Odysseus and his men will have put in at AIPEIA (Milna), the westernmost port-town of the island, ensconced in a bay offering a safe haven for small vessels. The name of Aiaia is a simple reduplicative (in this case, of a dipthong) of the Gargaros- or Do(n)dona-type, and therefore corresponds to the highest elevation on the isle, Vidova Gora, 778 mts, indeed, a place, as its name indicates, "of wide prospect … a rugged height, a place of outlook", and is a clear allusion, it would seem, to some poisonous spider's painful bite, such as that of the sorceress Kirke, a spider-woman (see below). That a stag fortuitously appeared to Odysseus accounts for the island's classical name of Brattia (whence the modern name Brac¼), derived from the Illyrian brentos, 'stag'. However, that the stag came to a river to drink cannot be, since there are no rivers on this isle (other than seasonal rivulets), and therefore the understanding of this line, is, surely, that the stag came down from pastures on higher ground to the straights separating Brac¼ and Solta. Later Greek tradition made Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in Tauris, often thought to have happened on the Tauric Chersonesos (Crimea), at the north end of the Black Sea, though the island's classical name of Thauria, a rough equivalent of brentos, (but perhaps merely 'horned animal') would lend the story not only the understanding that Agamemnon delivered Iphigenia to LESBIDES (occupants of LESBOS) …or perhaps to lesbians, though whichever the case, certainly to a fate less cruel than sacrificial death, but also invest it with a sounder geographical sense.
The well-known associations of Lesbides with a proclivity towards female homosexuality ought not be understood as the inescapable fate of all women on the island, though an association with Kirke's odd ways, and of men visiting her halls and becoming, through her intercession, 'feminized' and thus 'lesbianized', can hardly be missed—

x; 210:
"Within the forest glades they found the house of Circe, built of polished stone in a place of wide outlook, and round about it were mountain wolves and lions, whom Circe herself had bewitched; for she gave them evil drugs. Yet these beasts did not rush upon my men, but pranced about them fawningly, wagging their long tails. And as when hounds fawn around their master as he comes from a feast, for he ever brings them bits to soothe their temper, so about them fawned the stout-clawed wolves and lions; but they were seized with fear, as they saw the dread monsters. So they stood in the gateway of the fair-tressed goddess, and within they heard Circe singing with sweet voice, as she went to and fro before a great imperishable web, such as is the handiwork of goddesses, finely-woven and beautiful, and glorious. Then among them spoke Polites, a leader of men, dearest to me of my comrades, and trustiest: "'Friends, within someone goes to and fro before a great web, singing sweetly, so that all the floor echoes; some goddess it is, or some woman. Come, let us quickly call to her.'
"So he spoke, and they cried aloud, and called to her. And she straightway came forth and opened the bright doors, and bade them in; and all went with her in their folly. Only Eurylochus remained behind, for he suspected that there was a snare. She brought them in and made them sit on chairs and seats, and made for them a potion of cheese and barley meal and yellow honey with Pramnian wine; but in the food she mixed baneful drugs, that they might utterly forget their native land. Now when she had given them the potion, and they had drunk it off, then she presently smote them with her wand, and penned them in the sties. And they had the heads, and voice, and bristles, and shape of swine, but their minds remained unchanged even as before. So they were penned there weeping, and before them Circe flung mast and acorns, and the fruit of the cornel tree, to eat, such things as wallowing swine are wont to feed upon.

