Back To The Palace

Stairway to Penelope's place   Photo©Nigel Summerley

 

Something magical always seems to happen whenever I visit the remains of the Palace of Odysseus on Ithaca.

This time I was at the apparently deserted site with friend, colleague and author Jane Cochrane.

While she disappeared up into the higher reaches of the ruins, I sat half-meditating in the remains of the megaron, the main hall, where Homer set Odysseus's bloody massacre of the suitors of his wife, Penelope.

After a while I took the ancient stairway that would have led up to the quarters of Penelope and her women. As I turned to look back down into the main hall, a young woman appeared, also apparently taking in the atmosphere of the place. 

I returned to the megaron to say hello and asked her if she knew much about the site. No, she said, but she wanted to. She had picked up on the powerful energy of the palace.

I gave her a verbal guided tour from Homer to the present day, and told her how I had worked with Jane on the hiking guidebook Walking In The Footsteps Of Odysseus.

I wanted to introduce her to Jane but she was still nowhere to be seen, and the Dutch visitor explained that she had to leave soon to catch a boat.

I gave her Jane's contact details, and the following day she was in touch to say that she had bought Odysseus' Island (prequel to Walking In The Footsteps), was really enjoying it, and was sure she would return to Ithaca – because she had drunk from the spring of Kalamos.

That's the old belief: that those who drink that water will come back to the island.

I suddenly realised that on this, my third visit to Ithaca I had visited the spring but not drunk the water, so maybe I would never return again.

Then I remembered that Jane had filled up her water containers at the spring... and I had drunk numerous cups of tea made from it.

Does that count? I guess we'll see.

Free books on Odysseus and his palace

To help celebrate Orthodox Christmas, two of Jane Cochrane's books about Ithaca will be free from Amazon as e-books from 7 to 11 January inclusive. If you don't already have some kind of e-reader, you should be able to download one for free from the internet.

The Excavation at Agios Athanasios / School of Homer is a record made by the archaeologist Professor Thanasis J Papadopoulos of his work done jointly with his wife, Litsa, at the site in north Ithaca. This publication gives the well-hidden archaeological evidence for the Palace of Odysseus being there. To help the lay reader, Jane has written a short introduction. 

Walking in the Footsteps of Odysseus (in which I also played a part) is a practical guide to the Homeric footpaths of Ithaca.

You can download e-books of The Excavation at Agios Athanasios / School of Homer and Walking in the Footsteps of Odysseus HERE.

Ithaca In Words – and Pictures

Jane Cochrane oversees her paintings being displayed

Preparations are under way for the official launch of Walking In The Footsteps Of Odysseus, the new guidebook to Ithaca by Jane Cochrane in which I played a bit part as walk-checker and sub-editor.

A capacity audience is expected to be at Paddington Library for the event on 28 April when Jane will be in conversation with me, talking about the genesis of the book and her love affair with the island so closely linked to Homer's Odyssey.

Whether or not you are going to the launch, you are now able to see some of Jane's beautiful Ithaca paintings on show at the library – for as well as being a meticulous researcher and writer, she is also a talented artist.

More information at www.janeocochrane.co.uk.

You Too Can Follow Odysseus

Jane Cochrane's brilliant new Ithacan guidebook, Walking in the Footsteps of Odysseus, is now available to order online – details at www.janeocochrane.co.uk.

And she will be in conversation (with me) for an official launch on the evening of 28 April at Paddington Library, London W2. If you want to be there, you will need to book at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-in-the-footsteps-of-odysseus-tickets-269509499167?aff=ebdssbdestsearch.

In the Footsteps of Telemachus

If there is anyone out there who hasn't had enough of reading my blogs on An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague and An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague, I have an article in The Guardian this week about literally one of the high points... Click here

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Back to the End

A midsummer night's dream... on Petraki

At the end of last year's six-week trip around the Odyssean sites of Greece and Italy I found myself staying on the night of my 70th birthday in a great hotel just off Syntagma Square in central Athens [see this blog An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 13: 29 September - 4 October 2020].

On the last night of this year's mini-odyssey Odysseus' Island writer Jane Cochrane invited me to join her and a Greek cousin of her late husband for dinner.

We all met at the Syntagma tram stop... and then the cousin led us to a restaurant she had chosen for the occasion, in the very same street as – and just across the way from – that excellent hotel I had stayed in in 2020.

It was an almost-too-good-to-be-true coincidence and it made a lovely farewell evening even more emotional.

That hotel in Petraki Street, by the way, used to be called the Athens La Strada. Now it's changed its name to the Villa Brown Ermou.

A year brings many changes of course... but will covid continue to be with us? And will there be An Odyssey in the Third Year of the Plague?

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – The Big One

 

Pera Pigadi Bay  ©Jane Cochrane

This was the toughest of the walks on Ithaca – in fact it was also a large part climbing, and a small part mountaineering.

