Two and a half millennia ago, in the 8th century BC, Homer recounted the journey of Ulysses in his poem “The Odyssey”. As is known, these famous wanderings began in Troy and ended in Ithaca.
Allow us a few minutes of theory, then we will follow the journey of Ulysses across the central Mediterranean to Calabria.
There are more than seventy theories on the reconstruction of Ulysses’ journey, different from each other, advanced in the twenty-five centuries that separate us from the events. Ulysses is said to have been in Italy, Palestine, Spain, Crimea, Tenerife, etc.
Evidently Ulysses could not visit all these places because his journey, according to Homer, lasted no more than sixty days; while the eight years of stay are distributed in the twelve stages, which marked his adventure.
The mystery of the Land of the Phaeacians
All attempts made to date to geographically reconstruct Ulysses’ journey taking into account the data provided by Homer have failed, particularly for the identification of this place.
The land of the Phaeacians has been localized, in different theories, in Palestine, Tunisia, Andalusia, Istria, Cyrenaica, Malta, Crete, Corfu, Trapani, and also in Germany.
However, it has not been possible to answer the question of how Ulysses, after the first passage through Scylla and Charybdis, was pushed back again and, nevertheless, was able to be led to his homeland by the Phaeacians, without crossing it a third time.
According to Homer, the land of the Phaeacians, seen from Greece, lies once in front and once behind Scylla and Charybdis.
Until now it has always been assumed that the sea that pushed Ulysses towards the land of the Phaeacians was the same one through which he returned home. But this supposition, naturally the most reliable, is not supported by any words of Homer. If, on the contrary, we put Homer’s two data together and look for a country that lies simultaneously behind and in front of the Strait in a sea, we will be led to think of Calabria, whose western coast lies on the Tyrrhenian Sea and the eastern on the Ionian. It is precisely there that you will arrive if you come from Lipari with a route towards the East and from there you have to set sail to reach Ithaca, also with a route towards the East, as the Homeric text indicates.
If this surprising explanation is correct, during his journey Ulysses must, however, have crossed a stretch of land. This fact, never observed, is actually what Homer says: near the land of the Phaeacians the wave and the storm break his raft and only by swimming does Ulysses manage to save himself by reaching the coast. From there he had to go on foot, first he marched up a slope, the next day he was taken over vehicular valleys, with carts driven by mules, towards the capital of the Phaeacians and yet another day he went down towards the port and, then, finally a ship brought him back to homeland.
Homer clearly refers to two different coasts linked together by a certain distance.
Hypothesis that it is Calabria
Some traditional interpretations speak of the island of the Phaeacians but the Greek text does not contain the word island, on the contrary it is called by Homer Scheria (Schera), which means mainland (continent or country).
In fact, after having been to numerous islands (Malta, Sicily, Ustica, Lipari), Ulysses finally reached the mainland in Calabria. This new, but simple at the same time, explanation resolves most of the contradictions present in the interpretation of the text. The happy land of the Phaeacians of Homer’s time is thus identified with the Magna Graecia of antiquity and with present-day Calabria. It can only have been the land of the Phaeacians in Calabria: the duration that the Homeric text indicates allows the passage from one coast of Calabria to the other. This passage is the one in the Tauriana-Oppido Mella route which connected the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Ionian Sea, across the ridge of the mountain range. It is no coincidence that the Romans chose to pass a variant of the Via Annia Popilia-Tyrrhenian/Ionian Sea right through there.
Homer writes that Ulysses, at the mercy of the waves on a raft, was first thrown onto a steep coast of rocks and reefs (identified by us between Rovaglioso and Trachina located in front of Lipari, after all the currents still today bring the pumice stone from the volcanoes of the Aeolian Islands on our coasts), Ulysses then sought shelter on the flat shores, perhaps the beach of Trachina or Pietrosa, and it is also known that he stayed overnight in a safe place, a cave not far from the sea. We know that the only cave in the area frequented from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages by sea peoples is that of Trachina. From it you could control the sea without being seen and stay safe from wild animals.
The stages of the journey
At the court of King Alcinous, Ulysses recounted the different stages of his perilous journey: Troy; Cape Malea; Small Syrtis with the town of the Lotus Eaters; the Cyclopes; Malta; the island of Aeolus; the rock of Marsala with the port of Lestrigòni; Monte Erice like the steep Rocca di Ramo; Ustica like the island of Circe; Imera like the houses of Hades and Persephone; the Strait of Messina like Scylla and Charybdis, with the rock of the Sirens; one of the Lipari islands like the island of Calypso and finally the last very important station, Calabria, that is the ancient Magna Graecia like the land of the Phaeacians, called Scheria by Homer and that is the territory of Palmi in the Costa Viola. (Domenico Bagalà)