That the house of Kirke was "…built of polished stone in a place of wide outlook", and that in xii 1 Aiaia is also " …where is the dwelling of early Dawn and her dancing-lawns, and the rising of the sun", suggests these constructions will have been any one of several magnificent 'vinograd', or terraced plots unique to this coastal region of Yugoslavia. Some of these betray an obvious agrarian function— mostly vineyards but also olive-groves—while others show intricate details—such as drainage troughs, or the expended effort of enormous man-hour labour—which transcend a primary agrarian function. Kirke's name is akin with the root circ-, whence words like 'circus' and 'circle', and perhaps means simply 'round one' (in the sense of 'rotund'). However, her totemic or cult-ritual identity will have been that of a spider -woman, whose counterpart in the Iliad is Ariadne, or Arakhne, daughter of the Minotaur of Krete (a district-type geonym for the environs of Rome) who supplied Theseus with the thread to find his way back from the depths of labyrinths. Thus, her connection with a vinograd where she "…went to and fro before a great imperishable web" is paralleled with Ariadne's proximity to Cape Circe in Latium, a hill riddled with caves and even to this day infested with spiders, and near the town of ALOS (Anxur/Tarracina), a place whose Homeric identity, as well as classical names, connect it with halo-like plots of ground—perhaps threshing-floors? It is no wonder, then, why Akhilleus, whose native land neighboured Alos, will have chosen Lesbos as the place of birth for his son Neoptolemos, as if in keeping his bug-like Myrmidonishness aligned with the island's ancient traditions.
The grecized name Aipeia (the westernmost port-town of Lesbos) means 'very grassy', certainly an allusion to Kirke's herbs, or to the moly which protected Odysseus from her charms—

x; 287:
"'Here [says Hermes], take this potent herb, and go to the house of Circe, and it shall ward off from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee all the baneful wiles of Circe. She will mix thee a potion, and cast drugs into the food; but even so she shall not be able to bewitch thee, for the potent herb that I shall give thee will not suffer it. And I will tell thee all. When Circe shall smite thee with her long wand, then do thou draw thy sharp sword from beside thy thigh, and rush upon Circe, as though thou wouldst slay her. And she will be seized with fear, and will bid thee lie with her. Then do not thou thereafter refuse the couch of the goddess, that she may set free thy comrades, and give entertainment to thee. But bid her swear a great oath by the blessed gods, that she will not plot against thee any fresh mischief to thy hurt, lest when she has thee stripped she may render thee a weakling and unmanned.'
"So saying, Argeïphontes gave me the herb, drawing it from the ground, and showed me its nature. At the root it was black, but its flower was like milk. Moly the gods call it, and it is hard for mortal men to dig; but with the gods all things are possible. Hermes then departed to high Olympus through the wooded isle, and I went my way to the house of Circe, and many things did my heart darkly ponder as I went. So I stood at the gates of the fair-tressed goddess."

What plant moly was1—perhaps some sort of truffle snorted out by pigs?— nobody has yet discovered. None the less, its fame abroad seems to have been recorded in the Hittite tablets requesting that magical cure from Lazpa—Lesbos—for king Muwatallis.


MAPS

1. The idea of moly belonging to the vegetable kingdom—and rightly so as an antidote to pernicious herbs—seems always to have been popular, but, perhaps the answer to its identity is under one's nose, so to speak, and properly belongs to the animal kingdom? The natural enemy of the spider is the wasp, and one ought be reminded that the function of moly was not to counteract Kirke's potions, of which Odysseus did not partake, but rather, like sympathetic magic, to ward off the enchantment of Kirke herself.

-Aiolian isles = Lipari, a name associated with fat, as if
-bag of winds = map with compass rose (rosa de los vientos)

x, 1:
"Then to the Aeolian isle we came, where dwelt Aeolus, son of Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods, in a floating island, and all around it is a wall of unbreakable bronze, and the cliff runs up sheer. Twelve children of his,too, there are in the halls, six daughters and six sturdy sons, and he gave his daughters to his sons to wife."

This statement is obviously garbbled, an emmendation to make Ithaka and Same read in a geographical context off the western coats of Greece. This place of ambush recalls where, once, during the Trojan War, Iris lept into the sea—

XXIV; 77:
So spake he [Zeus], and storm-footed Iris hasted to bear his message, and midway between Samos and rugged Imbros she lept into the dark sea, and the waters sounded loud above her. Down sped she to the depths like a plummet of lead, the which, set upon the horn of an ox of the field, goeth down bearing death to the ravenous fishes.

