Original subtitles

For centuries, the story of the Trojan War lived in the realm of myth, a tale

of gods and heroes, sung by poets, told beside fires, etched into the

imagination of the Greek world.

Yet beneath the poetry lies history.

Overlooking the Dardanelles in northwestern Turkey lies the site known

as Hizalik.

Here, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a city that was destroyed and

rebuilt over centuries.

Among its layers lies a settlement dating to the Late Bronze Age. Scarred

by fire, its walls toppled in violence.

It is here, in the aftermath of war, that the journey of Odysseus begins.

His kingdom was Ithaca and other islands in the Ionian Sea, including Cephalonia

and Zakynthos.

But his was not a swift return home.

Instead, the voyage stretched across ten long years, filled with trials,

temptations and terror.

a voyage that, whether taken as myth or distant memory, maps itself onto the

coasts and islands of the Mediterranean.

For centuries, scholars have attempted to identify the places where Odysseus

and his men landed.

Some locations are easily identified, others less so.

Indeed, Some scholars question whether such a voyage ever took place, or was

Homer simply using locations that were well known at the time?

Long before Homer composed his epic, the Aegean Sea was a major highway that

joined islands and even continents.

Greece as a single nation did not exist at the time of Odysseus. Instead, the

region we know as Greece today was divided up into island and city states.

Seamanship came naturally to the Greeks.

This had to do with the landscape of their surroundings, the geographical

position of Greece, its climate, and its endless coastline.

The landscape is mountainous, and the farming area only comprises one-fifth of

the entire nation.

Hence, it can only offer a poor harvest.

Thus, the sea was a way out.

which covers 92% of Greece's borders, forms closed inlets, natural harbours,

deep bays, golden beaches and hundreds of picturesque islands.

It was natural that such beautiful surroundings would inspire the Greeks

and would also instil in them a love for the sea.

The geographical position of Greece was an advantage because it was

approximately in the middle of the ancient Mediterranean, between Asia and

Italy. Near Egypt and Libya to the south, and next to the other Balkan

countries to the north, it was at the crossroads of the most ancient shipping

lanes. The distances were not great, and for thousands of years sailors navigated

under clear skies, almost always in fight of land.

It was the beginning of a maritime tradition that has lasted thousands of

years.

Homer tells us that the Greeks sent a fleet of over 1,000 ships to attack

Troy, which illustrates the might of Greek sea power at that time.

We don't have a single perfect blueprint of a Bronze Age Greek ship.

Instead, we can assemble the picture from fragments, art, archaeology, and

the logic of seamanship.

Most Aegean ships were long and narrow, built for a mixed life, oars for control

and speed, a sail for longer passages.

At sea level, they sat low in the water, with high ends, like horns, lifting

above the waves.

In the Aegean, wind can be generous until it isn't.

Within minutes, a calm, smooth sea state can turn into a raging storm of fierce

winds and big waves.

Bronze Age crews relied on both sail and oars.

Oars gave precision, entering harbours.

dodging reefs and fleeing danger.

The sail gave endurance, turning a coastal hop into a true crossing, as

well as allowing the oarsmen an opportunity to rest.

Most likely, they used a square sail on a single mast, simple, robust and

effective with the right winds.

But it demanded skill, to reef it quickly, to ride gusts, and to avoid

being driven onto shore.

Later, Greeks would call a long 50-oared galley a pentaconter, which translates

as 50-oared.

The name belongs to a later age.

But the idea is older, a long war-capable boat, powered by muscle,

guided by skill, and shaped by the sea itself.

The bulk of the crew consisted of oarsmen, who were free men recruited

from the general populace and compensated with pay or sometimes land

allotments. These men were not simply rowers, they were also the primary

infantry force who would fight from the ship or on land, equipped with shields,

spears and swords stored under their benches.

Responsibility for the actual navigation and steering of the ship was in the

hands of a professional helmsman, using a large steering wall.

A ship like this was built around one obsession, feed and control.

Long and narrow meant it sliced through choppy seas.

The low freeboard kept it light, but those raised ends helped it ride over

waves and keep the sea from swamping the boat.

This was the technology that would carry Odysseus back to his beloved Penelope on

Ithaca.

Homer's poem drew on centuries of Greek seafaring experience, trade, raiding,

seasonal navigation, island hopping, and the dangers of storms and straits.

These traditions were woven into the Odyssey's mythic journey.

The poem blends wonder and supernatural imagery with very real sailors' lore.

This is the story of Odysseus's Odyssey, told not only through Homer's poetry,

but through the landscapes of our modern world.

The war was over.

The Greek ships, beached on the sands below Troy's ruined walls, prepared to

sail. Among them was the vessel of Odysseus.

