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polutropeThe traces of the ancient doctrine of Homer's infallibility linger on in contemporary criticism. If something in Homer is not absolutely correct, it must be justified, and cannot by any means be ascribed to poetic license or a slip of the poet's tongue. Felice Vinci takes this idea to its farthest ends in The Baltic Origins of Homer's Epic Tales.
Mr. Vinci begins with the Odyssey. He locates Ogygia, the island of Calypso, in the Faeroe Islands, on the basis that the birds that dwell there are more likely to be found in northern climates. He further states that Calypso may have been a deity, since "Homer actually calls her 'goddess' (thea)." This begins on a weak foot. Homer's nymphs are all divine; even the relatively minor Ino has become a goddess and now "has a share of honor among the sea-gods." (νῦν δ᾽ ἁλὸς ἐν πελάγεσσι θεῶν ἒξ ἔμμορε τιμῆς.) [Od, bk 5 line 335]
He proceeds to weaken his position farther, as he continually does: "Is it mere chance," he asks, "that the root of her name is similar to the name of an island, Kalsoy, that lies inside the Faeroe archipelago?" The only possible answer to this is, as indeed it must be for all such questions, "Yes." A Greek -ps-, as in Calypso's name, certainly cannot correspond to a Faroese -s-.
Leaving such etymological quibbles, let us pass on to the necessity of mapping the Odyssey, or at least those parts of it spent on the islands of Circe and Calypso, onto any known part of the world. A large part of Odysseus'* journeys take place in a magical, semi-real atmosphere, and are more allegory than fact. It is not necessary that the island of the Cyclops have a physical location; the importance to the story is to show a pre-civilized culture and a perversion of the guest-host relationship. Similarly, it is not necessary to know the exact composition of the drug consumed by the Lotos-Eaters. Thus, it is perhaps true that Homer's Mediterranean does not correspond exactly with that of the geographer; but is it important? To Mr. Vinci it is, and it leads him down tortuous paths.
Not only is Ogygia in the Faeroe Islands, the entire action of the Odyssey took place in the North Atlantic; and the famous city Troy was in fact located in Finland. He justifies this claim by citing the modern town Toija, which lies in a plain that could possibly be the one the heroes of the Greeks fought on. It need hardly be stated how tenuous this link is. To enumerate all the leaps of this sort would make a list to rival the Odyssey itself in length; I will content myself with saying that a few coincidences of sound and initial letters do not constitute proof.
Mr. Vinci's treatment of the mythology is hardly more satisfying. Not only does he try to use medieval Norse legends, first recorded in the eleventh century AD, to show the northern origin of Homer's poems (transcribed in the ninth century BC and possibly older than that), but he misuses the idea of an Indo-European civilization and mythology. It is undeniable that a group of peoples from India to Spain shared, at one point, a common culture and language. Similarities and recurring themes in the mythologies of these peoples, then, are no miracle, and certainly no cause to believe that the Greek peoples composed the Iliad and Odyssey before leaving their "homeland" in Finland.
A further weakness is Mr. Vinci's uncritical acceptance of many authors whose influence has now diminished. He liberally references The Golden Bough and Robert Graves' writing on myth. Further, he accepts the Kalevala as what Elias Lönnrot claims it is, the ancient songs of the Finns. Not only are the songs not "pure" folk legend, having been extensively edited by Lönnrot, they are hardly ancient; the ancient belief of the Finns may have been passed down in them, but only in a diluted form.
It is utterly impossible for the Indo-Europeans to have originated in Finland. The Fenno-Ugric language group has not fared as well as the Indo-European, and has left only scattered pockets of speakers.[see map] These pockets argue that the speakers of Fenno-Uralic were an earlier people, and were mainly driven out by the Indo-European conquerors, who avoided the Finnish peninsula. That the speakers of Fenno-Ugric settled in the midst of inimical men is unconscionable; that they managed to retain their place in the face of invasion is possible.
The Baltic Origins of Homer's Epic Tales is interesting, well-written, and very well researched. Its author's flights of fancy (the Greeks, based on Plutarch's mention of the "continental Greeks", had managed to reach and colonized the coasts of America) betray it, and make it difficult to consider any of the data presented as plausible.
*Mr. Vinci continually uses the Roman "Ulysses" to refer to the hero of the Odyssey. The only reason I have been able to find for this is the name's superficial similarity to the Norse Ull, with whom Mr. Vinci ardently desires to identify him. Since Odysseus was originally Greek, this offends all logic.
(Hardly in the scope of this review is the tendency to make every aspect of myth "real." Mr. Vinci says that Odin's horse Slepnir is represented as eight-legged because he is really two horses, seen in profile. Surely the ancients were as capable of fancy are we are, and for a god to have an extraordinary steed is certainly not unusual. Perhaps next we shall critique Freya, on the basis that even if they could be yoked, cats could not bear the weight of a
goddess and her chariot.)
