ATLANTIC ISMAROS AND THE KIKONES
(DOUARNENEZ, BRITTANY)
Odysseus' First Voyage, part 2
- part 1: Troy - Gog Magog Hills, Brittain ; 2.Ismaros and the Kikones - Brittany; 3.Lotophages - Senegal; 4.Cyclopes - Fogo, Kameroen, Hierro; 5. Aiolia andAiolos - Corvo (Azores); 6. Laestrygones - Cuba, La Havana; 7: Aiaia and Kirke - Schouwen, Zeeland.
English translation of parts of Homeros Odyssee, De zwerftochten van Odysseus over de Atlantische Oceaan by Gerard.W.J.Janssen, Leeuwarden 2018; Website Homer Odyssey.
FROM TROY TO THE KIKONES
Legenda Map Atlantic Ocean: Route I: (Janssen) From Troy through the Channel to the Kikones in Brittany, the Lotus eaters in Senegal, the Cyclopes in Cameroon, Aiolos on Corvo, the Laistrugones in La Havana, back to Kirke in Zeeland. Route II: (Wilkens) Same as I to Senegal, then to the Cyclopes on Fogo, Aiolos on Saba, the Laistrugones in La Havana, back to Kirke in Zeeland. Route III: (Cailleux) After the Kikones to the Lotofages on Hierro, to the Cyclopes on Madeira, to Aiolos on Corvo, further equal to I. Striped line: the current sailing and trade routes across the ocean.
Location The first part of Odysseus's wanderings is described from book 9 to book 10,134. It is the part in which Odysseus is still the uninitiated barbarian, out for money (metals) and women, who organizes "raids" in enemy territory and does not hesitate to commit a crime against Poseidon's son, Polufemos. Even though Homer does not indicate which course Odysseus has sailed from Troy, it is clear that he must sail from The Wash through the Channel to finally arrive home in Ithaka (Cadiz, Jerez). First, however, he still has to take revenge on the Kikones who are situated in Brittany by Cailleux and Wilkens, especially on the bay of Douarnenez where the submersed city of Is (or Ys) would have been. According to some, part of it is still above water like the Île de Tristan (See Wikiwand). According to Guilbo-Penanros, a 'very large number of small houses' have been found during previous excavations. The Ismaros mentioned by Homeros is not the name of the city but of the "Mar around Is", the Is-sea. This legendary city on poles (lake village) was the centre of the Floralia orgies, where many selected virgins in the "little dwellings" were waiting for their prince: a king, a priest, an hero from the battlefield, an Olumpic champion or winner of the tournaments, for which thousands of men annually gathered. The city was an easy prey for Odysseus since the location in the sea was no obstacle for his ships. So they conquered countless women and material treasures and killed the few men who walked around there as staff or guards. Why did Odysseus attack the Kikones? In Il. II, 846, it is reported that the Kikones sent auxiliary troops to Priamos during the Trojan War. Because Odysseus goes there by ship, Kikonia must be a part of France that was connected with Britain, namely Brittany. We have already seen that Brittany must have been part of the realm of Priamos (see Introduction Lesbos), with the same feudal structures and orgies, for which ravishing of women was a common means (compare the raid of Paris), so that this "raid" of Odysseus can be seen as a punishment for the support during the war but also for the elopements by Paris and others. For example, the Locrians of Southern Italy were obliged to send a hundred girls to Troy every year, which could not have been the least cause of the Trojan War!1 Odysseus destroys the city of Is and possibly also this harem culture. That we are dealing with virgins here is expressed by the Greek word alochoi (r.41), which is usually translated as "wives". However, no wives were collected here on the island, but (w)alochoi (with pre-positioned wau), Walküren.2 The word is derived from "first furrow" (in Gr. W-aloch-, alox) and thus denotes virgins. The Greek etymology a-loch "con-cubine" also points to the same practices. Lake dwellings and villages have been found in very large quantities, especially in Switzerland, of which Halstatt and La Tène are the best known. Le Hon, however, mentions more than 100 places in Switzerland where pole villages in the lakes have been excavated or demonstrated, dating from the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.3 They also existed elsewhere in Europe, as in Lake Prasias in Macedonia, about which Herodotos says (5.16): 'In the middle of the lake there are platforms on high poles, made of interconnected wooden planks, which through a single bridge have a connection with the mainland. The posts on which the platforms are supported were once set up jointly by all citizens, but later they applied the following rule: for every woman whom a man marries, he picks up three posts from the mountains and sets them up, and every man has numerous women there. They live there as follows: everyone has access to a hut in which they live and a floor hatch that is attached to the floor and offers access to the lake via the platform. They tie the youngest children with a rope to the foot, for fear that they might fall down. Horses and pack animals get fish as forage. There is so much fish there that when one opens the floor hatch and lower an empty basket on a rope, after a moment of waiting the basket comes up full of fish'. Although Herodotos probably had no idea of it himself, he describes here the feudal harem structure, as described by Homeros in the Is Sea. The Kikones themselves lived on the mainland, where the mates of Odysseus pulled the ships ashore, held a feast with the animals caught there and drank a lot of "mead" (Gr. methu = combination of honey and wine), with which the Valkyries, according to Scandinavian poets, got the heroes drunk and that, obviously, was available in large quantities on the island of Is (PA 24 ff.).