His home lay far to the west, across the Aegean Sea, among the Ionian islands of

modern-day Greece.

But the gods, angered by the Greeks' cruelty during the destruction of Troy,

were going to make sure that his journey home would be anything but safe.

Among the fleet of Greek ships were 12 sailing with Odysseus back to Ithaca.

Their journey would follow long-established routes that have been

known to mariners for thousands of years.

The first stage of their journey carried them along the Aegean coast towards

Thrace.

We are told that a violent storm scattered the fleet.

Odysseus and his men found themselves off the rugged coastline of Thrace, part

of which today is the most eastern part of Greece, sharing a border with

Bulgaria to the north and Turkey to the east.

Here, Homer tells us, the Ithacans first set foot upon foreign soil.

Scholars point to the site of Ismara, near the modern town of Marania in

Greece, as the likely place of Odysseus' landing.

The land here is marked by wooded hills, fertile plains, and a broad view over

the Aegean Sea.

In the Late Bronze Age, this land was occupied by the Kikones.

Raiding of coastal towns and villages by pirates and traders was commonplace

during this era.

After years of war followed by weeks at sea, the need for fresh supplies led

Odysseus and his men to attack the Kikonas.

In Homer's account, they plundered its spores, seized livestock, and, true to

the brutal customs of the age, took lives and captives.

But although Odysseus urged his men to be cautious and show restraint, his

words were ignored.

As a result, the Ithacans were caught on the beach by Kikine reinforcements who

had been summoned from the hills and mountains that lie behind the coast.

In the battle that followed, the Greeks were driven back to their ships.

Six men from each vessel killed, a heavy toll, and only the beginning of greater

losses to come.

The episode illustrates a pattern that recurs throughout Odysseus' journey, the

tension between prudence and recklessness, between leadership and

disobedience.

In Homer's telling, the Kikonas serve as a grim warning.

In historical terms, They anchor the Odyssey in a real landscape.

Thrace was well known to the ancient Greeks, a frontier land, home to tribes

both feared and respected.

The ruins of Maronia still stand today, with remnants of city walls and a well

-preserved theatre overlooking the sea.

To walk here is to imagine Odysseus' ships offshore, the cries of battle

echoing across the hills.

The Odyssey's geography may not be strictly literal, but many episodes

mirror real sailing passages.

Narrow straits, treacherous coastlines, and island-hopping routes that traders

and raiders used.

As we follow Odysseus, we step into both a mythological Mediterranean and the

real one. Each island, each promontory, is both a stage for gods and monsters,

and a place still visible on modern maps.

Driven from the shores of Thrace, Odysseus' ships turn south.

skirting the length of the Aegean and slipping past the familiar coasts of

Greece.

The town of Monomvasia is at the northern end of Cape Marlis, the

southeastern tip of the Peloponnese.

Parts of the town date back to the Byzantine era, but its towering sea

walls were familiar to sailors in the Bronze Age.

Odysseus was now near home.

All he had to do was round the Cape and sail past Kythera Island, and he would

be in the Ionian Sea.

But Cape Malus can be treacherous.

A violent storm blew Odysseus off course, carrying him south beyond the

islands of the Aegean and into the wider Mediterranean.

Ten years of adventure were to follow before he would finally set foot on

Ithaca.

Days of uncertain sailing brought him to a distant shore.

Here, Homer tells us, dwelt the lotus eaters.

The lotus was no ordinary plant.

Its blossoms, sweet and intoxicating, robbed men of their will to return home.

Those who tasted it longed only to remain, forgetting family, duty, and the

world beyond.

Where in our world was this land of the lotus?

Ancient and modern scholars alike have suggested the coast of North Africa.

Many point to the island of Djerba, off the coast of Tunisia.

Known today for its whitewashed villages and date palms, Djerba sits like a

stepping stone in the southern Mediterranean.

It is fertile.

rich in vegetation, and long associated with myths of enchantment.

Standing on its shores, one can almost imagine Odysseus's weary crew, finding

respite under its trees, and although the lotus is not known for its narcotic

qualities, its cousin, the blue lotus is.

The symbolism is timeless.

The danger, not of armed enemies, but of pleasures that dissolve ambition,

sapping the strength to carry on.

Odysseus acted decisively. He dragged dazed men back to the ships, tied them

fast beneath the benches, and ordered the fleet onward. To him, the memory of

Ithaca, his wife Penelope, his son Telemachus, was too strong to be

forgotten.

From the soft coasts of North Africa, the ships pressed on.

Soon the horizon revealed another land, green, rugged, with mountains rising

above the sea.

This was the land of the Cyclops.

In Homer's tale, the Cyclops were no ordinary men.

They were one-eyed giants who lived in caves.

Among them was Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, the sea god.

Most scholars place the encounter in Sicily, near Mount Etna.