MAPS

vi, 170:
"Yesterday, on the twentieth day, I escaped from the wine-dark sea, but ever until then the wave and the swift winds bore me from the island of Ogygia; and now fate has cast me ashore here, that here too, haply, I may suffer some ill."

vii, 244:
"There is an isle [says Odysseus to Arete], Ogygia, which lies far off in the sea. Therein dwells the fair-tressed daugther of Atlas, guileful Calypso, a dread goddess, and with her no one either of gods or mortals hath aught to do; but me in my wretchedness did fate bring to her hearth alone, for Zeus had smitten my swift ship with his bright thunderbolt, and had shattered it in the midst of the wine-dark sea. There all the rest of my trusty comrades perished, but I clasped in my arms the keel of my curved ship and was borne drifting for nine days, and on the tenth black night the gods brought me to the isle, Ogygia, where the fair-tressed Calypso dwells,a dread goddess. She took me to her home with kindly welcome, and gave me food, and said that she would make me inmortal and ageless all my days; but she could never persuade the heart in my breast. There for seven years' space I remained continually, and ever with my tears would I wet the inmortal raiment which Calypso gave me. But when the eighth year came in circling course, then she roused me and bade me go, either because of some message from Zeus, or because her own mind was turned. And she sent me on my way on a raft, stoutly bound, and gave me abundant store of bread and sweet wine, and clad me in inmortal raiment, and sent forth a gentle wind and warm."

>Babino Polje


MAPS

xii, 61 (ojo, correct the number)
xii; 53: (vrify)
And if thou shalt implore and bid thy comrades to loose thee, then let them bind thee with yet more bonds. But when thy comrades shall have rowed past these, thereafther I shall not fully say on which side thy course is to lie, but do thou thyself ponder it in mind, and I will tell thee of both ways. For on the one hand are beetling crags, and against them roars the great wave of dark-eyed Amphitrite; the Planctae do the blessed gods call these. Thereby not even winged things may pass, no, not the timorous doves that bear ambrosia to father Zeus, but the smooth rock ever snatches away one even of these, and the father sends in another to make up the tale. And thereby has no ship of men ever yet escaped that has come thither, but the planks of ships and bodies of men are whirled confusedly by the waves of the sea and the blasts of baneful fire. One seafaring ship alone has passed thereby, that Argo famed of all, on her voyage from Aeetes, and even her the wave would speedily have dashed there against the great crags, had not Here sent her through, for that Jason was dear to her.
The name of the Planktai
-land mass has sunk some 3 to 5 meters below sea-level, as evidenced by the remains of an underwater village off Rasisce, thus suggesting that the desription of Odysseus in these waters run imminent danger of running aground any number of submerged boulders which now lie suffieciently below sea-level as to be of no importance.

A complement of this passage is the description of the Seirenes (ocupants of the Plantati). However, the bitter irony of this passage, is that of Odysseus, now reduced to abject humility, once sailing in these waters where, once, prior to the Trojan War
I, 430, et pas.:
...and meanwhile Odysseus came to Chryse bringin the holy hecatomb. When they were now got within the deep harbour, they furled the sail, and stowed it in the black ship... Then they cast out the mooring-stones and made fast the stern cables... Forth they brought the hecatomb for Apollo, that smiteth afar, and forth stepped also the daughter of Chryses from the sea-faring ship...
...and as soon as early dawn appeared, the rosey-fingered, then they set sail for the wide camp of the Achaeans. And Apollo, that worketh afar, sent them a favouring wind, and they set up the mast and spread the white sail. So the wind filled the belly of the sail, and the dark wave sang loudly about the stern of the ship, as she went, and she sped over the wave, accomplishing her way. But when they were come to the wide camp of the Achaeans, they drew the black ship up on the shore, high upon the sands, and set in line the long props beneath, and themselves scattered among the huts and ships.