That's me pictured on the beach at Pera Pigadi Bay before setting off to the top of the crag far above, which is known as the Korakos Petra.

It has been convincingly argued that this was the route taken by Odysseus's son, Telemachus, when he returned to Ithaca from trying to find out what had happened to his long-absent dad.

Last week locals were saying that this ascent could no longer be done. But I am glad to say that they were proved wrong.

If you're wondering why I'm not giving much more detail about this and the other walks I've been helping to research on Ithaca, it's because all will be revealed when Jane Cochrane's new book, Walking in the Footsteps of Odysseus on Ithaca, is published – hopefully later in 2021.

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Ithaca Beckons

Odysseus remembered... on Ithaca

Maybe, this blog should turn its thoughts properly towards my odyssey in the second year of the plague.

My first odyssey in the year of the plague (see posts from 2020) ended up producing 70,000 words as I planned and finally made my journey around Greece and Italy in the wake of Odysseus.

As a result of that trip, I now have the honour of working with Jane Cochrane on a new guidebook to Ithaca – with Jane doing all the hard work of writing and research, and me doing the fun bits of walking across Ithaca in the footsteps of Odysseus – guided by Homer.

Sorry again, Greta, but the only way we are going to get to Ithaca is by flying to Kefalonia and taking the ferry from there. 

The flight has been changed twice already due to the shifting Covid situation. So, once more, making it to Ithaca depends on the whim of the gods – and the virus.

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – An Offering

 

Wall mosaic in Ithaca            Photo©Nigel Summerley

I recently shared with Jane Cochrane, author of the brilliant book Odysseus' Island, this picture of a mural I saw on Ithaca. The colours reminded me of Jane's own beautiful illustration for her book cover.

She tells me: "ΕΥΧΗΝ ΟΔYCCΕΙ apparently means 'an offering to Odysseus’. It is the message on the fragment of clay from an ancient mask found in Loizos’ Cave at Polis Bay, now in the Stavros Museum that is so often shut – as it was when you visited." 

I remember archaeologist Andronikos Sakkatos telling me when I met him at the site of Odysseus's Palace last October that Ithacans were accustomed to make an offering to Odysseus – their local hero – before setting off on a journey.

And I recall too that "ΕΥΧΗΝ ΟΔYCCΕΙ" was inscribed at the entrance to the apartment that I stayed in on Ithaca.

It is gratifying to know that Jane and Andronikos are now in touch with each other to look at the possibility of mutual support in helping to bring about improvements to the Palace site, near Stavros, in northern Ithaca.

So let this connection – and this picture – be another "offering to Odysseus"... for another successful journey...

Photo©Nigel Summerley

An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 15: After the Afterword

 

An important ingredient of any odyssey has to be encounters with formidable women... and mine led to meetings with many: the Crazy Shop Woman of Andros, Oraia Eleni of Syros, Kiria Kapou of Patra, Dr Aimilia Dmitropoulou, Frau Hegelberger of Terracina, the Bikini Cousins of Ponza, my dear friend Z of Latina, Anastasia of Ithaca... (all are featured in An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague)...

And now last, but definitely not least, comes the remarkable Jane Cochrane, who contacted me after reading my odyssey article in The Oldie magazine.

She is the widow of the late Alec Kazantzis; together, they bought and renovated a ruined house on Ithaca in the 1980s and Jane still spends time there each year.

Since her husband's death in 2014, she has continued their work of exploring Homeric Ithaca and relating sites and paths there to scenes from The Odyssey, including of course the Palace of Odysseus site, north of Stavros, which I visited at the end of my own odyssey.

There has been a certain amount of scepticism in the past about the identification of that site as the location of the Palace. And the neighbouring and much larger island of Kefalonia has done its best to hijack the Odysseus legend for its own PR purposes – even going as far as to establish an Odyssey theme park.

But Jane Cochrane has written a book, Odysseus' Island, chronicling not only her life on Ithaca but also an irresistible case for the island (and its Palace site) being the true home of Odysseus.

I thoroughly recommend this book – and so does the respected historian and writer David Horspool. 

Jane Cochrane did her research (and her footslogging on Ithaca) with seriousness and rigour. With the assistance of lauded classicist Professor Robin Lane Fox, she secured the help of eminent philologist and archaeologist Professor George Huxley. Now she has been able to comprehensively debunk the attempt of a few years ago to locate Homeric Ithaca on Kefalonia, and she has also consolidated the direct connections between Homer and modern Ithaca.

While Kefalonia has cashed in, Ithaca is strapped for funds (and so is the university that was carrying out work on the Palace site). Jane Cochrane now intends to campaign to raise money to continue the work there, protect the site, provide proper information for visitors, and bring together all the finds in a new, improved museum. 

She is also putting together a hiker's guide to Odyssean walks on Ithaca.

Of course I am now a devout follower of Odysseus and therefore biased, but I feel her cause is a vitally important one. Read her book and I think you will probably agree.

https://www.janeocochrane.co.uk