You just have to hate it when history proves atheism wrong.

Lost island home of Odysseus found after 3,000 years
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
FOR almost 3,000 years, its location has been a mystery, but classical
scholars around the world are now convinced that a British businessman
and amateur archaeologist with a passion for Homer has found the island

of Ithaca, home of the Greek hero Odysseus and the site of his palace.
Many thought that the island existed only in the imagination of the
Greek poet Homer and in his epic, the Odyssey. Certainly his
description
of it did not match the Ionian island now called Ithaca, but, after
following a detective trail of literary, geological and archaeological
clues, scholars led by Robert Bittlestone, a management consultant,
have
identified Paliki, an area of Cephalonia, as the site.
Calssicists have been overwhelmed by the compelling evidence.
NI_MPU('middle');James Diggle, Professor of Greek and Latin at
Cambridge University and co-author of a book on the discovery, said
that almost
all of the 26 locations that Homer described in detail can be
identified today in northern Paliki and its neighbourhood.
The topography of Homer's island fits the area "like a glove", he
said.
Paliki was once a separate island. Since Homer's day, earthquakes
triggering massive landslides had filled in a narrow sea channel that
separated it from the island of Same - modern Cephalonia, the setting
for
Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
Professor Diggle said: "Some 3,200 years after the events that are
described in the Odyssey, ancient Ithaca has at last been discovered
- a
discovery which will revolutionise our understanding of the ancient
world
and is of profound importance to our understanding of the origins of
western civilisation."
Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey are the oldest books in
Western literature. They describe the Trojan War and the return of
Odysseus - who devised the wooden horse that helped to end it - to
his palace
on Ithaca. Homer's accounts of events around 1,200BC inspired the
philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Socrates and shaped the intellectual
and
cultural development of Greece.
Troy was also thought to be fictional until the 1870s, when Heinrich
Schliemann conducted excavations in northwestern Turkey that led to the

discovery of the ancient city and, buried beneath it, the gold of Troy.

Scholars and archaeologists had been baffled by Homer's description
of
Ithaca: "Around are many islands, close to each other,/Doulichion and

Same and wooded Zacynthos./Ithaca itself lies low, furthest to
sea/Towards dusk [ie West]; the rest, apart, face dawn and sun [ie
East]."
Today's Ithaca lies to the east of the other islands, not to the
west,
and it is not low-lying but mountainous. Scholars therefore came to the

uneasy conclusion that Ithaca must have come from the poet's
imagination.
However, after field trips to western Greece and computer analysis of
literary, geological and archaeological data, the use of the most
advanced satellite imagery and 3D global visualisation techniques
developed
by NASA, Mr Bittlestone found up to 70 clues leading to Caphalonia.
The research has convinced leading academics worldwide, including John
Underhill, Professor of Stratigraphy at Edinburgh University, who has


October 6 in Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca.

Search 'locates' Homer's Ithaca

An amateur British archaeologist says he has located Ithaca, the
homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus.
Robert Bittlestone - backed by two experts - claims the rocky island
depicted in The Odyssey is part of Greek tourist destination
Cephalonia.
He used satellite imagery to match the area's landscape with
descriptions in the poem about the return of the man behind the wooden
horse of
Troy.
Many experts had stated Homer was referring to the island of Ithaki.
They had explained geographical inconsistencies in The Odyssey by
suggesting that Homer lived much later than the events portrayed and in
a
different part of the country.
Previous studies have also named other Ionian islands including
Cephalonia.
Earthquakes
Surrey-based management consultant Mr Bittlestone first came up with
his theory in 1998.
During field trips to western Greece he also analysed literary,
geological and archaeological data, and utilised 3D global
visualisation
techniques developed by Nasa.
There is something both very new and very old to be found at this new
location and that we should now treat the existence of ancient Ithaca
very seriously


Robert Bittlestone


His new book Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer's Ithaca is
co-written by Cambridge University professor James Diggle, and
geographic
expert John Underhill from Edinburgh University.
It suggests earthquakes have helped fill a narrow channel which had
separated Cephalonia from Ithaca - said to have been located in the
peninsular now known as Paliki.
Future research
It is not clear whether Odysseus or Ithaca really existed.
But Mr Bittlestone said: "Our purpose has been to demonstrate that
there is something both very new and very old to be found at this new
location and that we should now treat the existence of ancient Ithaca
very
seriously."
He has described his find as one of the most important classical
discoveries since the unearthing of Troy in Turkey in the 1870s.
The book says Ithaca was the peninsular now known as Paliki


The book details 26 locations in The Odyssey that can be identified
today in northern Paliki and its vicinity.
The research was conducted in cooperation with the Hellenic Ministry of

Culture and with the Athens-based Institute of Geology and Mineral
Exploration.
"The book opens exciting prospects for future research regarding the
location of Homeric Ithaca," said Petros Tatoulis, Greece's Deputy
Minister of Culture.
"The Ministry eagerly follows Mr Bittlestone's hypothesis and looks
forward to staying informed about any future developments."
Cephalonia is the same island where Louis de Bernieres' best-selling
novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin was set.
The novel, which was made into a film starring Penelope Cruz and
Nicholas Cage in 2001, is set against the real-life massacre of
thousands of
Italian soldiers by German troops during World War II.

sources:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...804409,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4293786.stm

john baker

IOW, you can't actually answer the question.

john baker

The small Pennsylvania town of Blairsville actually exists. My parents
were born there, and I visited there many times myself when my
grandparents were still alive. Does that make the rest of 'Christine'
true? According to Tau'ri's "logic", I guess so. <G>
<looks nervously over shoulder for demon-possessed '58 Plymouth....>

john baker

So you're saying the Bible is true? What a just plain moronic
statement.

And BTW, an oxymoron is a phrase in which the two parts have opposite
meanings, thereby canceling each other out. Therefore, "fictional
Bible" is not an oxymoron, but "true religion" is.


A mythical being described as possessing knowledge and abilities
beyond those of mere humans.

Of course, possessing knowledge and abilities beyond those of the
average believer in gods isn't really that difficult.....

mark k. bilbo

In <1128284940.755539.111120@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,

<snip>

This has nothing to do with atheism. That you think it does only shows
that you are not a very bright person...

--
Mark K. Bilbo
--------------------------------------------------
"We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long
after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have
been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing.
Many who could have been were not. That's to the
government's shame."

http://makeashorterlink.com/?F2D511CBB

neil kelsey

I'm hoping for some action with Aphrodite.

kathryn

Wow, dont get many pantheists about these days,

john baker

On 3 Oct 2005 10:35:22 -0700, "Neil Kelsey" <neil_kelsey@hotmail.com>

If she actually looks like Alexandra Tydings, I'm getting in that line
too. <G>

zhavahutt

Now if you can tell this to the jews, and modern day Israelites, the
fighting would be over in palastine.

You forget ancient socisties had a tendency to hide their defeats.

Romans did not interfere with local goverment unless, the local
goverment went against Caesar.

llanzlan klazmon

So who hid the evidence of a couple of million people plus their livestock
wandering the Sinai desert for forty years.

Klazmon