New Evidence Suggests Odyssey May Not Be Historically Accurate

By Noah Lemelson

Dec. 24, 2013

Yesterday, a report from the University of Chicago Institute for the Study of Ancient Greco-Roman History claimed to have found textual inconsistencies in Homer’s telling of The Odyssey which may raise the question of the accuracy of his works.The Trojan War and the return of King Odysseus to Ithaca have long comprised been comprised an important adjunct to the modern study of Ancient Greek history, but recent discoveries have shed doubt on our knowledge of these events. Academics have relied on the texts of the ancient historian Homer, whose tales of warfare and one-eyed monsters have been hailed as one of the best sources on the life and travel of Odysseus.

“For example, we had long assumed that the monster Scylla was the Greek name for the modern White-Fronted Goose, but cross disciplinary dialogue with biologists at the National Technical institute of Athens has revealed that the White-Fronted Goose does not have six heads, nor does it, indeed, normally prey on humans. Furthermore, the story claims that Odysseus felled a Cyclops, when the fossil record suggests that Cyclops went extinct more than 3,000 years before the time of the Trojan War.We’re embarrassed not to have noticed some of these, in retrospect, quite glaring inconsistencies. Our Institute had planned a comprehensive analysis years ago, but stuff kept getting in the way, and then, of course, Jerry’s kid had a thing.”

The report cautioned against excessive panic in academia, maintaining that other great works of Greco-Roman history, including Herodotus’ Histories, Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita and Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, are still believed to be accurate accounts of Greek history.