Mr. Vinci begins with the Odyssey. He locates Ogygia, the island of Calypso, in the Faeroe Islands, on the basis that the birds that dwell there are more likely to be found in northern climates. He further states that Calypso may have been a deity, since "Homer actually calls her 'goddess' (thea)." This begins on a weak foot. Homer's nymphs are all divine; even the relatively minor Ino has become a goddess and now "has a share of honor among the sea-gods." (νῦν δ᾽ ἁλὸς ἐν πελάγεσσι θεῶν ἒξ ἔμμορε τιμῆς.) [Od, bk 5 line 335]
He proceeds to weaken his position farther, as he continually does: "Is it mere chance," he asks, "that the root of her name is similar to the name of an island, Kalsoy, that lies inside the Faeroe archipelago?" The only possible answer to this is, as indeed it must be for all such questions, "Yes." A Greek -ps-, as in Calypso's name, certainly cannot correspond to a Faroese -s-.
Leaving such etymological quibbles, let us pass on to the necessity of mapping the Odyssey, or at least those parts of it spent on the islands of Circe and Calypso, onto any known part of the world. A large part of Odysseus'* journeys take place in a magical, semi-real atmosphere, and are more allegory than fact. It is not necessary that the island of the Cyclops have a physical location; the importance to the story is to show a pre-civilized culture and a perversion of the guest-host relationship. Similarly, it is not necessary to know the exact composition of the drug consumed by the Lotos-Eaters. Thus, it is perhaps true that Homer's Mediterranean does not correspond exactly with that of the geographer; but is it important? To Mr. Vinci it is, and it leads him down tortuous paths.
Not only is Ogygia in the Faeroe Islands, the entire action of the Odyssey took place in the North Atlantic; and the famous city Troy was in fact located in Finland. He justifies this claim by citing the modern town Toija, which lies in a plain that could possibly be the one the heroes of the Greeks fought on. It need hardly be stated how tenuous this link is. To enumerate all the leaps of this sort would make a list to rival the Odyssey itself in length; I will content myself with saying that a few coincidences of sound and initial letters do not constitute proof.
Mr. Vinci's treatment of the mythology is hardly more satisfying. Not only does he try to use medieval Norse legends, first recorded in the eleventh century AD, to show the northern origin of Homer's poems (transcribed in the ninth century BC and possibly older than that), but he misuses the idea of an Indo-European civilization and mythology. It is undeniable that a group of peoples from India to Spain shared, at one point, a common culture and language. Similarities and recurring themes in the mythologies of these peoples, then, are no miracle, and certainly no cause to believe that the Greek peoples composed the Iliad and Odyssey before leaving their "homeland" in Finland.
A further weakness is Mr. Vinci's uncritical acceptance of many authors whose influence has now diminished. He liberally references The Golden Bough and Robert Graves' writing on myth. Further, he accepts the Kalevala as what Elias Lönnrot claims it is, the ancient songs of the Finns. Not only are the songs not "pure" folk legend, having been extensively edited by Lönnrot, they are hardly ancient; the ancient belief of the Finns may have been passed down in them, but only in a diluted form.
It is utterly impossible for the Indo-Europeans to have originated in Finland. The Fenno-Ugric language group has not fared as well as the Indo-European, and has left only scattered pockets of speakers.[see map] These pockets argue that the speakers of Fenno-Uralic were an earlier people, and were mainly driven out by the Indo-European conquerors, who avoided the Finnish peninsula. That the speakers of Fenno-Ugric settled in the midst of inimical men is unconscionable; that they managed to retain their place in the face of invasion is possible.
The Baltic Origins of Homer's Epic Tales is interesting, well-written, and very well researched. Its author's flights of fancy (the Greeks, based on Plutarch's mention of the "continental Greeks", had managed to reach and colonized the coasts of America) betray it, and make it difficult to consider any of the data presented as plausible.
*Mr. Vinci continually uses the Roman "Ulysses" to refer to the hero of the Odyssey. The only reason I have been able to find for this is the name's superficial similarity to the Norse Ull, with whom Mr. Vinci ardently desires to identify him. Since Odysseus was originally Greek, this offends all logic.
(Hardly in the scope of this review is the tendency to make every aspect of myth "real." Mr. Vinci says that Odin's horse Slepnir is represented as eight-legged because he is really two horses, seen in profile. Surely the ancients were as capable of fancy are we are, and for a god to have an extraordinary steed is certainly not unusual. Perhaps next we shall critique Freya, on the basis that even if they could be yoked, cats could not bear the weight of a
goddess and her chariot.)
