
Research on astronomical detail in the Odyssey dates its dramatic climax (2011) - diodorus
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-end-of-an-odyssey-homers-epic-is-finally-pinned-down-852850.html
======
acqq
The article on the independent.co.uk is (2011) and the paper they write about
seems to be:

[http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/06/23/0803317105.full...](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/06/23/0803317105.full.pdf)

from 2008, covered by the rest of press at that time, also by Scientific
American.

An interesting response to it is (2012) by Peter Gainsford, a Hellenist who
works on philology and mythology:

[http://www.academia.edu/622261/Odyssey_20.356-57_and_the_Ecl...](http://www.academia.edu/622261/Odyssey_20.356-57_and_the_Eclipse_of_1178_BCE_A_Response_to_Baikouzis_and_Magnasco)

~~~
dang
Good catch on the dates! We added 2011.

------
goodcanadian
I'm a bit skeptical as all of the events used for dating are quite common. The
constellations would appear every spring. The new moon occurs every 28 days.
The particular alignment of the two planets would probably occur at least once
a year, maybe more than once. Having said that, I have not done the math and
it is possible that the exact confluence of these otherwise common events is
quite rare.

However, assuming that their claim is correct, it is very interesting that the
timing lines up with the solar eclipse which is itself, a very rare event.
What I think is even more interesting is that this level of detail was
remembered hundreds of years later when Homer was writing. That, by itself,
suggests that something important happened and/or that Homer was working from
a very detailed history of the time. Ignoring Odysseus for the moment, the
fact that the timing lines up with the ash layer that is presumed to be the
destruction of Troy is very interesting, and I believe that it lends a great
deal of support to the historical fact of the Trojan war and more precisely,
the destruction of Troy.

EDIT: to put it another way, I find it fascinating when literary evidence
lines up with archeological evidence. It is rare to get two completely
independent pieces of evidence in history this old, and it simultaneously puts
the archeology in context while supporting the veracity of the writing.

------
eveningcoffee
The problem is, we do not know if it in fact happened on that day, or it was
deliberately made appear more dramatic by claiming it has happened on that
day.

~~~
jacobolus
We don’t know if Odysseus existed at all, and if he did many of the fantastic
events in his journey obviously didn’t literally happen. Regardless, assuming
the speculative interpretation of gods as planet locations in the sky is
correct, this gives us a pretty good way to date the Trojan war. (Which we
also don’t have conclusive proof happened, but anyway..
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_the_Iliad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_the_Iliad))

------
InclinedPlane
It seems likely to me that Homer's works were amalgams of stories from the
period of the bronze age collapse. During this time there was a broad spectrum
collapse of civilization and power structures in the Mediterranean, and there
was extensive raiding from groups of folks collectively called the "sea
peoples" of which the Mycenneans almost certainly were a part. The "ten years"
of Odysseus's journey is likely poetic license, but given that Troy was sacked
and burned in 1183 BC and the eclipse occurred only 5 years later in 1178 BC
it's quite possible that there were dramatic and memorable stories around both
those events which circulated in greece around those times. And then during
the chaos of the Bronze age collapse and rebuilding of civilization (which
took about 2 more centuries) resulted in heavy embellishment and modification
of those stories until they congealed into the pseuo-mythological forms they
took on before being codified into oral history (which can actually have a
high accuracy of retaining details) until Homer formalized them.

------
r0muald
I am generally skeptical of most "groundbreaking" research published in PNAS,
since their peer review process is significantly flawed:
[http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/16/flores-
hobbit...](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/16/flores-hobbit-human-
downs-syndrome-claim-homo-floresiensis)

------
jacobolus
Reminds me of the book Hamlet’s Mill, whose thesis is that the main
mythological epics from most ancient cultures were actually encoded astronomy
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet%27s_Mill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet%27s_Mill)

~~~
whoopdedo
Popular fiction can make use of religious or historical elements without the
purpose being to communicate religion or history. Consider the impression a
future archeologist will have if the most accessible record of our culture is
Netflix.

