Monday, February 04, 2008

Odysseus Unbound now available in Greek


Publication of the Greek edition of Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca

  • Homer described Ithaca as ‘furthest west’ but where is Odysseus’ island now?
  • Latest scientific techniques are used to investigate Europe’s earliest enigma
  • New Preface and Sequel update the book with key developments since 2005
  • Website research findings now provided in Greek as well as English
  • Authors to visit Athens and Kefalonia to present the latest findings in person

Athens, January 4 2008. The award-winning best-seller Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca is now available in Greek. First published by Cambridge University Press in October 2005, the book has been updated with the latest developments from the island of Kefalonia and is published in Athens by Ekdoseis Polytropon.

Since September 2007 expert teams from FUGRO have been conducting land, sea and air-based surveys of the area with the objective of probing deep into the ground to search for a buried marine seaway. An unprecedented array of gravity, seismic, marine and helicopter-based electromagnetic techniques are being used to test the theory by performing a “whole body scan” of this 6 kilometre long, 2 kilometre wide isthmus.

The Odysseus Unbound website has been released in Greek, reporting the latest news and events from the project. A new Preface and Sequel have been added to the book, presenting the key geological and classical developments since 2005.

"Robert Bittlestone's "Odysseus Unbound" is a massive book, nearly 600 pages filled with excellent illustrations (maps, photographs, aerial photographs, satellite images) and a highly detailed narrative explaining the development of and evidence for the author's theory: that Homeric Age Ithaca, the kingdom of Odysseus, was not located on the modern island of Ithaki, but instead on the western peninsula of the nearby island of Cephalonia. The evidence presented is complex, involving literary sources, geology, and archaeology, but a critical portion of the author's argument is whether in Homeric times this western peninsula was separated from Cephalonia by a sea channel since closed up by earthquake-induced rockfalls.

Although Bittlestone is "only" an enthusiastic amateur, his research has been reviewed and backed by his professional co-authors, one a professor of Greek and Latin and the other a geologist specializing in the Ionian island area." - Bruce Trinque, Amazon.com

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