4 ms·

Just didn't want to go back home with wife and went partying/looting with friends but then someone rewrote the story to make it look better, add some gods and m

Just didn't want to go back home with wife and went partying/looting with friends but then someone rewrote the story to make it look better, add some gods and monsters and you have a best seller made of the stuff legends are made of.

cavDXF 9y ago
I chuckled a bit! It is probable that the Odyssey is some kind of navigational diary. In ancient times, ships could only sail the Mediterranean clockwise, alas westward. So it might've made sense he traveled westward.
- alexsb92 9y ago
  Could you expand regarding the clockwise/westward travel? I'm curious what you mean by it and why there were limitations on the travel directions.
  - cavDXF 9y ago
    Ah I'm sorry, i got it a bit wrong. Currents and winds in the Mediterranean are mostly counter-clockwise. Ancient seafaring was difficult and mostly bound to land. I mean, that they had to travel along the Coast for most of the time and usually tried to avoid high waters. It WAS possible to cross from one side to the other in certain places, e.g. from Sicily to Tunisia, as it is less than 300km apart, but it was generally avoided elsewhere. Also, sea travel was depended a lot on weather and season. Greeks and Romans were usually advised NOT to travel during winter as winds were rough and unsteady. Even short distance travels took unusually long and were dangerous. The most famous example is of St. Paul who was shipwrecked in Malta at one point. And counter-intuitive at all: The Greeks were actually not very good at seatravel. They always were jealous of the Phoenicians for doing better sea-trade than they. The Odyssey falls broadly in the category of Periplus. I forgot what a lot of people interpreted into Homer's story, but i guess he just wanted to say "Follow the rules, don't try to sail against the currents or bad things will happen!" This is why maybe he sailed westward in the story and not straight back... For a little more detail see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_maritime_history#The_Mediterranean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_maritime_history#The_M...

cavDXF 9y ago

I chuckled a bit! It is probable that the Odyssey is some kind of navigational diary. In ancient times, ships could only sail the Mediterranean clockwise, alas westward. So it might've made sense he traveled westward.

alexsb92 9y ago
Could you expand regarding the clockwise/westward travel? I'm curious what you mean by it and why there were limitations on the travel directions.
- cavDXF 9y ago
  Ah I'm sorry, i got it a bit wrong. Currents and winds in the Mediterranean are mostly counter-clockwise. Ancient seafaring was difficult and mostly bound to land. I mean, that they had to travel along the Coast for most of the time and usually tried to avoid high waters. It WAS possible to cross from one side to the other in certain places, e.g. from Sicily to Tunisia, as it is less than 300km apart, but it was generally avoided elsewhere. Also, sea travel was depended a lot on weather and season. Greeks and Romans were usually advised NOT to travel during winter as winds were rough and unsteady. Even short distance travels took unusually long and were dangerous. The most famous example is of St. Paul who was shipwrecked in Malta at one point. And counter-intuitive at all: The Greeks were actually not very good at seatravel. They always were jealous of the Phoenicians for doing better sea-trade than they. The Odyssey falls broadly in the category of Periplus. I forgot what a lot of people interpreted into Homer's story, but i guess he just wanted to say "Follow the rules, don't try to sail against the currents or bad things will happen!" This is why maybe he sailed westward in the story and not straight back... For a little more detail see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_maritime_history#The_Mediterranean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_maritime_history#The_M...