Translated by Felice Vinci and Amalia De Francesco.
Originally published in 1995 in Italian under the title 'Omero nel Baltico', by Fratelli Palombi Editions, Rome.
For years scholars have debated the incongruities in Homer's 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey', given that his descriptions are at odds with the geography of the areas he purportedly describes. Inspired by Plutarch's remark that Calypso's Isle was only five days sailing from Britain, Felice Vinci convincingly argues that Homer's epic tales originated not in the Mediterranean, but in the northern Baltic Sea.
Using meticulous geographical analysis, Vinci shows that many Homeric places, such as Troy and Ithaca, can still be identified in the geographic landscape of the Baltic. He explains how the dense, foggy weather described by Ulysses befits northern not Mediterranean climes, and how battles lasting through the night would easily have been possible in the long days of the Baltic summer. Vinci's meteorological analysis reveals how a decline of the climatic optimum caused the blond seafarers to migrate south to warmer climates, where they rebuilt their original world in the Mediterranean. Through many generations the memory of the heroic age and the feats performed by their ancestors in their lost homeland was preserved and handed down to the following ages, only later to be codified by Homer in the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey'.
Felice Vinci offers a key to open many doors that allow us to consider the age-old question of the Indo-European diaspora and the origin of the Greek civilization from a new perspective.
Author(s): Felice Vinci
Publisher: Inner Traditions
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 432
City: Rochester, Vermont
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Joscelyn Godwin
Introduction: The Key to Finding Homer’s World
PART ONE. THE WORLD OF ULYSSES
Chapter 1. Ulysses Homeward Bound: The Island of Ogygia and the Land of Scheria
OGYGIA
SCHERIA
TALES OF THE SEA
Chapter 2. Ithaca’s Archipelago: Dulichium, Same, and Zacynthus
THE HOMERIC PELOPONNESE
RECONSTRUCTING A PUZZLING WORLD
Chapter 3. Ithaca
EXPLORING LYØ
COWS AND GOATS, BUT NO HORSES: FURTHER EVIDENCE OF A NORTHERN ITHACA
ITHACA’S NEIGHBORS
FYN: 'THE DARK MAINLAND'
Chapter 4. The Adventures of Ulysses
ATTACKS AND STORMS
THE LOTUS-EATERS
THE CYCLOPES
AEOLIA IN THE SHETLANDS
THE FAR NORTH
DANGEROUS WATERS
CIRCE’S ISLAND
TO THE HOME OF HADES
SONG OF THE SIRENS
SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS
ISLAND OF THE SUN GOD
AFTER THE WRECK
COMPLETING THE CIRCLE
Chapter 5. Ulysses and Northern Mythology
THE CHARACTER OF ULYSSES IN MYTH
THE GESTA DANORUM
THE KALEVALA
A SHAMANISTIC BED
THE CELTIC CONNECTION
PART TWO. THE WORLD OF TROY
Chapter 6. If 'This Is not the site of the ancient Ilium,' Where Was Troy?
THE CITY ON THE HILL OF HISARLIK
A NEW SEARCH FOR TROY
TROY
ELOQUENT TOMBS
VIEW FROM ABOVE
Chapter 7. War!
THE ACHAEAN FLEET LANDS
THE ACHAEAN CAMP
THE HISARLIK HEADLAND
CHARIOTS, WARRIORS, AND WEAPONS
THE BATTLE WITH TWO NOONS
STORMS AND FLOODS
WAR AND THE FABLED WALLS OF TROY
TROY AFTER THE WAR
Chapter 8. Neighboring Lands and Islands
TROY’S NEAR NEIGHBORS
THE ROUTE OF THE ACHAEAN FLEET: LEMNOS, SAMOTHRACE, CHIOS, AND CYPRUS
SAMOTHRACE AND THE THRACIAN SEA
THRACE
AEGAE AND IMBERS
THE SEA GODS’ ARCHIPELAGO
CHIOS AND CYPRUS
PART THREE. THE WORLD OF THE ACHAEANS
Chapter 9. Climate and Chronology: The Northern Origin of the Mycenaeans
THE POSTGLACIAL CLIMATIC OPTIMUM
MYCENAEANS IN THE NORTH
NORTHERN CULTURAL CORRESPONDENCES
THE DECLINE OF THE CLIMATIC OPTIMUM
A CULTURE ON THE MOVE
DATING THE HOMERIC WORLD
THE MIGRATION OF ORAL AND WRITTEN MYTH
THE PATH OF MIGRATION AND THE SEED OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Chapter 10. The Catalog of Ships: The Northern Achaean World
THE BOEOTIAN AREA
AT HENS TO CAPE MALEA
THE PELOPONNESE AND ITHACA’S ARCHIPELAGO
FROM AETOLIA TO PHTHIA
FROM PHERAE TO THE MAGNETES
Chapter 11. The Regions of the Peloponnese
PYLOS
TELEMACHUS’S JOURNEY TO SPARTA AND BACK
ARCADIA AND ELIS
THE STRUCTURAL UNITY OF HOMER’S WORLD
Chapter 12. Crete, the River Egypt, Pharos, and Phthia
CRETE
THE RIVER EGYPT
PHAROS, HOME OF THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA
PHTHIA
ACHILLES’ SHIELD
PART FOUR. THE MIGRATION OF MYTH FROM THE HYPERBOREAN PARADISE
Chapter 13. Finding the Home of the Gods
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
THE PILLARS OF HERCULES AND THE GIANT WITH A HUNDRED HANDS
BEYOND THE OCEAN
ATLANTIS
ETHIOPIA
OLYMPUS AND PIERIA
THE MOON OF HERMES
Chapter 14. Climate Change and the Migration of Culture
THE ORIGINAL HOMELAND OF THE INDO-EUROPEANS
THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
EGYPTIAN, ROMAN, NORSE, AND LITHUANIAN CONNECTIONS
PEOPLE OF THE FIRE
THE FLOOD
THE DAINAS AND THE SUMERIANS
Chapter 15. Solar, Stellar, and Lunar Myths
THE ORIGIN AND DISPERSION OF SOLAR MYTHOLOGY
STELLAR MYTHOLOGY
SOLAR AND STELLAR ORION
LUNAR MYTHS
Conclusion
Appendix: The Bible and the Northern Bronze Age
Index
Footnotes
Endnotes
Bibliography
About the Author
