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Ogygia (Greek: Ὠγυγίη or Ὠγυγία), is an island mentioned in Homer's Odyssey book V as the home of the nymph Calypso, the daughter of the Titan Atlas, also known as Atlantis (Ατλαντίς^[1]) in ancient Greek. Calypso detained Odysseus on Ogygia for seven years and kept him from returning to his home of Ithaca. Athena complained about Calypso's actions to Zeus, who sent the messenger Hermes to Ogygia to order Calypso release Odysseus. Calypso finally allowed Odysseus to build a small raft and depart the island.

Description of Ogygia

Location of Ogygia

Many ancient and modern interpreters believe that Ogygia was located in the Ionian Sea or in the Mediterranean Sea. Later interpretations sometimes identify Ogygia and Phaeacia with sunken Atlantis. A long standing tradition begun by Euhemerus in the late Fourth Century B.C.E and supported by Callimachus^[3], also endorsed by native Maltese tradition, identifies Ogygia with the island of Gozo, the second largest island in the archipelago.

Some scholars, having examined the work and the geography of Homer, have suggested that Ogygia and Scheria were located in the Atlantic Ocean. Among them were Strabo and Plutarch. Modern scholars, however, are reluctant to place Ogygia or indeed any of the locations Homer describes in any existing geography and the literary tale is acknowledged as a work of fictional, mythical intent.

Geographical account by Strabo

Geographical account by Plutarch

The above passage of Plutarch has created a lot of controversy. Hamilton in 1934 indicated the similarities of Plutarch's account on "the great continent" and Plato's location of Atlantis.^[9] Kepler ^[10] in his “Kepleri Astronomi Opera Omnia” estimated that “the great continent” was America and attempted to locate Ogygia and the surrounding islands. Roderic O'Flaherty used the name as a synonym for Ireland in the title of his 1685 Irish history. Wilhelm von Christ was convinced that the continent was America and states that during 100 AD sailors travelling through Iceland, Greenland, and the Baffin Region reached the North American coast. G. Mair^[11] in 1909 suggested that the knowledge of America came from Carthaginian sailors who had reached the Gulf of Mexico. Henriette Mertz, an American archaeologist, proposed in her book The Wine Dark Sea: Homer's Heroic Epic of the North Atlantic (1964) that Ogygia was one of the Azores.

Other people and places relevant to Ogygia

The island of Ogygia is associated with the Ogygian deluge and with the mythological figure Ogyges, in the sense that the word Ogygian means "primeval," "primal," and "at earliest dawn," ^[12] which would suggest that Ogygia was a primeval island. However, Ogyges was regarded as a primeval, aboriginal ruler of Boeotia, ^[13] who founded Thebes there, naming it Ogygia at the time. ^[14] In another version of the story, Ogyges brought his people to the area first known as Acte. That land was subsequently called Ogygia in his honor but ultimately known as Attica.

Notes

^ "Atlantis" means the daughter of Atlas. See entry Ατλαντίς in Liddell & Scott. See also Hesiod, Theogony, 938.
^ Odyssey V.58-74
^ Strabo 7.3.6, referencing Callimachus' account in relation to Euhemerus. Also, Bradford, Ernle (1963), Ulysses Found
^ Odyssey, XII, 1
^ Odyssey, I, 50
^ Odyssey, VI, 204
^ The original text of this passage by Strabo is: ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα φανερῶς ἐν τῷ Ἀτλαντικῷ πελάγει πλαττόμενα δηλοῦται.
^ Plutarch, Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon, chap. 26.
^ Timaeus, 24E - 25A
^ Introductory notes at the Loeb Classical Library on pages 21, 22 and 23.
^ G. Mair, Pytheas' Tanais und die Insel des Kronos in Plutarchs Schrift Das Gesicht im Monde
^ Entry Ωγύγιος at Liddell & Scott
^ Entry "Ogygus" in N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press: 1970.
^ Entry "Ogyges" in E. H. Blakeney, Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary, Everyman's Library, London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1937.

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