The volcano dominates the landscape, its slopes rich in pasture, its caverns

carved by fire and water.

The ancient Greeks imagined the Cyclops as the smiths of the gods, laboring

beneath Etna's smoking peak.

Even today, the caves that dot the Sicilian coast fuel the imagination, as

if waiting for the return of Odysseus' ship.

It was here that Odysseus blinded the Cyclops so that he and his men could

escape after they had taken some of his food.

As they slipped away, Polyphemus called upon his father, Poseidon, god of the

sea, to avenge him.

From that moment on, Odysseus' fate was sealed.

The sea itself became his enemy.

The legend lives on to this day.

Mount Etna still smouldered.

Along the coast, near Catania, stand great black boulders, jagged and

towering above the waves.

They are known as the Cyclopean Isles, said to be the stones hurled by

Polyphemus in his rage.

Myths and landscapes are intertwined.

The geology of Sicily provides a stage for one of the Odyssey's most enduring

legends.

When Odysseus and his men escaped from the clutches of the Cyclops, their ships

are battered by storms, stirred up by Poseidon.

The Mediterranean is renowned for short, violent storms that seem to spring up

from nowhere, catching out the unwary seafarer.

Odysseus' battered fleet found refuge among the Aeolian Islands, off the

northern coast of Sicily.

These islands, Lipari, Vulcano, Stromboli and others, are volcanic,

their jagged peaks rising sharply from the sea.

The Greeks believed that they were the domain of Aeolus, keeper of the winds.

Homer tells us Aeolus welcomed Odysseus warmly, entertained him for a month, and

then sought to aid his journey.

He presented the hero with a gift, a great leather sack, bound with silver

cord, containing all the winds of the world, save one.

The west wind was left free to carry Odysseus home.

For nine days, the ships sped eastwards across the sea.

Ithaca itself came into view.

its familiar shores so near the men could see smoke rising from their

hearths. But curiosity and suspicion proved their undoing.

While Odysseus slept, his crew opened the sack, imagining it filled with

treasure.

The winds burst forth in a fury, driving the fleet back across the sea, all the

way to the Aeolian Islands.

This time, Aeolus would not help them.

The gods are against you, he declared, and cast Odysseus away.

The Aeolian islands still bear the marks of their myth.

On Stromboli, the volcano erupts with fiery bursts visible for miles, like the

breath of Aeolus himself.

On Lipari, ancient quarries reveal obsidian once traded across the

Mediterranean.

The winds here are real too, powerful, changeable, capable of turning a voyage

into disaster.

For sailors then and now.

This was a story based on the ever-changing natural world.

Odysseus's journey has been grounded in the known world of the time.

But other parts of the story remain harder to place. The line between myth

and geography becomes ever more blurred.

From the Aeolian islands, Odysseus and his fleet were once again at the mercy

of the sea.

The winds drove them toward a distant and unfamiliar harbor, a place unlike

any they had seen before.

Homer describes a narrow entrance, flanked by towering cliffs, leading into

a bay so enclosed that it seemed more like a lake than the open sea.

Here, they encounter the Laestragonians, giants, fierce and merciless.

They attack the ships, destroying all of them and killing their crews.

All but one.

for a cautious Odysseus had moored his ship just outside the harbour.

With desperate speed he cut his moorings and fled, the sole survivor, with his

single vessel.

Where was this dreadful harbour?

Scholars have suggested various sites.

Some point to the rocky northern coast of Sicily.

Another suggested location is the modern bay of Bonifacio, in Corsica. It

certainly fits Homer's description of a narrow entrance with high cliffs on

either side, leading to a safe harbour.

Or could the legend of the Laestagonians be the result of ancient Greek mariners

who had seen the giant sculptures of the Nuragic civilisation on Sardinia's west

coast?

Following their narrow escape, Odysseus and his surviving companions sailed

onward until they reached an island that was both beautiful and perilous.

This was Ea, the home of the enchantress Circe.

Where in our geography?

Do we find Circe's ear?

One possibility is the island of Ponza, off the western coast of Italy.

There the Monte Circio is to be found, a promontory that juts into the Tyrrhenian

Sea between Rome and Naples.

The headland rises dramatically from the surrounding plain, its cliffs crowned

with forest, its shoreline rich in caves.

To ancient sailors, it would have seemed an island, isolated and forbidding.

Even today, it bears the name Ciascio, preserving the memory of the

enchantress.

For a full year, Odysseus remained on her island.

But at last, stirred by the call of home, Odysseus demanded to depart.

As he leaves Circe, she tells him he must visit the underworld if he is to

find out if he will ever return to Ithaca.

His destination is the land of the Cimmerians, a place shrouded in mist.

where the living might speak with the dead.

