Over at the Kosmos Society Rien asked which route the Trojans took fleeing Carthage. Here is my response I live in the Alexander Archipelago East of the Gulf of Alaska. We never take the Outside Waters, always the Inside Passage. The Trojan sailors would do the same
As to their route thru Penelope’s realm ( Odysseus was back yet) I would allow Virgil a little poetic license, leaving Ithaca at the end of the list for dramatic effect.
My only question is if they had to go outside to get around Leucas or could they take the strait between there and the mainland. Maicar at Greek Mthology says that “The Leucadian Rock: A peninsula (now an island) of Acarnania ) So cutting thru the strait is out
I came across a discussion in
“Vergil’s Aeneid Books I-6″ by Maud Elma Kingsley, 1908. Book 3 Note 33. “The Trojans leave the Strophades and sail directly north past the islands Zacynthus(modern name Zante) Dulichium, Same (modern name Cephalonia) Neritos (identity unknown) Ithaca (modern name Thiaki). They sail between these islands and the mainland of Greece until they leave Ithaca when they sail around the island of Leucadia (St. Maura) as we judge fro the fact that they see the cloud-covered summit of Mount Leucate (the modern Cape Ducato) on the south-west coast of the island. On the cape is a famous temple of Apollo”
Kingsley’s book can be downloaded for free from Google books;
Having shared Kingsley’s note I have a few thoughts. (I have limited references at the moment because my wife and I are on the jet headed to Little Italy, in San Diego for Valentines Day.)I don’t think Neritos is unknown. Maicar records Mt. Neritum on Ithaca and I believe Neritos is its bay named for Nereus’ sole son Nerites, charioteer of Poseidon, first lover of Aphrodite and father of Eros and Himeros. (Remember Aphrodite came ashore for the first time in this world accompanied by Love and Desire). Also Casanova wrote of Zante and I don’t think it was this far south from Venice. Of course, I always carry a copy of his Memoirs (along with Maicar’s master piece) so I will start checking them. Jjust checked Casanove Zantecorresponding to Leucas is about right
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