Wilhelm Dorpfeld
Please post your comments and suggestions for this article.
Comment by Robert Bittlestone on March 31st, 2009 at 12:55 am
This is an excellent article but it requires two corrections:
1. Nidri is a bay on the eastern coast of Lefkada, not an island to the south-west, so:
“Dörpfeld died on April 25, 1940 on the island of Lefkada, Greece, where he had a house, believing that the island of Nidri off the southwest coast of Lefkada was the historical Ithaca, home of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey.”
should be amended to:
“Dörpfeld died on April 25, 1940 on the island of Lefkada, Greece, where he had a house, believing that the bay of Nidri on the eastern coast of Lefkada was the historical Ithaca, home of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey.”
2. Your next reference to Nidri requires the same change but the question of Dörpfeld’s motives is more complicated. I would suggest replacing:
“Dörpfeld spent a lot of time and energy trying to prove that Homer’s epics were based on historical facts. He proposed that the island of Nidri, off the southwest coast of Lefkada, was Ithaca, home of Odysseus. Dörpfeld compared several passages from the Odyssey to the actual geographical location of the Lefkada, and concluded that it must be the Homeric Ithaca. He was especially convinced by the passage:
I dwell in shining Ithaca. There is a mountain there,
high Neriton, covered in forests. Many islands
lie around it, very close to each other,
Doulichion, Same, and wooded Zacynthos—
but low-lying Ithaca is farthest out to sea,
towards the sunset, and the others are apart, towards the dawn and sun.
It is rough, but it raises good men.” Homer, Odyssey 13.21-27:
Modern geographers and hydrographers, however, have claimed that ancient Lefkada was an island. They noted that the causeway that connects it to the mainland today is a recent product of silting in the channel, thus making it impossible to be the Ithaca Dörpfeld once claimed.”
by something like this:
“Dörpfeld spent a lot of time and energy trying to prove that Homer’s epics were based on historical facts. He proposed that the bay of Nidri, on the eastern coast of Lefkada, was Ithaca, home of Odysseus. Dörpfeld compared several passages from the Odyssey to the actual geographical location of the Lefkada, and concluded that it must be the Homeric Ithaca.
Lefkada is today connected to mainland Greece by a causeway but this was cut through by the Corinthians in the 7th century BC. Dörpfeld may have believed that Lefkada was a free standing island (or was regarded as such) at the time of Homer’s descriptions, in accordance with the passage:
I dwell in shining Ithaca. There is a mountain there,
high Neriton, covered in forests. Many islands
lie around it, very close to each other,
Doulichion, Same, and wooded Zacynthos—
but low-lying Ithaca is farthest out to sea,
towards the sunset, and the others are apart, towards the dawn and sun.
It is rough, but it raises good men.” Homer, Odyssey 13.21-27:
although Lefkada is not the farthest west (towards the sunset) of these. Dörpfeld may also have felt that the difficulty of crossing the narrow causeway was referred to in Homer’s enigmatic and repeated jest “I hardly think you came this way on foot” (Od. 1.173, 14.190 16.59, 16.224).
Modern geographers and hydrographers noted that the causeway that connects Lefkada to the mainland is a product of silting in the channel and so Lefkada may have experienced varying degrees of connection with the mainland over the last few thousand years.
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on March 31st, 2009 at 9:38 am
Thank you for that clarification. I have revised the text following your suggestions.
Comment by Robert Bittlestone on April 1st, 2009 at 9:50 am
Dear Jennifer – I’m indebted to you for such a rapid response: it makes one’s investment of feedback time so worth while. Kind regards, Robert
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