MAPS

>descriptions of island
Odysseus once, already here
>Odysseus like Orion

The Palace of Alkinous is described:

vii, 81:
... but Odysseus went to the glorious palace of Alcinous. Of bronze were the walls that stretched this way and that from the threshold to the innermost chamber, and around was a cornice of cyanus [a blue enamel, or glass paste, imitating lapis lazuli]. Golden were the doors that shut in the well-built house, and doorposts of silver were set in a threshold of bronze. Of silver was the lintel above, and of gold the handle. On either side of the door there stood gold and silver dogs, which Hephaestus had fashioned with cunning skill to guard the palace of great-hearted Alcinous; immortal were they and ageless all their days. Within, seats were fixed along the wall on either hand, from the threshold to the innermost chamber, and on them were thrown robes of soft fabric, cunningly woven, the handiwork of women. On these the leaders of the Phaeacians were wont to sit drinking and eating, for they had unfailing store. And golden youths stood on well-built pedestals, holding lighted torches in their hands to give light by night to banqueters in the hall.

This description is nothing more than that of the Milky Way, a band of suffused light across the night-sky stretching from one side of the horizon to the other, with blotches of black at one end, and the first magnitude stars Sirius and Procyon at the other. Such a sight of the night sky, at about midnight, sometime near 1000 BC, corresponds with the month of _____________
Skheria is the place where Odysseus first tells of his wanderings and misfortunes (albeit incomplete, for there is still more to come). However, it is a matter of personal choice whether one wishes to believe the fantastic story of wanderings hither and thither, or, alternately, presume that his story of woes is nothing more than the life of a drowning sailor suddenly looming up before him. Thus, one is torn between believing the word of Odysseus 'of the many wiles', or,

This latter possibility suggests, that, what may only be ascertained with any measure of confidence about the Wanderings of Odysseus is that, first, he lost contact with reality when he raided the Kikones (inhabitants of Ismaros: Tragurion, Trogir), and, second, that he regained it when he showed up like a half-drowned wretch at Phorkys (Stonski Channel).


MAPS

xi; 107:
"Yet even so [says Tiresias to Odysseus] ye may reach home... as soon as thou shalt bring thy well-built ship to the island Thrinacia... and ye find grazing there the kine and goodly flocks of Helios... If thou leavest these unharmed and heedest thy homeward way, verily ye may yet reach Ithaca, though in evil plight."

xii; 127:
" 'And [says Kirke to Odysseus] thou wilt come to the isle Thrinacia. There in great numbers feed the kine of Helios and his goodly flocks, seven herds of kine and as many fair flocks of sheep, and fifty in each. These bear no young, nor do they ever die, and goddesses are their shepherds, fair-tressed nymphs, Phaethusa and Lampetie, whom beautiful Neaera bore to Helios Hyperion. These their honoured mother, when she had borne and reared them, sent to the isle Thrinakia to dwell afar, and keep the flocks of their father and his sleek kine. If thou leavest these unharmed and heedst thy homeward way, verily ye may yet reach Ithaca, though in evil plight...'

The meaning of Thrinakia in Illyrian is unaccountable by the Greek understanding of 'three prominences'. The kine seem seem to have some parallel with the the animal, whatever it may have been, of the neighbouring Sminthies of Zakynthos (Mljet), perhaps the kuna, a miniature fox-like creature sacred to Apollo (which in post-Homeric tradition has been thought to allude to mice, since 'sminthos' was said to mean mice. The association of kine with this island has a certain relevance to the whys-and-wherefores for the particular foundation of
Korcula, of all likely places, on an islet within short bridging distance of the shore: the obvious explanation is natural protection from whatever threat roamed the island; but a converse argument may well be, that, cattle, or whatever other live-stock, was penned here precisely to keep from roaming about.
Stories about the long-ago presence of Odysseus in this cove or that grove are still current on Korcula as they are on Mljet.


MAPS