The Phaeacians on Scheria
Odysseus washes ashore naked and is found by a princess doing laundry. What follows is the most civilised sequence in the poem — and the last place he visits before home.
In the poem
Nausicaa gives him clothes and advice on how to approach her parents; the palace is described in gold and bronze; the games are held, Demodocus sings, and Odysseus finally gives his name and tells the story of the wanderings.
The Phaeacians ferry him home in a night, in a ship that needs no steersman, and are punished for it. Their island is where the poem's fantastic geography ends and Ithaca's real one resumes.
Why it matters for the atlas
Scheria is the frontier between the two halves of the Odyssey, which is why its identification matters more than its 5/12 score suggests.
Competing theories
- Speculative
Corcyra (Corfu)
Proposed by: Ancient identification; Thucydides 1.25 · Antiquity
The identification antiquity settled on, still marked by a rock shown as the petrified Phaeacian ship. A long tradition with no material support.
Scheria- Primary textThucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.25
- TraditionThe identification of Scheria with Corcyra (Corfu), continuous since antiquity
What is disputed
Whether Scheria is a real island idealised, an idealisation given an island's furniture, or Corcyra's own tradition drawn into the poem.
Questions
- Is Scheria Corfu?
- That is the ancient identification and it has no material support. The atlas records it as speculative.
- Why are the Phaeacians punished?
- For ferrying strangers home too easily. Poseidon turns their ship to stone in sight of the harbour, and the poem leaves the threat of a mountain closing over their city unresolved.
Sources
- Primary textHomer, Odyssey (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1919)
- Primary textThucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.25
- TraditionThe identification of Scheria with Corcyra (Corfu), continuous since antiquity