. So, explorative navigations, military
and merchant expeditions may surely have preceded regular navigations between
the central zone of the Greek world and its confines without being known
by the authors of homeric poems and their audience. 
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