The Greeks imagined the entrance to the underworld as lying at the farthest

western reaches of the earth, where the sun sinks into ocean.

Yet Homer's description is more specific.

Odysseus sails northward, across the sea, until he reaches a dark shore where

the river Acheron meets the Styx.

Where might this underworld be placed in our geography?

Two sites in particular have long been linked to Homer's tale.

One is Cape Tanneron, at the southern tip of the Peloponnese in Greece.

Here, a cave near the sea was revered in antiquity as an entrance to Hades.

Travellers and worshippers alike came to make offerings, believing the boundary

between worlds was thin.

The other site lies near Naples at Lake Avernus. This lake sits in a volcanic

crater ringed by dark forest.

Avernus means without birds, and in ancient Greece, it was believed that

rising noxious sulfuric fumes meant that birds could not fly over it. This was

taken as a sign that this was a place unfit for living things and so connected

to the underworld.

To stand at its shore today, with the sulfurous scent of nearby vents, is to

sense why the ancients saw it as a gateway to death.

Armed with prophecy and knowledge of what lies ahead, Odysseus returns from

the underworld to Ea, Circe's island.

There, the sorceress offers further counsel.

Ahead lie the sirens, whose song lures sailors to their doom, the strait of

Scylla and Charybdis, where death waits on either side, and the island of the

sun-god Helios, where the cattle must not be harmed.

His journey home is shorter, and the dangers more dire.

But Odysseus now knows what he must face.

Cersei had warned him of the Sirens, whose sweet songs were said to lure

sailors to their deaths on jagged rocks.

But Homer's story may have some foundation in the real world.

The Cyrenuse Rocks, today called Leigh Gally, are a small group of islands off

the Amalfi Coast and would have been known to mariners at the time.

There is also a group of rocks off the island of Capri called the Faragioni

rocks.

These stacks are also believed to have been the home of the Siren.

Odysseus, on Circe's advice, makes wax earplugs for his men, but ordered them

to tie him to the mast so that he can hear the Siren's song, with strict

orders not to release him.

No matter how he begs.

Could the magical sounds be the unfamiliar noises of landfall after a

long arduous voyage at sea?

To sail these waters, with cliffs rising sharply from the sea and the surf

breaking on hidden reefs, is to understand why such a myth arose.

Even now, the coast of Amalfi seems touched by enchantment, its beauty

tinged with peril.

Beyond the sirens lay an even more treacherous passage.

On one side lurked Scylla, a monster with six heads, each snatching sailors

from the decks.

On the other was Charybdis, a monstrous whirlpool that seemed to swallow the sea

itself before spewing it forth again.

No ship could hope to pass unscathed.

Odysseus faced a terrible choice.

To steer closer to Scylla meant the loss of some of his men.

plucked screaming from the decks.

To steer nearer Charybdis meant risking his entire vessel, swallowed whole.

Guided by Cersei's warning, he chose the lesser evil.

He steered towards Scylla.

Scholars place Scylla and Charybdis at the Strait of Messina, between Sicily

and the toe of Italy's boot.

Here, the waters are narrow, funneled between steep coasts.

Powerful currents swirl, forming eddies.

Whirlpools sometimes churn.

Although the changing seabed means they are not as dangerous as they once were,

Sailors today know the challenge of this crossing, where tides and winds conspire

to trap the unwary.

To the ancient Greeks, such natural hazards became living monsters,

embodiments of the sea's merciless power.

Having passed the strait, Odysseus and his weary crew reached an island bathed

in sunlight.

This was Thranacia, the pasture land of Helios, the sun god.

Here, sacred cattle grazed, immortal creatures watched over by the daughters

of Helios.

Circe had warned them, as had Tiresias in the underworld, to harm these cattle

was to court disaster.

Odysseus swore his men to restraint.

But storms trapped them on the island for a month.

Supplies dwindled, and hunger gnawed at their strength.

While Odysseus prayed in solitude, his men, driven by desperation, slaughtered

the sacred herd.

They roasted the flesh, defying the will of the gods.

When Odysseus returned, it was too late.

The scent of cooking meat filled the air.

and the wrath of Helios was kindled.

The sun god appealed to Zeus, demanding punishment, and punishment came swiftly.

When the crew once more could deceive him, a storm descended.

Thunder split the sky.

Lightning shattered the mast, and the ship was torn apart.

Every man was drowned, save Odysseus alone.

Clinging to the wreckage, he was borne across the waves, helpless, toward his

next trial.

Where might Thranacia be found?

Many traditions place it in Sicily, whose fertile plains and sunny pastures

suit the image of Helios' cattle.

Others suggest Malta, or one of the smaller islands of the central

Mediterranean.

The story carries a clear moral.

