Is this Ithaka?

Post by **Mikey** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:42 pm

An accidental find of a tholos tomb on the island of Lefkida may provide some murky insight as to the location of Homer's Odysseus:

http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/s ... eece.Tomb/

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:10 pm

That's cool stuff. I'd love it if Ithica was a real place.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:56 pm

Interesting, I'll be keeping an eye on that.

Post by **Mikey** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:19 pm

Monroe wrote:That's cool stuff. I'd love it if Ithica was a real place.

Well, it was commonly identified with the island of Ithiki, but certain geographic factors and descriptions mentioned in Homer made that identification debatable. Plus, my own personal opinion is that the similarity in the construction of this tholos, and the diminished dimensions of this one from the ones in Mycenae and Tiryns, fall in line with the lesser influence and wealth that Homer described of Odysseus compared to Menelaos and Atreus.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 8:29 pm

Well Troy was real, most the other places were real why not Ithica.

Makes you wonder about Atlantis

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 8:46 pm

Monroe wrote:Makes you wonder about Atlantis

That was Santorini - it blew up, and gave rise to Plato's story. It was probably also the source of a lot of the stories surrounding the Exodus, such as the crossing of the Sea of Reeds.

Post by **Mikey** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:35 pm

And, Santorini was visible from Crete, which it made it clear to the world at large that something was there, and then it wasn't.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:04 pm

The bang it made was probably visible from Eygpt - as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Post by **Mikey** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:36 pm

Hmmm... possible, although I've read convincing essays to the effect that the "Red Sea" crossing was actually a low-lying salt marsh that was located specifically near Sinai, with evidence of seasonal drainage.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:41 pm

I'm personally convinced that "Red Sea" is a mistranslation of "Reed Sea" (possibly a salt marsh, as you say), on the Mediterranean coast, and the withdrawal and subsequent return of the waters being due to a tidal wave triggered by the same earthquake as triggered the Santorini eruption. There was a programme about it on the Beeb a couple of years ago.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:51 pm

Then you should find this amusing.

MSNBC.com wrote:Was Moses high on Mount Sinai?
Study suggests Israelites may have eaten hallucinogens, but scholars scoff
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 4:26 p.m. CT, Tues., March. 4, 2008
JERUSALEM - When Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai, he may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant, according to a new study by an Israeli psychology professor.

Writing in the British philosophy journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an "altered state of awareness," Shanon hypothesized.

"In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings," Shanon wrote.

"On such occasions, one often feels that in seeing the light, one is encountering the ground of all Being ... many identify this power as God."

Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having "partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts."

He said one of the psychoactive plants, harmal, found in the Sinai and elsewhere in the Middle East, has long been regarded by Jews in the region as having magical and curative powers.

Shanon acknowledged that he had "no direct proof of this interpretation" and said such proof cannot be expected.

Biblical scholars scoffed at Shanon's suggestion. Orthodox rabbi Yuval Sherlow told Israel Radio: "The Bible is trying to convey a very profound event. We have to fear not for the fate of the biblical Moses, but for the fate of science."

This would explain a great many things.

Post by **Mikey** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:04 am

Why not? Ergot was finally found, fairly convincingly, to be at the heart of the Salem witch trials.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:37 pm

Mikey wrote:Why not? Ergot was finally found, fairly convincingly, to be at the heart of the Salem witch trials.

Apparently that's been disputed a few times but even if it wasn't the cause, it's likely that they were high on something, as actual witchcraft is bunk.

Post by **Mikey** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:14 pm

The evidence for the ergot explanation, while circumstantial, is fairly convincing and makes sense for the geograpical area and demographic.