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ODYSSEUS'
NAVIGATIONS
  A NEW EXPEDITION :
(texte français: cliquez ici)   Odysseus' nautical world

 

The expedition of September and October 2000 aimed at retracing the maritime world of Odysseus and the Greek heroes of the Trojan War. Starting from Ithaka and the islands of the Ionian Sea it aimed at rediscovering the sites of the Trojan war, at reaching Ithaca via Thasos, the Thracean coast, the Aegean, at doubling Cape Malea and penetrating into the Ionian again.
THE PROJECT
A NEW EXPEDITION
THE 1999' EXPEDITION
THE 2000' EXPEDITION
1
Odysseus' nautical world
A cosmological interpretation
Sea routes and the epic text
The routes home
Rounding Cape Malea
6 Toward a New World
7 Mythological figures for stopovers
From the next World to this world
9 In Odysseus'wake. Arrival at Ithaka
10 Ithaka, Ormos Polis
Ithaka, the islet of Daskalio
12 Ithaka, Port Saint Andrew
13 At the Arethuse source
14 The periplus to Ithaka
15 Our friend Odysseus
A statue of Odysseus as a sailor, a replica of an ancient original, Ithaca, Stavros.
 
The programme of navigation is following : Sailing from Corfu, the Pheacians' island (for nautical reasons), to Ithaka.
1 - Ithaka and its archipelago, Cephalonia, Leukas, Zante and the islands ans islets belonging to it.
2 - Pylos of the Dunes or Pylos the Sandy, a sandy beach thirty kilometers in length, the place in Nestor's kingdom where Telemachus went in search of his father.
3 - Cythera, an inevitable stopover for navigators before doubling Cape Malea and heading for the modern Nauplia, near Tiryntha, Argos and Mycenae, the Astrides' land.
4 - Aulis in Euboea, where the Greek fleet gathered waiting for fair winds and where Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to win gods' favour. If winds are favourable, crossing of the Aegean via Skyros, Achilles' native country.
5 - Crossing of the Dardanelles and stopover at Cannakale to reach the sites of the Trojan War. There is no harbour near Troja and currents are very violent there. A previous checking is necessary to evaluate the risks and see if it is posible to anchor in front of the Trojan beach and to disembark in a small motorboat to study the place.
6 - Straight route to Thasos, in front of the antic Ismaros on the Thracean coast, The Cicones' land, the first place reached by Odysseus on his way back (Odyssey, song IX, verse 49, sq.).
7 - From Thasos, straight navigation, if possible, thanks to a Borean wind that does not blow like "an indescribable hurricane bringing clouds over land and sea" (Odyssey, song IX, verse 65, sq.) to Cape Malea and Cythera. Odysseus did not succeed in stopping over at Cythera and was pushed straight away to the island of the Lotophages in the Syrtes. Our plan is to double Cape Malea and reach Ithaca again so as to perfect there our knowledge of Odyssey's sites.  next
     
   
 
 
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