Scheria

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Sharia ( Greek  Σχερία or Scherie Σχερίη) is in Greek mythology the home of the Phaeacians . In Homer's Odyssey , Scheria is the last stop on Odysseus' wanderings. There Odysseus tells his experiences to the Phaiacs, who finally bring him home to Ithaca on one of their ships from Scheria .

Odysseus in Scheria

After Odysseus left the island of Calypso on a raft and was already close to Scheria with favorable westerly winds and 18 days of sailing on the sea, he was shipwrecked by a storm sent by Poseidon . Because of the high swell and the rocky coast of Scheria, Odysseus only reached land at an estuary with great difficulty and with the help of the sea ​​goddess Ino Leukothea . The next morning Nausicaa , the daughter of the Phaiac king Alcinous , goes with her servants to a washing place by the river not far from the beach. After doing laundry, they start a ball game . When the ball flies far away, Odysseus is woken up by the screaming of the girls. While the servants fear the naked stranger and shrink back, Nausicaa talks to him and lets him convince her that he has no bad intentions. She gives Odysseus food and clothes and shows him the way to her parents' palace. After reaching the city, Odysseus, encouraged by Athena and protected in the city by a fog, goes to the palace, of whose splendor he is very impressed. He succeeds in winning the favor of Alcinous and his wife Arete , so that they receive the stranger in a friendly manner and also convince the other Phaiacs to be hospitable to Odysseus. Alcinous promises to bring the Greek hero to his homeland on one of the fast Phaiac ships. In honor of the guest, parties are celebrated and games are held, at which Odysseus, irritated by the suspicion of the phaiac athlete Eurylaos, that he is a seafaring merchant and shopkeeper who is unfamiliar with competitions, proves his skills in the discus .

Since Odysseus obviously carries deep pain in himself, is considered an important hero because of his appearance and his body and Alcinous repeatedly remarks that Odysseus cannot hold back his tears while singing the blind singer Demodokos about the battles before Troy , the Phaiacs urge him to reveal one's whole identity. Thereupon Odysseus gives his name, his homeland and reports in detail about his experiences after the destruction of Troy ( Odyssey , Canto 9 to 12). Finally, Odysseus, richly gifted by Alcinous and the twelve other kings of Scherias, is brought to Ithaca, where they drop him off asleep. In the main hall there was, among other things, the precious throne of Alcinous and a bronze tripod on which sacrifices were made. In the courtyard of the palace there was a large garden in which a wide variety of fruits grew year-round: apples, but also figs and vines. Two springs sprang up in the garden - one for the palace and the other for the rest of the Phaiacs.

Poseidon , who was staying with the Aithiopians during these events, only noticed Odysseus returning home when the Phaiac ship was on its way back. Just off the coast of Scheria, he turned it into a rock and anchored it on the sea floor. This partially fulfilled an old prophecy: because they would bring every stranger to their homeland, one day a phaiac ship would turn to stone. Zeus prevented Poseidon from carrying out the other part of the prophecy, that the capital would be surrounded by high mountains.

Homer's information on Scheria

Scheria is said to be located a long way from Ithaca, at the end of the world, much flooded ( πολύκλυστος ) by the sea. The last statement suggests that it is an island, but Scheria is never explicitly referred to as such in Homer - in contrast to the islands of Kirke , Calypso and others, for which Homer uses the expression νῆσος . The coast is rocky and has the shape of a shield when viewed from the sea. Homer describes Scheria as very fertile in several places, which he justifies with the mild west wind that prevails there. At the point where Odysseus goes ashore, a river flows into the sea. Between this point and the capital was a sacred grove of Athena, consisting of poplars , surrounded by meadows. Here Odysseus stops on the way to the palace and prays to Athena.

The capital is surrounded by high walls. There are two harbors nearby, from which narrow entrances lead into the city. Near the harbors there is a sanctuary for Poseidon, paved with boulder blocks, and a market place where gatherings, games and dances are also held. The palace was located in the city, between the houses of the other Phaiacs, whose high walls ( half-timbered ?) Were joined with stakes.

The palace was easy to distinguish from the rest of the houses, at least because of its size and grandeur. The facades were clad with ore and the surrounding cornices were enamelled . The access doors were of gold, their bases of iron, the door posts and lintel of silver and the door ring of gold; gold and silver dogs flanked the doors. A long hall that led to the main room of the palace was lit by torches attached to a total of 50 golden statues of young men.

Scheria was ruled by 12 princes who had royal power in their areas. They were evidently headed by Alcinous. A meeting of the 12 princes and officials designated by Homer as advisors, at which it was decided to bring Odysseus home, took place in the market near the ports. The inhabitants were famous for their ships, the speed of which Homer emphasized several times. They managed without a rudder because they let themselves be guided by the thoughts of the crew and found their destination safely even in fog. Euboea , where they once brought Rhadamanthys , is named as the most distant place that the Phaiacs went . Due to its exposed location, Scheria has never been attacked by enemies, as we learned from Nausicaa when she calmed her maids on the beach so that they do not have to fear the shipwrecked stranger ( Odyssey VI, 198–205):

Girl, stay there! What are you running because you see the man?
Do you think it is even one of hostile men?
The man has not yet been born and may never live,
Who comes here into the land of the Phaean men
and brings enmity; for we are very dear to the gods.
We live here far away, surrounded by the rushing sea,
at the very end, and none of the other people visit us.

