This is so obviously silly. If the Greeks made such a voyage, it certainly wasn't in s trireme. Triremes are warships optimized for battle near shore.
One reason triremes didn't sail far from shore is that there is no room on board for the crew to do anything other than row. There are no bunks, there are no holds. If you want to eat or sleep, you need to get off the boat.
Another is that because of the wood used to construct them, triremes needed to be beached overnight to dry out. Leaving the ship in the water continuously would lead to the timbers becoming waterlogged, making the ship too heavy and slow to row.
It seems to me that Plutarch doesn't necessarily believe this account, seeing as its related by an interlocutor as a myth.
At any rate, the directions are inconsistent, since rowing 5 days west from Britain to 'Ogygia,' then northwest (the direction of the setting summer sun) an equal distance to these 3 islands, can't bring you south to the latitude of the Caspian Sea. The account of the short day in winter also doesn't square with that latitude.
One reason triremes didn't sail far from shore is that there is no room on board for the crew to do anything other than row. There are no bunks, there are no holds. If you want to eat or sleep, you need to get off the boat.
Another is that because of the wood used to construct them, triremes needed to be beached overnight to dry out. Leaving the ship in the water continuously would lead to the timbers becoming waterlogged, making the ship too heavy and slow to row.
At any rate, Plutarch's text doesn't say anything about triremes, only that the crew rowed to these islands. You can read an English translation here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...
It seems to me that Plutarch doesn't necessarily believe this account, seeing as its related by an interlocutor as a myth.
At any rate, the directions are inconsistent, since rowing 5 days west from Britain to 'Ogygia,' then northwest (the direction of the setting summer sun) an equal distance to these 3 islands, can't bring you south to the latitude of the Caspian Sea. The account of the short day in winter also doesn't square with that latitude.