From the land of the Cyclops Ulysses came to the kingdom of Aeolus, custodian
of the winds, who welcomed him and his companions. Homer's description of the island of
Aeolia and the other geographical evidence led many scholars to identify it with MALTA,
for seen from afar its southern shores with their towering, sharp, bronze-green rocks give
the impression of a floating island. Aeolus decided to help Ulysses return to Ithaca. He
put all the winds in a wineskin, giving strict orders not to open it, and left only the
west wind, Zcphyrus, free to guide Ulysses directly to Ithaca. But shortly before reaching
their destination Ulysses' sailors opened the leather bag and the winds rushed out. They
whipped up a storm that blew Ulysses and his companions back to Malta. Angry Aeolus sent
them away and they continued their voyage towards the western tip of Sicily, to the land
of the Laestrygonians.
In the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily and south of Naples, are some small islands which
are called after the main one the Lipari islands or the Aeolian islands. Some scholars
maintain that Lipari or Stromboli is Aeolia. But the Acolia described by Homer bears
little resemblance to these islands. Nor could Ulysses have arrived offshore of Ithaca
from Lipari and Stromboli with the aid of Zephyrus, the west wind, as Homer describes, and
then return to Aeolia, because the whole of southern Italy and the Straits of Messina fie
between these islands and Ithaca. There is an archaeological museum on Lipari, with some
exhibits referred to in the Odyssey. Lipari and Stromboli with its volcano are interesting
places to visit.
Laestrygonia was Ulysses' next stop, northwest of Malta. Scholars place it on the western
edge of Sicily, at MOZIA (8) near Trapani. There the Laestrygonians, fierce giants,
destroyed all Ulysses' ships except his own.
The winds led Ulysses in his sole ship northeast to Aia, the land where the sorceress
Circe dwelt. Lying between Rome and Naples, this place is still called MONTE CIRCEO (9).
Once Ulysses managed to restore his companions to human form, for Circe had transformed
them into swine, he descended to Hades to learn from the seer Teiresias when he would
reach home. Italian scholars locate the entrance to Hades and the Acherousian Lake at Lake
Averno near Naples.
A lake called Acherousia, a river still called Acheron and a Necromanteion (Oracle of the
Dead) exist in Greece, near Parga on the mainland opposite Corfu, and are well worth a
visit. Proceeding upstream from the estuary of the Acheron, either by a small boat or by
land, one arrives at the river's sources and the ruins of the Necromanteion, an especially
interesting journey and a unique experience.
From Circe Ulysses travelled southwards, bound to the mast of his ship, and with his
companions' ears blocked with wax, he passed in front of the Sirens, who are thought to
have lived on the GALLI ISLETS (10) in the bay of Naples. Further south he tried to pass
between the terrible Scylla and Charybdis, at the STRAITS OF MESSINA (11) between Italy
and Sicily. From there in the mist, the winds and the tempest, tossed by the waves, with a
few companions and his ship Ulysses was cast ashore in the kingdom of Helios, at Thrinakia
in Sicily, today's TAORMINA (12). There his companions disobeyed him and slaughtered the
sacred cows of Helios, invoking the wrath of Zeus.
On leaving here Ulysses' ship was caught in a storm sent by the enraged Zeus. The
vessel sank, drowning all his companions. All alone and shipwrecked, he came to rest on
the island of the immortal nymph Calypso, Ogygia, considered to be the small island of
GOZO (13) just north of Malta.
Ulysses stayed with Calypso for eight years, until the gods of Olympus decided he had
been punished enough by Poseidon and Zeus. When Calypso announced to him that the gods
would allow his return to Ithaca, he left Ogygia on a raft. Exhausted, he eventually
reached Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, present-day CORFU (14). There he recounted
his adventures to Alcinous, the king, and his daughter Nausicaa, and there his
peregrinations ended. Alcinous provided him with a swift ship and sent him to his native
ITHACA Ulysses returned at last, after an absence of twenty years.
That was, according to the most plausible possible approach, the voyage of Ulysses, the
Odyssey.
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