Interpretation and localization hypotheses

The flag of the city of Corfu until 2010 uses the Phaiaken ship without a rudder at the stern as a symbol for the island.

In the opinion of many classical scholars and ancient historians, Odysseus' stay on Scheria represents a kind of transition from the fairy tale world, in which the previous adventures of his odyssey take place, into the "real" world (arrival in Ithaca). Scheria and the Phaiacs have both mythical as well as "real" features and, according to Karl Reinhardt, stand between "fairy tale wonderland and contemporary increased historicity". In order to finally escape the fairy tale world and be brought home by the Phaiacs, he has to fight on Scheria: First of all, Nausicaa has to be convinced of his peaceful intentions, then to win the favor of the royal couple Alcinous and Arete. He also has to convince the other Phaiacs, of whom Homer writes that they are reserved towards strangers and do not like to entertain them. Finally, Nausicaa's growing desire to marry Odysseus is a temptation to stay on Scheria; especially since Alcinous would also like to accept the stranger as his son-in-law. Odysseus, however, resists the lure of a - at least materially - carefree life in the Phaeakenland with the prospect of domination and can convince Alcinous that his pain at being far away from home for many years is very great. The wealth of Scherias, in particular the appearance and magnificence of the palace, are reminiscent of palaces from the Near East and could possibly have a real model.

Although it is questionable whether Homer's statements on Odysseus' wanderings refer to real places at all, and Eratosthenes was already in the 3rd century BC. BC made fun of most of the localizations, attempts were made in antiquity to connect Odysseus' stations with real places, including Scheria. As early as the late 5th century BC Some ancient authors identified it with Corfu , the ancient Kerkyra. Thucydides wrote that Corfu was once inhabited by the Phaiacs. It has often been claimed that the former name of Kerkyras was Scheria. Modern Corfu also uses the supposed mythical past of the island as a Scheria for its symbols. A Mycenaean linear B clay tablet from Pylos , on which a man from Korkyra is mentioned, speaks against an early naming of Corfu as Scheria . Strabo located Scheria based on Homer's statement that it was very far away, as was Ogygia in the Atlantic. Modern hypotheses suggest Scheria in many different places, e.g. B. on Corfu ( Heinrich Schliemann , Wilhelm Dörpfeld , Ernle Bradford ), Andalusia (in connection with Tartessos : Richard Hennig , Adolf Schulten ), Sardinia ( Massimo Pittau ), Calabria ( Armin Wolf ), Apulia and Tunisia . Sometimes the land of the Phaiacs is also associated with Atlantis .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homer Odyssey 5, 440ff.
  2. ↑ Homer Odyssey 9:18 .
  3. ↑ Homer Odyssey 6, 202f.
  4. ↑ Homer Odyssey 7, 44f.
  5. ↑ Homer Odyssey 7, 86f.
  6. ↑ Homer Odyssey 7 88ff.
  7. ^ Translation by Roland Hampe
  8. ↑ Thomas Luther, The Phaiaks of the Odyssey and the island of Euboea , in: Thomas Luther (Ed.) History and fiction in the Homeric Odyssey . Monographs on classical antiquity 125, 2006, p. 77ff. with literature.
  9. ↑ Thomas Luther, The Phaiaks of the Odyssey and the island of Euboea. , In: Thomas Luther (Ed.) History and Fiction in the Homeric Odyssey. Monographs on classical antiquity 125, 2006, p. 79
  10. ^ Karl Reinhardt: The Adventure of the Odyssey. In: Karl Reinhardt - Carl Becker (ed.): Tradition and Spirit. Collected essays on poetry. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Mainz 1960, p. 112.
  11. ↑ Homer, Odyssey 7, 32f.
  12. ↑ quoted in Strabo, Geographie 1,2,15.
  13. ^ Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1, 25, 4.
  14. ↑ Explanations on the website of the municipality of Corfu (Greek)
  15. ↑ Palealexicon.com
  16. ↑ Strabo, Geography 1,2,18.
  17. ^ Heinrich Schliemann: Ithaka, the Peloponnese and Troy. , Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1869, pp. 1-10.
  18. ↑ Richard Hennig: New Findings on Homer's Geography. , Rheinisches Museum für Altphilologie Volume 75, 1926, pp. 266–286. - online as PDF
  19. ↑ u. a. Adolf Schulten: Tartessos: a contribution to the oldest history of the West. , Cram, de Gruyter, 1950.
  20. ↑ u. a. online: L'ODISSEA E LA SARDEGNA NURAGICA
  21. ↑ u. a. in: Armin Wolf, Odysseus in Phaiakenland - Homer in Magna Graecia , in: Eckart Olshausen - Holger Sonnabend (ed.), "We were Troians". Migrations in the ancient world , Stuttgart Colloquium on the Historical Geography of Antiquity, 8, 2002 (Stuttgart 2006) pp. 20–53.
  22. ^ Albert Herrmann , The Odyssey of Odysseus. Berlin 1926.
  23. ↑ u. a. Richard Hennig: New Findings on Homer's Geography. , Rheinisches Museum für Altphilologie Volume 75, 1926, pp. 266–286, esp. Pp. 284ff. - online as PDF