Disobedience to divine warning brings ruin, and hunger, whether for food, for

wealth, or for power, can drive men to their doom.

Themes of the Sirens, Scylla and Helios.

Together, these episodes mark the climax of Odysseus' trials.

The Sirens embody temptation, knowledge without wisdom, desire without

restraint.

Scylla and Charybdis embody inevitability, the reality that some

choices in life have no good outcome, only the lesser of evils.

The cattle of Helios embody disobedience, the fatal flaw of

Odysseus' crew, whose recklessness leads to their destruction.

Odysseus himself survives, but at a terrible cost, the loss of all his

companions. From this point onwards, he fails alone.

The journey through southern Italy and Sicily reveals how Homer wove real

geography into myth.

The Siren Islands off Capri.

The whirlpools of Messina. The pastures of Sicily. Each corresponds to features

sailors would have known.

Yet Homer transformed them into something more.

He took the natural dangers and wonders of the sea.

and gave them faces, voices, and divine meaning.

For the ancient Greeks, the Mediterranean was not merely water and

land, it was alive, shaped by gods and monsters.

To sail it was to enter a world where every current, every storm, was the will

of a higher power.

In this sense, the Odyssey is not only a tale of adventure,

but a reflection of how the Greeks understood their world.

Shipwrecked and alone, Odysseus was carried by the waves to the shore of

Ogygia.

There, exhausted, he collapsed beneath the trees and was discovered by the

nymph Calypso.

Calypso was a goddess of great beauty.

who dwelled in solitude on her island.

She welcomed Odysseus, tended his wounds, and offered him shelter.

More than that, she offered him love.

For seven years, Odysseus remained with her.

Calypso promised him immortality if he would stay, never again to endure

hardship, never again to suffer loss.

But for all her beauty, and all the comfort of her island, Odysseus longed

only for home. His heart yearned for Penelope at home on Ithaca.

In the end, the gods themselves intervened. Calypso was ordered to let

Odysseus go.

With bitterness, yet with grace, she obeyed. She gave Odysseus tools to build

a raft and provisions for the voyage.

And so, once more, he set out to sea.

Where was Calypso's island?

Ancient commentators placed Ogygia far to the west, at the very edge of the

known world.

Many today associate it with the Maltese islands of Goga.

There, a cave known as Calypso's Cave overlooks the Mediterranean.

linked by tradition to Homer's tale.

Odysseus's raft did not carry him far before Poseidon, still wroth, struck

again.

The sea god unleashed storms that shattered the fragile vessel, casting

Odysseus once more into the deep.

Yet fate was not finished with him.

Clinging to broken timbers, he was carried across the waves until he

reached the shore of Sharia, the land of the Phaeacians.

Here, at last, his fortunes turned.

The Phaeacians were a seafaring people, famed for their fast ships.

On the beach, Odysseus collapsed.

weary beyond measure.

There, he was discovered by the daughter of the local king.

Her name was Nausicaa.

Despite his terrible state, she led him back to her father's palace.

Fed, clothed, and honored, he told the tale of his journey.

His odyssey was a tale of wonder, terror, and loss.

Moved by what he heard, the king ordered that Odysseus be taken home in one of

his ships.

The Phaeacian ship bore him swiftly across the Ionian Sea, faster than any

known craft could sail.

In this final gift of hospitality, Odysseus found deliverance.

The land of the Phaeacians has been most often identified with Corfu.

or Kerkira, off the northwest coast of Greece.

The island, lush and green.

lies on the very route by which Odysseus would return to Ithaca.

Its harbours and hills seem fitting for a people who embodied seafaring skill

and generosity.

Even today, Corfu embraces its link to the Odyssey, claiming the legacy of that

final fateful stop before home.

Odysseus had been away from Ithaca for 20 years, 10 years at war followed by

another 10 years on his journey home.

The Phaeacian ship carrying Odysseus arrived off Ithaca in the dead of night.

As Odysseus slept, he was carried ashore and left on a sandy beach.

Legend has it that this was Dexa beach.

But as the story goes, he was in danger.

As he had been away for so long, others conspired to seize his kingdom and his

wife.

To help him, the goddess Athena disguises Odysseus as a beggar.

Dozens of men feasted on his wealth, pressed his wife Penelope to remarry,

and plotted against his son Telemachus.

To reveal himself too soon would be to invite death.

But his faithful old dog Argos recognized him before dying.

Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus entered his palace.

Penelope was under great pressure.

She decided that whoever could string and accurately fire Odysseus's bow would

win her hand.

One by one, the rivals fail.

Then the beggar took up the bow.

With ease he strung it and let fly the arrow.

which began with the fall of Troy on the shores of northwestern Turkey, ends

here, on Issachar.

It is a quiet island only accessible by sea.

Its hills rise above clear waters.

