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Scheria

Speculative5/12LowIonian islandsHomeric name(s): Σχερίη

The island of the Phaeacians, the last stop before home and the most civilised place in the poem — a harbour city with walls, ships and a court, described in more social detail than anywhere Odysseus actually rules.

Odysseus washes up naked on Scheria, is found by Nausicaa, and is entertained by a people whose ships need no steering and who deliver him to Ithaca asleep. Their punishment for the favour — Poseidon turning the ship to stone and threatening to wall the city in with a mountain — is the poem's last supernatural act.

Antiquity identified Scheria with Corcyra, and the identification stuck. The poem places the Phaeacians 'far from men who eat bread', which is a statement about isolation rather than a bearing.

Identifications proposed

  • Corfu (Corcyra)

    Proposed by: Ancient identification; Thucydides 1.25

    Speculative5/12Low

    The identification antiquity settled on and tourism has never let go: Thucydides already records the Corcyraeans' Phaeacian reputation, and a rock off the coast is still shown as the ship Poseidon turned to stone. It is a tradition of long standing and no material basis.

    39.6200, 19.9200· Island

    • Primary textThucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.25 — Corcyra and its Phaeacian reputation
    • TraditionThe identification of Scheria with Corcyra (Corfu), current in antiquity and continuous in local tradition
    • TraditionThe islet of Pontikonisi off Corfu, shown as the petrified Phaeacian ship
    Confidence
    5/12 · Low confidence
    Textual
    2
    Archaeological
    0
    Scholarly
    1
    Geographic
    2

Why this class

Speculative: an ancient, continuous tradition with a real island behind it and nothing excavated to connect them. It scores 5/12.

What is disputed

Whether Scheria is a real island seen through utopian distortion, a utopia given an island's furniture, or Corcyra's own claim absorbed into the poem. The petrified-ship rock is a good example of how a tradition acquires a landmark.

Sources

  • Primary textHomer, Odyssey (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1919)
  • Primary textThucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.25 — Corcyra and its Phaeacian reputation
  • TraditionThe identification of Scheria with Corcyra (Corfu), current in antiquity and continuous in local tradition
  • TraditionThe islet of Pontikonisi off Corfu, shown as the petrified Phaeacian ship