XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, rec.ponds, alt.atheism   
   XPost: alt.history.ancient-worlds   
   From: autodelete@city-of-dis.com   
      
   On the auspictious date of 2 Oct 2005 13:29:00 -0700,   
   geister@mailinator.com said unto the multitude in message-id   
   <1128284940.755539.111120@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>:   
      
      
   > You just have to hate it when history proves atheism wrong.   
      
   Quite so. The existence of Ithica clearly proves the existence of   
   Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Athena, Hermes, and so forth. Which one do you   
   propose to take as your patron God or Goddess?   
      
   >Lost island home of Odysseus found after 3,000 years   
   >By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent   
   >FOR almost 3,000 years, its location has been a mystery, but classical   
   >scholars around the world are now convinced that a British businessman   
   >and amateur archaeologist with a passion for Homer has found the island   
   >   
   >of Ithaca, home of the Greek hero Odysseus and the site of his palace.   
   >Many thought that the island existed only in the imagination of the   
   >Greek poet Homer and in his epic, the Odyssey. Certainly his   
   >description   
   >of it did not match the Ionian island now called Ithaca, but, after   
   >following a detective trail of literary, geological and archaeological   
   >clues, scholars led by Robert Bittlestone, a management consultant,   
   >have   
   >identified Paliki, an area of Cephalonia, as the site.   
   >Calssicists have been overwhelmed by the compelling evidence.   
   >NI_MPU('middle');James Diggle, Professor of Greek and Latin at   
   >Cambridge University and co-author of a book on the discovery, said   
   >that almost   
   >all of the 26 locations that Homer described in detail can be   
   >identified today in northern Paliki and its neighbourhood.   
   >The topography of Homer's island fits the area "like a glove", he   
   >said.   
   >Paliki was once a separate island. Since Homer's day, earthquakes   
   >triggering massive landslides had filled in a narrow sea channel that   
   >separated it from the island of Same - modern Cephalonia, the setting   
   >for   
   >Captain Corelli's Mandolin.   
   >Professor Diggle said: "Some 3,200 years after the events that are   
   >described in the Odyssey, ancient Ithaca has at last been discovered   
   >- a   
   >discovery which will revolutionise our understanding of the ancient   
   >world   
   >and is of profound importance to our understanding of the origins of   
   >western civilisation."   
   >Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey are the oldest books in   
   >Western literature. They describe the Trojan War and the return of   
   >Odysseus - who devised the wooden horse that helped to end it - to   
   >his palace   
   >on Ithaca. Homer's accounts of events around 1,200BC inspired the   
   >philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Socrates and shaped the intellectual   
   >and   
   >cultural development of Greece.   
   >Troy was also thought to be fictional until the 1870s, when Heinrich   
   >Schliemann conducted excavations in northwestern Turkey that led to the   
   >   
   >discovery of the ancient city and, buried beneath it, the gold of Troy.   
   >   
   >Scholars and archaeologists had been baffled by Homer's description   
   >of   
   >Ithaca: "Around are many islands, close to each other,/Doulichion and   
   >   
   >Same and wooded Zacynthos./Ithaca itself lies low, furthest to   
   >sea/Towards dusk [ie West]; the rest, apart, face dawn and sun [ie   
   >East]."   
   >Today's Ithaca lies to the east of the other islands, not to the   
   >west,   
   >and it is not low-lying but mountainous. Scholars therefore came to the   
   >   
   >uneasy conclusion that Ithaca must have come from the poet's   
   >imagination.   
   >However, after field trips to western Greece and computer analysis of   
   >literary, geological and archaeological data, the use of the most   
   >advanced satellite imagery and 3D global visualisation techniques   
   >developed   
   >by NASA, Mr Bittlestone found up to 70 clues leading to Caphalonia.   
   >The research has convinced leading academics worldwide, including John   
   >Underhill, Professor of Stratigraphy at Edinburgh University, who has   
   >now co-written a book with Professor Diggle and Mr Bittlestone.   
   >Their research will be published by Cambridge University Press on   
   >October 6 in Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca.   
   >   
   >Search 'locates' Homer's Ithaca   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >An amateur British archaeologist says he has located Ithaca, the   
   >homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus.   
   >Robert Bittlestone - backed by two experts - claims the rocky island   
   >depicted in The Odyssey is part of Greek tourist destination   
   >Cephalonia.   
   >He used satellite imagery to match the area's landscape with   
   >descriptions in the poem about the return of the man behind the wooden   
   >horse of   
   >Troy.   
   >Many experts had stated Homer was referring to the island of Ithaki.   
   >They had explained geographical inconsistencies in The Odyssey by   
   >suggesting that Homer lived much later than the events portrayed and in   
   >a   
   >different part of the country.   
   >Previous studies have also named other Ionian islands including   
   >Cephalonia.   
   >Earthquakes   
   >Surrey-based management consultant Mr Bittlestone first came up with   
   >his theory in 1998.   
   >During field trips to western Greece he also analysed literary,   
   >geological and archaeological data, and utilised 3D global   
   >visualisation   
   >techniques developed by Nasa.   
   > There is something both very new and very old to be found at this new   
   >location and that we should now treat the existence of ancient Ithaca   
   >very seriously   
   >   
   >   
   >Robert Bittlestone   
   >   
   >   
   >His new book Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer's Ithaca is   
   >co-written by Cambridge University professor James Diggle, and   
   >geographic   
   >expert John Underhill from Edinburgh University.   
   >It suggests earthquakes have helped fill a narrow channel which had   
   >separated Cephalonia from Ithaca - said to have been located in the   
   >peninsular now known as Paliki.   
   >Future research   
   >It is not clear whether Odysseus or Ithaca really existed.   
   >But Mr Bittlestone said: "Our purpose has been to demonstrate that   
   >there is something both very new and very old to be found at this new   
   >location and that we should now treat the existence of ancient Ithaca   
   >very   
   >seriously."   
   >He has described his find as one of the most important classical   
   >discoveries since the unearthing of Troy in Turkey in the 1870s.   
   > The book says Ithaca was the peninsular now known as Paliki   
   >   
   >   
   >The book details 26 locations in The Odyssey that can be identified   
   >today in northern Paliki and its vicinity.   
   >The research was conducted in cooperation with the Hellenic Ministry of   
   >   
   >Culture and with the Athens-based Institute of Geology and Mineral   
   >Exploration.   
   >"The book opens exciting prospects for future research regarding the   
   >location of Homeric Ithaca," said Petros Tatoulis, Greece's Deputy   
   >Minister of Culture.   
   >"The Ministry eagerly follows Mr Bittlestone's hypothesis and looks   
   >forward to staying informed about any future developments."   
   >Cephalonia is the same island where Louis de Bernieres' best-selling   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)