Apparently Tom Hanks has a home in the kingdom of Odysseus. Ancient Ithaca. From there king Odysseus led the "gallant Cephallenians" to the Trojan War and we know how well that went. The last time my good lady and I were allowed to go abroad on holiday we took a ferry trip from Cephalonia around ancient Ithaca. It was one of those, "I've really got to do this," things. Unfortunately, ancient Ithaca struck me as a big pile of rock with not too much for poets to get excited about apart from some nice beaches and two pretty harbours. "Mmmnn, okay," I thought.
Tonight I'm tuning into a Zoom podcast from the Odysseus Unbound project. On returning from that trip around Ithaca, I started researching a bit more and discovered a book and a project initiated by the late Robert Bittlestone. He had a theory that modern Ithaca is not ancient Ithaca and the Homeric text might actually be a way of proving so. Part of his analysis -theory was that the western limb of modern Cephallonia had been separated from the rest by a sea channel that over the centuries "silted" up, by earthquake induced rockfall of several adjacent mountains. It is that 'now connected' western island that was ancient Ithaca and the home of Odysseus. It turns out he may well have been correct. Hence my tuning in for an update on Zoom tonight.
So back to Tom Hanks and his holiday home. Remember Sean Bean in Troy? Early on he utters in his superb unmistakable accent to Achilles and Patroclus "We sail for Troy in three days."
I have a vision of Tom Hanks out walking at his holiday home encountering the shade of Odysseus, whereupon said Homeric legend tells Hollywood legend, "you're on t' wrong bloody island mate."
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