A two-week voyage, ten years long
Odysseus’s way home from Troy, measured against the real Mediterranean.
By Vizmaya, 6 October 2026
The trip is short. The poem is not.
A week by galley. Ten years by Homer.
Days to sail Troy to Ithaca. Each gridline is a longer unit of time.
Sources: Harry Mount, BOAT International; Tim Severin, The Ulysses Voyage; Hal Roth, We Followed Odysseus.
Eight of the ten years are two islands
Seven with the nymph Calypso, one with the sorceress Circe. The adventures fit in one sailing season.
Each square is one month. Source: durations as stated in the Odyssey.
Told out of order
The poem opens in year ten. The monster tales are a flashback, told by the man who got lost.
The route, as tradition draws it
Gold is geography we can stand on. The dashed loop is where each landfall has rivals.
- Excavated anchor
- Real, mappable place
- Excavated, link disputed
- Tradition only
- Rival identifications
“These are the last clearly identifiable places in O.’s wanderings. After this he leaves the sphere of Geography and enters Wonderland.”
Five schools, five Mediterraneans
How far west each reconstruction carries him after Cape Malea.
Sources: Strabo; Bérard, 1929; Bradford, 1963; Severin, 1987.
“You will find the scene of the wanderings of Odysseus when you find the cobbler who sewed up the bag of the winds.”
720 men leave Troy. One comes home.
At one harbour, the Laestrygonians’, cannibal giants sink eleven of the twelve ships.
Loss events from Odyssey Books 9–12. The headcount between them is reconstructed at about 60 men a ship.
Was it ever real?
Three anchors rest on excavation. Even the last is argued over.
- Troy, at Hisarlik Excavated; undisputed
- Ismaros, at Maroneia Excavated; a strong identification
- Ithaca, at Ithaki Bittlestone said Paliki; in 2026 Diggle and Underhill said Paliki was no island, and Homer never calls Ithaca one
The wine-dark sea
Seventeen times in Homer, and never blue. A colour we can all picture and none of us can quite name.
Sources and method
- Homer, Odyssey, Books 5 and 9–13: every duration, fleet number and loss.
- Geography of the Odyssey: identifications and the history of the debate.
- W. B. Stanford’s 1947 commentary; Strabo’s Geography for Eratosthenes.
- Victor Bérard (1929), Ernle Bradford (1963), Tim Severin (1987).
- Harry Mount in BOAT International, and Hal Roth, for sailing times.
- Men aboard are reconstructed at about 60 per ship; places after Cape Malea are traditions, not proven sites.