ATLANTIC KUTHERA AND LOTOPHAGIA
THE LOTUS-EATERS
(MOROCCO-SENEGAL-GAMBIA)
Odysseus' first voyage, part 3
English translation of parts of Homeros Odyssee, De zwerftochten van Odysseus over de Atlantische Oceaan by Gerard.W.J.Janssen. Continuation of 'Atlantic Troy' Website Homer Odyssey
FROM THE KIKONES TO THE LOTUS-EATERS
Een van de vele steencirkels, Wassu, Gambia
The Bay of Biscay After the disastrous encounter with the Kikones (see part 2), in which he lost six men per ship, so a total of 6 x 12 = 72 men, Odysseus departs from this litus Saxonicum (Saxonian coast = Brittany, Bay of Douarnenez) towards Ithaka.
Then we sailed on, depressed and saddened, though happy to have escaped death, because of the loss of our companions. But my curved ships did not sail away before one of us called three times the name of each of the mates who, killed by Kikones, had died on the battlefield. Zeus, the cloud-gatherer, then stirred the Boreas wind with fierce hurricane power against our ships and covered land and sea with clouds: night dominated the sky. They were then set aside transversely of the wind and the storm blowing violently tore the sails in three or four pieces. That is why in terror of death we put them away in the ships and rowed the vessels wildly towards the coast. Over there we stayed for two whole nights and days, tormented by pain, exhausted by fatigue. (9.62 ff.)
Because of the hurricane from the north (Boreas), the direction that the ships are sailing must be southern. They are, therefore, driven across the Bay of Biscay towards the Spanish north coast, where they manage to come ashore by rowing. They stay there for two whole days to recover from the hardships. Homeros does not provide more details, making it difficult to determine the landing location in northern Spain. Cailleux believes he has a solution (PA 45) and states that the landing place must have been in Northern Galicia where the river Ullah flows, which would be named after Ulysses, just like the river Odet, which flows through Quimper in Armorica, could be named after Odysseus. The legend told about Iago in Galicia is at least remarkable. He sailed up the River Ullah with twelve mates, fleeing from enemies, split a rock in two with his stick and settled in a place Iria Flava, now called Padrón, where the pilgrims in Cailleux' time were still making a difficult climb up to the church of St. Iago on their knees. For comparison: Ulysses sailed the Ullah with twelve ships after a difficult journey across the Bay of Biscay escaping the enemies, the Kikones, and stayed there for two days, 'tormented by pain and exhausted by fatigue.' "Stick" and "day" in Gallo-Germanic are almost the same words: dag and dach. Possibly in the city of Padrón, named after 'a large mooring stone called the pedrón', the arrival of Odysseus, el Padrón, who moored at a large anchor stone, is still commemorated by the pilgrims. However, the data from Homeros are too poor for us to be able to say anything with certainty about this location.
Cape Maleia and Kuthera The following geographical points on Odysseus' journey to Ithaca (Cadiz) are Cape Maleia and Kuthera. Here too, the data from Homeros' text are very small in number, but actually the logic only forces us one way.
When the Morning with lovely braids brought the third day, we set the masts upright and hoisted the white sails. We rested because wind and navigators led the ships. Now I would have reached my home country unharmed if the waves, north wind and the current had not beaten me off course, when I tried to sail around Maleia, and had made me miss Kuthera. (9.76 ff.)
Odysseus was almost home and only had to sail round Cape Maleia, that is to say he had to round Cape S.Vincente, called Promontorium Herculis in Roman times. Of Herculis Vincens, the Victorious Hercules, only the second part, Vincens, has been preserved in the current name S.Vincente, the southwestern tip of Iberia. The Phoenician name for Hercules is Melkart or Malios, Melios, Melon, Malika, Milicus, hence Cape Maleia. The Boreas is still blowing hard so that, partly due to the countercurrent from Gibraltar, he is unable to round the cape and is driven along the coast of Morocco with the so-called Portugal current (north-south), where he missed also a possible landing place Kuthera.
Where is the Atlantic Kuthera?