Its small harbors provide shelter from the wind.

To walk its paths, is to step into myth, to imagine Odysseus at last embracing

Penelope. The long ordeal ended.

The final chapters of the Odyssey embody both endurance and restoration.

Calypso offered immortality.

Yet Odysseus chose mortality and home.

The Phaeacians offered safe passage, proving that hospitality, the sacred

bond between guest and host, was not lost in the world.

And in Ithaca, the trials of disguise, patience, and justice brought the story

full circle.

Odysseus is no flawless hero.

He is cunning, proud, often reckons, But he is also steadfast, unwilling to

abandon the longing for home.

It is that longing, nostos, as the Greeks called it, that lies at the heart

of the Odyssey.

Odysseus was now home, his journey over.

The story of Odysseus' journey has travelled down through the millennia.

It has inspired poets and playwrights, artists and adventurers.

It has shaped our language.

Words like Odyssey itself now mean any long and eventful journey not just to

distant shores but facing a series of life's challenges.

Millions of people criss-cross the Mediterranean in journeys that are

measured in hours rather than years.

For the many tourists who arrive in the Greek island, it is an opportunity to

relax in beautiful surroundings.

It is easy to understand why Odysseus yearned so much to return home.

For some visitors, there is the opportunity to explore thousands of

years of history.

Advances in archaeology have revealed locations directly attributable to the

time of Odysseus and even to the man himself.

But how much is there to see?

The location and even the very existence of the city that inspired Homer's

greatest works have been the source of disputes throughout the ages.

But Hithalic, overlooking the mouth of the Dardanelles in northwest Turkey, is

now widely recognized as the site of the ancient city of Troy.

Ruins were first uncovered by German businessman and enthusiastic

archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1869.

In more recent times, further excavations have revealed that the site

was a very important city, perhaps because its location guarding the

Dardanelles meant it was effectively the gateway to the Black Sea, and thus, an

important trade route.

There is also evidence that at least part of the city was destroyed by fire

and violence sometime during the Late Bronze Age, the period in which Homer's

Odyssey is set.

For anyone planning to follow in the footsteps of Odysseus, this is where the

journey begins.

Travelling north across the Aegean Sea lies the ancient kingdom of Thrace.

Today, it shares its borders with Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.

It is a mountainous region rich in forests and dramatic gorges.

It is also a region rich in archaeological sites.

Coastal paths cross the rocky cliffs and beaches on the southern shores.

In Homer's poem it is called Ismaros, home of the Kikones attacked by Odysseus

and his men.

The nearest major settlement is Maranea.

Famed for its strong winds which Odysseus uses to send the Cyclops to

sleep, so that he and his men can escape today there are the remains of a theater

and stone ruins that link the town to its ancient past who

knows what else lies just below the surface waiting to be discovered

but it is back

on ithaca that you will find the strongest evidence of odysseus's

existence

Across Ithaca, local tradition has pinned Homeric names to springs, ridges

and ruins, abandoned hill villages that look down over the same bays, perhaps

where Odysseus may have scanned the sea.

Some of these identifications are scholarly, others are frankly romantic.

But together, they form a kind of mythic overlay on a very real island, where

every path can become a line of the Odyssey.

In the park in Stavros, the main town of northern Ithaca, there is a statue to

Odysseus. The inscription means, Prayer to Odysseus. It comes from a dedicatory

inscription found on fragments during archaeological investigations.

The fragments dated from between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and is considered

one of the most important findings in Ithaca, as it demonstrates that Odysseus

was worshipped as a god for many years.

There are locations that have associations with Homer's epic story.

For example, Fricas, on the northeast of the island, is thought by some scholars

to be the ancient port of Wraithron.

Meanwhile, Reza's cave on the south of the island is traditionally believed to

be where Eumaeus kept his animals.

Eumaeus being the first person Odysseus meets on his return to Ithaca.

And then there is Mount Neritos, Ithaca's tallest mountain.

and the distinctive landmark that the goddess Athena uses to convince Odysseus

that he is back on Ithaca.

What we do have is a cluster of archaeological sites and cult places

that show how strongly later Greeks believed that a king called Odysseus

once ruled these hills.

Above the northern village of Exolgi lies Agios Athanasios, long known as the

school of Homer.

In the 1990s, archaeologists uncovered a substantial complex here.

Terraces, walls, floors and Mycenaean period constructions on a commanding

ridge.

Some researchers now argue this was a Mycenaean citadel that fits Homer's

description of Odysseus Palace, a fortified residence with nearby spring

and views over the northern bays.

Recent excavations have added a new twist.

At this same site, scholars have identified a Hellenistic sanctuary, the

Odyssean, a hero shrine dedicated to Odysseus himself, complete with ritual

structures, inscriptions and offerings.

