Marcelo O. Magnasco of Rockefeller University in New York and Constantino Baikouzis of the Astronomical Observatory in La Plata, Argentina have dated the revenge of Odysseus precisely, using mentions of astronomical phenomena in the Odyssey. The Odyssey covers a timespan of only forty days1, and each of the days is clearly noted in the epic. There are frequent mentions of planets, stars, and constellations, and coupled with Theoklymenos’s statement in Book 20, which they, and many others, interpret as a total solar eclipse, these scholars have assigned a date to the murder of the suitors: April 16, 1178 BCE.
τοῖσι δὲ καὶ μετέειπε Θεοκλύμενος θεοειδής:
“ἆ δειλοί, τί κακὸν τόδε πάσχετε; νυκτὶ μὲν ὑμέων
εἰλύαται κεφαλαί τε πρόσωπά τε νέρθε τε γοῦνα.
οἰμωγὴ δὲ δέδηε, δεδάκρυνται δὲ παρειαί,
αἵματι δ᾽ ἐρράδαται τοῖχοι καλαί τε μεσόδμαι:
εἰδώλων δὲ πλέον πρόθυρον, πλείη δὲ καὶ αὐλή,
ἱεμένων Ἔρεβόσδε ὑπὸ ζόφον: ἠέλιος δὲ
οὐρανοῦ ἐξαπόλωλε, κακὴ δ᾽ ἐπιδέδρομεν ἀχλύς.” (20.350-57) - But what does it all mean?>
