20 October 2006

Next stop, er, Kefalonia?

Here's me and a coupla million classicists over the years thinking that Ulysses trogged home from Kerkira to scenic Ithaca.

Wro-o-ong, say some Brit party-poopers, proposing an alternative site.

What's the betting they've taken a backhander from the local tourism bureau to pitch nearby Kefalonia as our wandering home boy's home base.

Indeed, so convincing do they want this ploy to seem that they're even sinking a borehole to test whether its western peninsula of Paliki is the real site.

Can't you hear the rush of verminous "developers" and the anticipatory rumble of bulldozers?

The lads hope to find evidence that Paliki "once stood proud, separated from Kefalonia by a narrow, navigable marine channel."

It's only in the last 2,500-3,000 years - after  Homer's time, note - that the channel has been filled in (at least that's their story).

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