One fragment of a roof tile even seems to preserve part of his name.

In other words, Centuries after the poems were composed, people came up here

to worship Odysseus as a hero.

So whether or not this was his actual house, the ruins you see are real, and

they belonged to people who believed they were living in his shadow.

Further north, on Pilicata Hill, archaeologists from the British School

at Athens dug into another major settlement.

The hill shows continuous occupation from early prehistory down into the

Mycenaean Age, the era usually associated with the Trojan War.

Coins and cults don't prove a man existed.

But they do show something else, Ithacans claimed him.

They minted his image, guarded his supposed palace, and turned their

landscape into a living commentary on Homer.

Today, life on Ithaca moves at a slightly slower pace than its sisters,

Cephalonia and Zakynthos.

Indeed, of the larger Ionian islands, Ithaca is the only one without an

airport. Instead, it maintains its connection to the outside world via the

sea. A regular ferry service runs from Sami on Cephalonia to Vati, Ithaca's

capital.

On arriving in Vati, you learn very quickly that this is Odysseus's island.

A large statue to him stands in a square facing the sea.

Nearby there is also a statue of Homer.

The island is rich in small coves and bays with crystal clear water.

Most can only be accessed by boat or on foot, which just adds to the sense of

ancient mystery.

Take Ioni on Ithaca's northeast coast as an example.

Keone lies tucked into the shoreline like a secret kept for sailors.

A harbour that doesn't announce itself only receives you, quietly, safely, like

the last pages of a long voyage.

Keone is built around the simplest idea in island life, shelter.

The bay curves like a cupped hand, and the village wraps the shoreline in a

neat ribbon.

In the Odyssey, the world is full of hazards, weather, distance, strangers

and pride, but the longing that drives the journey is simple, landfall and

home.

Keone isn't home in the literal sense of the epic, Homer doesn't mention it, but

it carries the same feeling.

From above, Keone looks like an anchorage shaped like a cradle, and you

can imagine the ancient logic of it, why a sailor would choose this curve of

coast. why a crew would fall silent as the wind dies and sea smooths out.

For sailors, it's a perfect pause, a place to anchor, refuel, and let the

island's pace reset your own.

Although Homer refers to Ithaca as Odysseus's kingdom, many scholars

believe that it included the surrounding islands of Cephalonia and Zakynthos.

Indeed, there are theories that the kingdom may have been centered more on

Cephalonia.

Not far from the harbour at Sami you will find the Melasani Cave.

Known locally as the Cave of the Nymph, it looks quite modest from the outside.

But as you descend, it reveals a part geological marvel, part natural theatre.

The lake is freshwater, fed by subterranean flows that pass through the

island's limestone.

For thousands of years, slightly acidic rainwater percolated down through cracks

in the rock, widening them, hollowing chambers, shaping this cave in slow

motion. At some point, the ceiling collapsed, not enough to destroy the

cave but just enough to invite the sun.

When sunlight hits the opening overhead, especially around midday, the lake

transforms. A bright column of light slides across the water.

and the whole cave seems to illuminate from within.

In the ancient imagination caves like this weren't empty spaces.

They were thresholds to places where the ordinary human world met with the world

of gods.

Archaeological finds in and around the site have included objects associated

with ancient worship, suggesting the cave may have been regarded as sacred in

antiquity. It has been argued that this is where Odysseus may have hidden his

treasure on his return to Ithaca.

In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus doesn't rule only one island, he rules a

network. The poem names Sarmie among the islands of his realm, alongside Ithaca

and Zakynthos.

However the geography lines up in detail, Cephalonia sits squarely inside

that Odyssean seascape, so when you stand above Assos Sea on every side,

it's easy to imagine the logic of an island kingdom.

Harbours like this are your gateways, your shelters, your last refuge in bad

weather, and your first sight of home.

Assos feels like a harbour designed for an epic.

A narrow hook of land, a sheltered bowl of water, and steep hills rising fast

behind it, perfect for anchoring, hiding, watching.

The fortress above the village is Venetian, built in the late 1500s, but

it amplifies a much older truth. In the Ionian, whoever controls the high ground

controls the sea lanes, and that's pure odyssey.

A world where coastlines are red like maps, and every headland might mean

safety or danger.

The Ionian Islands sit close enough to feel like neighbours, yet the sea

between them can still decide your fate.

And that is exactly the geography of Homer's Odyssey.

short crossings, sudden storms, hidden coves, and the constant question of

where home waters end and danger begins.

In the poem, Zakynthos isn't a random stop on Odysseus' wandering.

It belongs to the world he's trying to get back to.

Today, Zakynthos, or Zante, is a popular holiday destination.

famous for its turquoise waters, dramatic cliffs and sandy beaches as

well as a vibrant nightlife.

