ATLANTIC SCHERIA-LANZAROTE
SCHERIA AND THE FAIAKANS
(LANZAROTE AND THE FAYCANS)
Odysseus' Second Voyage Part IV: English translation of Introduction Scheria-Faiaken from Homeros Odyssee, De zwerftochten van Odysseus over de Atlantische Oceaan by Gerard.W.J.Janssen, p.926 sq. Continuation of 'Atlantic Troy.' . Website Homer Odyssey
The location
He watched the Pleiades, late-setting Bootes, and the Great Bear that men call the Wain, that circles in place and keeps an eye on Orion. He is the only one that never bathes in Okeanos. Kalupso, the lovely goddess had told him to keep this constellation to larboard as he crossed the waters. Seventeen days he sailed the seas, and on the eighteenth the contours of dark peaks loomed up ahead belonging to the Faiakan country, at a point that was nearest to him. (5,272 sq)1
This clause is very important for the route of Odysseus' voyage. Starting from the island of Kalupso, identified as St.Miguel, Azores (see map below,IV) , he had to keep Great Bear or Wain to the left (larboard), which means he had to follow an eastward course, the true course to Ithaka, identified as Cadiz and Jerez.2 This direction is in accordance with the direction indicated by the zodiac sign Virgin, that can be derived from the silver-white gown of the goddess Kalupso (5,229)3. 'Great Bear never bathes in the Okeanos' means that this constellation is always visible. The Pleiades he watched rise in summer at 02.00 h in NE; in winter they are at 17.00 h E, at 22.30 S, at 04,30 W; in spring they are at 16.00 h S, at 22.00 W and set at 24.00 h. Boötes follows Great Bear, turns behind him and sets late, while his position is also N. Orion follows the Pleiades. So, knowing the season Odysseus could easily set and keep the course in this way. Suppose it is spring at 22.00 h.: he has Great Bear and Boötes at port in the north, the Pleiades in the west behind him and Orion behind the Pleiades at starboard in the south. From winter to spring the Pleiades are most useful, which could be an indication for Odysseus' departure. Because of the Portugal current, the raft will get a drift to SE, that brings him to Lanzarote, the land of the Faiakans or Faycans (Map V). The tailwind Kalupso gives him is a westerner, the Zefuros. Location of Scheria according to some authors -Cailleux' theory that Odysseus sailed toward Portugal, approximately to Odiceixe (Odysseia), where according to Strabo (3,4,3) in his time remnants of Odysseus' raft would still be hanging on the temple walls, is untenable, because Homer tells us clearly (5,280) that 'the contours of the Faiakan country loomed up ahead'. Odysseus himself tells in 7,269 that he nearly had reached the land of the Faiakans. -Vinci's claim that Scheria wasn't an island but is to be found at the Norwegian coast doesn't take in account the actual text of Homer so that his descriptions of the geography of Odysseus' wanderings in advance have no chance at all. For Scheria lies 'far from the civilised world in the sea with his big swell' (5,279;6,204;9,18) and is only accessible by ship. -The traditional theory that Scheria is Korfu, Greece, is for the above-mentioned reasons also ridiculous and completely against Homer's text. Scheria isn't located a couple of miles from the Greek mainland as Korfu is, from where the islands of Leukas and Paxos are visible too. Besides, it would be absurd that the great seafarer Odysseus never would have heard of these Faiakans, who, seen from Theaki, would be - mind you!- his direct neighbours. The distance between the Greek Theaki and Korfu is only 110 km. The distance Lanzarote-Cádiz (=Ithaka) is really significant: 1000 km.
