The blockbuster film has sparked a boost for tourism, as seen in Favignana, a location in Ithaca, which has been under attack in recent months. From Malta to Djerba, up to Greece, there are many points on the map, including legends and pure inventions.
«We will find ourselves where Odysseus sailed when we find the leathermaker who sewed the skin of the winds». Eratosthenesscientist and geographer of antiquity, thus already in the third century BC dismissed the hunt for the coordinates ofOdyssey. Since then we have continued to look for them.
Djerba, in Tunisia, proclaims itself the homeland of the Lotus Eaters, Sicily of Polyphemus, Gozo, in Malta, of Calypso, Corfu, in Greece, of the Phaeacians. Ithaca also remains in question. Now the director has been added to the game Christopher Nolanbringing the dispute to the tourist field. Homer seems to have done everything to prevent us from drawing that map. But Barbara Graziosia classicist at Princeton, identifies a precise boundary: Cape Maleain the Peloponnese. Up until there “the beginning of the journey can be located very clearly on the maps”. Then Odysseus bypasses Malea, is pushed off course, and the geography dissolves. “From the moment he tries to maneuver around Cape Malea to the moment he wakes up on the beach at Ithaca, there is no way to locate the places.” «Where is Calypso? Calypso is in the sea», says Graziosi. «It is the navel of the sea, as Delphi is the navel of the earth».
The hunt for the stages of the myth: from the pages to the tourist map
Alessandro Iannuccia Greek scholar in Bologna, offers a comparison: looking for the island of Polyphemus is a bit equivalent to looking for Tolkien’s Shire or Mordor. Cantos IX-XII are «a sort of fantasy story», nourished by Mediterranean and Eastern folkloric traditions. But the fantastic preserves real experiences: Polyphemus can represent the meeting of the first navigators with communities that ignore the xeniahospitality, a kind, Iannucci observes, of “travel insurance” or an ancient form of international law.
Maurizio Bettiniclassical philologist emeritus in Siena, invites us to change perspective: «The search for actual places is mainly due to subsequent readers, who try to pull the myth towards reality. It is a spontaneous movement of thought, but generally it leads one astray.” An archaic Greek saw the Mediterranean like routes and landing places that faded into myth. Iliad and Odyssey were “the great encyclopedia of the Greeks.” From the seventh century, being able to say “we are already in the Odyssey” increased prestige. Bettini even remembers a president of the Sicilian Region who claimed descent from the Cyclops.
A thousand-year-old competition: everyone wants to take on Ulysses’s journey
Thus the Mediterranean became “filled” with Ulysses. The Greeks of Magna Graecia they recognized the poem in the new territories. The Romans took the process further. «The Romans give a version of the Odyssey where they put all the important things, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, on the Italian peninsula», observes Graziosi, «for them this appropriation of Greek culture is a systematic project». Iannucci explains that Scylla and Charybdis could represent any dangerous strait. Messina also established itself due to the centrality of Sicily: «A city like Syracuse in the 5th century was something very similar to a large capital like London or New York».
The hunt for coordinates has produced more daring theories: Bettini remembers who moved the Odyssey to the North Sea and who placed Circe in Cuba. “Everyone had fun.” Today that drive becomes competition between territories. In Bornova, in the Izmir area, the “Valley of Homer” is relaunched; Turkey claims archaeological Troy while Nolan rebuilt it in Morocco; Favignanachosen as Ithaca, enters the race for the homeland of Ulysses. «If a place can say: come here, Odysseus passed here, it is a very powerful reminder», observes Bettini.
The multiplier effect of cinema and the limits of overtourism
Sue BeetonAustralian scholar of film-induced tourismobserves that a single film can produce a wave destined to die out, but the Odyssey starts from an enormous advantage: an already global myth. Cinema can make even a non-literary place “real”: «We are so focused on images and, let’s face it, many more people will see the film than will read the book». The most avid fans, he adds, “will find the locations even without marketing and will arrive anyway”: the challenge is to intercept occasional visitors.
Roberta Garibaldiprofessor of tourism in Bergamo, says that «29% of Italian travelers say they are influenced by films and TV series when choosing a destination». «Cinema does not automatically create a tourist destination: it creates attention». Online searches from the United States for Taormina have grown by over 180% with The White Lotus. For Ulysses he proposes «a Mediterranean network of the places of the Odyssey», capable of relating the different interpretations and traditions of the territories linked to the myth. «Cinematic fame is a resource if it is governed, not simply chased». The mayor of Favignana, Giuseppe Pagotoevaluates «a limitation similar to Capri: we cannot go beyond these numbers». Beeton warns: without flow management, film tourism “can be a disaster”.
And perhaps it is worth remembering the warning of Seneca: by dint of discussing how many oarsmen Ulysses had, one risks losing the substance and gaining only in “pedantry”.