The Ionian Islands may be tiny dots on the map, but in the Odyssey, they

represent something much bigger, because these islands aren't just scenery,

they're home coordinates.

Ithaca and its neighbours, named in the poem Mark the World Odysseus belongs to,

the network of sea lanes, alliances and rivalries that keeps turning even while

he's gone.

And that's what makes them powerful for storytelling.

The Ionian is small enough to fill knowable, short crossings, familiar

headlands, harbours you can recognise.

It teaches you how the ancient sea works.

where you can land, where you can hide a ship, where you can watch the horizon

before you commit.

But, once the poem leaves these home waters, the same logic scales up.

The map widens, from local island politics to the open-ended half-real,

half-mythic Mediterranean, foreign coasts, strange islands, storms that

reroute destiny, and places that feel like the edge of the world.

Homer's Odyssey has been adapted for film and television several times over

the years.

Bringing the poem to life on the screen presents several challenges, not least

how to visualise the mythical passages.

It's what makes directors go hunting for real coastlines that feel ancient,

places with the right light, the right sea colour, and landscapes that can pass

for a Bronze Age world.

In the latest version of The Odyssey, director Christopher Nolan brings

Homer's tale to life using real coastlines, real ruins and real weather.

The production travelled across multiple countries to make the journey feel

physically hard, geographically varied and, crucially, believable.

The production began in Morocco using the fortified earth-toned architecture

around Ayit Ben Haddou to represent Troy.

Built as a fortified settlement on the caravan route linking Saharan trade with

Marrakech, it is a location filmmakers often choose when they want ancient

scale without modern clutter.

The origins of the village date back to the 11th century.

although most of the earthen structures we see today were either rebuilt or

built during the 17th century.

So, although it is almost 2,000 years younger than the city of Troy destroyed

by the Greeks, the dense, historic-looking structures can be read

as a Bronze Age cityscape on camera.

Moving on to Greece, The production visited several locations in the

Messenia region of the Peloponnese, in the southwestern part of the mainland.

It is a captivating area of unspoilt landscapes and rich history that dates

back to the time of Odysseus.

Voidokilia Beach was one of several pristine beaches used as a location.

Voidokilia is extraordinary in that it is an almost perfect shape of the symbol

Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Above the beach is Nestor's Cave.

This is one of several sites in the area that have revealed Bronze Age

archaeology.

The cave provides the location for Odysseus' terrifying encounter with the

Cyclops.

While the production was in Messenia, scenes were filmed at Methone Castle.

It is a 13th century castle built by the Venetians during their occupancy of the

area.

The castle's most cinematic feature is its relationship with the sea.

You approach across exposed stone with water on both sides, and then out there

sits the little offshore tower like a punctuation mark.

It's an image that instantly communicates isolation, vigilance, and

the feeling of standing at the end of the known map.

Another key location in the Peloponnese was the ancient fortress at Acra

Corinth.

From its commanding position overlooking the Peloponnese Peninsula, it is the

largest acropolis in mainland Greece.

Its dramatic mountaintop setting, providing a grand, authentic backdrop

for the epic.

The Aeolian Islands off the coast of Sicily provided the locations for some

of the island's scenes, including Volcano, which doubled up as Aeolia.

home of the winds other locations included the island of favignana

off sicily's west coast cala rossa is renowned for its clear turquoise water

against the strange but beautiful backdrop of standing stones the legacy

of old quarry working

For the colder, harsher end of the Odyssey's emotional palette, the

production went to Scotland, including Findlayter Castle in Moray, and nearby

coastal locations.

The ruined clifftop fortress gives an instant sense of isolation, danger, and

the feeling that you've sailed beyond the edges of the map.

This sense is reinforced by the dense forest at Culbin, which extends all the

way down to the shoreline.

Odysseus' voyage to Hades, the underworld, was made believable in

Iceland's breathtaking landscape.

The contrast with warm, bright Greece could not be more stark.

The landscape gave the journey a harsher, more elemental edge than the

Mediterranean locations could provide.

There are the glacial and volcanic landscapes, where the world looks

drained of warmth and time.

The vastness and drama of the landscape provide a fitting backdrop for a key

turning point in Odysseus's journey.

Not just in his physical journey, but in how he conducts himself as a man from

now on.

To follow Odysseus is to follow both a story and a sea.

It is to glimpse how the ancients made sense of their world and how we, in

turn, still search for meaning in myth.

The Odyssey is not only a tale of gods and monsters, it is a tale of longing,

of resilience, of the human spirit's refusal to surrender.

Across 3,000 years, its song endures.

And whether we sail the Mediterranean or simply trace its coasts on a map, we are

reminded that the journey of Odysseus, like all great journeys, is, in the end,

our own.