Did Ancient Greek Hero Odysseus Travel to Ireland
Did Odysseus Travel to Ireland? Credit: Public Domain.
Homer's Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus' return home after the Trojan War. For various reasons, this journey is not easy. It takes him a full ten years to return home. But the journey from Troy to Ithaca, Odysseus' home island, should not have been too difficult and certainly not a ten-year journey. For this reason, some researchers have claimed that Odysseus actually traveled beyond the Mediterranean Sea. It is even suggested that he traveled to Ireland.
Odysseus travel to Ogygia and its connection to Ireland
In the Odyssey, one of the places Odysseus visits is the island of Ogygia. It was the home of the nymph Calypso, who offers Odysseus immortality if he agrees to marry her. She refuses to let him go otherwise. The gods intervene and force Calypso to release her. So, after seven years on the island, Odysseus builds a raft and sails away.
The location of Ogygia has been the subject of considerable speculation. According to Homer’s account, the island is a place of beautiful meadows, fountains, woods, and various types of birds. However, none of this is particularly helpful. All sorts of islands could fit this description.
In ancient times, various suggestions were made as to where Ogygia might have originally been located. More recently, some scholars have argued that Ogygia is identical with Ireland. If this identification is correct, it would mean that Odysseus spent seven years in Ireland.
The most notable scholar to reach this conclusion was Roderick O'Flaherty. In 1685, he used the name 'Ogygia' as a synonym for Ireland in the title of one of his books. It was called: Ogygia: or a Chronological Account of Irish Events.
One of the main pieces of evidence used to support the identification of Ireland as Ogygia is a passage written by the 1st century AD historian Plutarch. He wrote about Homer's account of Ogygia together with other additional information he provided. According to Plutarch, Ogygia was located west of Britain, where Ireland is actually located.
Furthermore, Plutarch tells us that Ogygia was five thousand stadia from the 'great continent' which was surrounded by the 'great ocean'. Examples include Wilhelm von Christ, an eighteenth-century German scholar, and Johannes Kepler, a sixteenth-century German scholar.
If the "great continent" mentioned by Plutarch was really America, then this would mean that Ogygia was actually an island between Britain and America. Since Plutarch says that Ogygia was five thousand stadia from the Great Continent but only a few days distant from Britain, this shows that it was much closer to Britain than to America. So the Ireland match looks good.
Although Ireland matches Plutarch's basic description, there are some problems with this identification. For one thing, Ireland is not five thousand stadia from America. This distance will be equal to a little more than nine hundred kilometers. Despite this, there is a distance of about three thousand kilometers between Ireland and the United States. Therefore, the distance mentioned by Plutarch means that Ireland is not actually Ogygia, if America was indeed the 'great continent' he referred to. Clearly, however, there is no other option for the Great Continent that is suitable for passage.
Another problem is that Plutarch says it takes five days to travel between Britain and Ogygia. This would indicate an island further west than Ireland as it would take barely two days to reach Ireland from the farthest western part of Great Britain. In fact there is no island more than five days' distance from Great Britain and five thousand stadia from America. Measurements simply do not correspond to any real location.
In fact there is no island more than five days' distance from Great Britain and five thousand stadia from America. Measurements simply do not correspond to any real location.
Perhaps, then, some researchers could use this as evidence that the measurements must be incorrect, meaning that Ireland could still be the intended location. Alternatively, it could of course also mean that Plutarch was not really describing an actual location at all.
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