ATLANTIC GEOGRAPHY IN HOMER
LESBOS, KRETA, ARGOS AND HELLAS
In the following excerpt the geographic names Lesbos, Chios, Psuria, Mimas, Euboia and Geraistos are mentioned:
He (Diomedes) then caught us at Lesbos as we were arguing whether we would sail the long way back up along rugged Chios towards the island of Psuria, keeping it to larboard, or to sail west below Chios, past windy Mimas. We then called on God to give a sign. He instructed us to sail across the sea to Euboia, and to escape from trouble most quickly. A favourable wind rose and howled. Our ships crossed swiftly the waterways, rich in fish, and landed in Geraistos at night. (3,170 ff.)
The Greek island of Lesbos is, of course, not meant here, firstly because the story is not set in the Mediterranean, then because the journey from the Greek island of Lesbos to the Greek Sparta or Pulos is not dramatically long ("long way back"), Lesbos in the Bronze Age was called Issa (Strabo 1,3,19) and Nestor would have had to sail three heading directions (SW, W and N) with two wind shifts to get home, but only one favourable, howling wind is mentioned. Unfortunately, there is not much information about the places mentioned, apart from the following excerpt:
In all territories enclosed to the south by Lesbos, the seat of Makar, to the north by Frugia and the Hellespont, so infinite, you, sir, allegedly stood far above all in terms of wealth and sons. (XXIV,543 ff)
Wilkens Wilkens identifies Lesbos, on the basis of the aforementioned relative location with regard to Frugia and the Hellespont, with the Isle of Wight, where Nestor consults with Menelaus (read: Diomedes!) and asks an oracle which route to take to cross the Channel, either east along the coast of Normandy, or inland between Guernsey and Jersey, or directly over the open sea. God advises them to take the direct course over the open sea. Wilkens also places the Seirens at the Solent above Wight. Against this identification can be argued that Homeros does not refer to Lesbos as an island. For example, 4, 341 ff. and 3,169 say "in Lesbos". Then, the name of Lesbos is not mentioned in the description of the Seirens who Wilkens places near Wight. Moreover, his identifications of Chios, Psuria, Mimas, Euboia and Geraistos are insufficiently substantiated.
Cailleux The identifications of Cailleux are more plausible. According to him, Lesbos is the region around the Bay of Morbihan, where "lesbians" were, women who were employed by Ker Anna, now St. Anne d'Auray, which would correspond to the fact that Achilles had taken many beautiful women from that land, including his own Diomede (IX, 664) and the seven women that Agamemnon had chosen for himself. Still today there is a village called Lesbin in the neighbourhood. As a place of residence of Makar, it was a place where reincarnation mysteries and orgies took place, just like in Zeeland, because the word Makar (-Blessed) is used as we would say "my uncle blessed." So there live deceased and blessed "gods", that is, former lawmakers, kings and heroes, waiting for their rebirth. Regarding these Anna rites, Cailleux adds that in this area the Veneti lived, against whom Caesar fought a naval battle that he could hardly win, and who had transferred their Anna rites to the Po Valley, where they founded Venice where the annual carnival reminds of these rites (PA 361).
The 'rugged Chios' would have been Ogio (Ok-io = Okke island). Onka or Okke is an other name of Athena. The island is now called Île d'Yeu (Island of God), is certainly rocky and has many megalithic monuments. Cailleux identifyes Psuria with Hiria, the current Noirmoutier. Hiria was Herius in Latin: "in Herio Monasterio" has been corrupted to Noirmoutiers. The 'windy Mimas' is Mimizan, a place in Les Landes with a famous cyclopic pyramid on the beach, covered with sand by winds. The inhabitants were anciently druidic and were called Bituriges Ubisci.5 They had their mysteries in the lake settlements of the Arcachon basin and that part of the Bituriges were named Boii after the floating huts (bohios) of the lake settlements. The question with which the two leaders are concerned is not how they should cross the Channel, which is not so difficult, but how they should cross the dangerous Bay of Biscay, between Nourmoitiers and Okke Island to Mimizan or directly over open sea. The god they consulted (Apollo in the Temple of Carnac?) advised them to head directly to Euboia, where the Boii lived, see map.
