Talk:Scheria

Distance Between Scheria and Ithaca

The article says that, "Despite the above qualities of the ship, it took Odysseus twenty days of sailing to arrive back home to Ithaca, thus indicating that Scheria was a long distance away from Ithaca." However, the Odyssey states that Odysseus was asleep on the boat and the Phaeacians only took a night and morning to reach Ithaca from Scheria. (Book XIII) Can someone clarify please? --Must WIN 23:08, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

As is often the case, there's an error in the article. --Akhilleus (talk) 23:12, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

This passage, "On the twentieth day of sailing he arrived at his home in Ithaca" is in the Main article: Odysseus. Odyssey doesn't state any specific number of days in Book XIII. It states: "When the bright star that heralds the approach of dawn began to show the ship drew near to land." indicating that the ship arrived at dawn in Ithaca, not necessarily of the following day. I haven't a clue where the number of days comes from--Odysses (☜) 19:09, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

But wasn't Odysseus asleep during the journey? I don't think that he would have asleep for more than 1 or 2 days. --Must WIN 22:47, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree with 1-2 days. In fact, this is what King Alcinous says in Odyssey, 7, 320, that Pheacians carried Rhadamanthus to Euboea, "which is the furthest of any place" and came back on the same day. Here we have a puzling question: Even if Scheria was Corfu, the distance between Corfu and Euboea is 750 kilometres, therefore it would require a speed of over 60 kilometres per hour to cover the distance. This speed is comparable only to present day cruisers, not to ancient galleys. What short of ships were the Phaeacian ships that could travel "faster than a falcon"?--Odysses (☜) 14:08, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps the Phaeacian ships were air ships i.e. air-planes which explains everything, or Phaeacia is dreamland and Odysseus did not realize at the beach because of his long traumatic adventure as a sex slave for Calypso that Nausikaa was a daughter of Ithaca.

Why mention Autopilot, GPS and Weather Radar?

I do not feel that the references to modern technology is appropriate or helps the article. Is someone claiming that Homer knew what a GPS system was. If people want to draw parallels between the magic of ancient mythology and modern technology it should be left up to them to do it. This has no place in a encyclopedia article on mythology. The Prime Source 13:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)Dale

Not so surprising

(...) so if Schería was Corfu, it would be surprising that the citizens of one of the Ionian Islands did not know Odysseus

I don't think so. Even on Ithaka nobody, except for his dog Argos, recognized him.80.141.144.198 (talk) 17:37, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Pausanias also identifies Korkyra (Corfu)

https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheKorkyra.html

"His [Asopos'] daughters, say the Phliasians, were Korkyra (Corcyra), Aigina, and Thebe. Korkyra and Aigina (Aegina) gave new names to the islands called Skheria (Scheria) and Oinone (Oenone)." -- Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 5. 1 2601:58B:E7F:8410:A046:C1B3:BDCC:5FA9 (talk) 05:26, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

The peculiar government of Phaeacia

In Odyssey, both Nausicaa and Athena urge Odysseus to ignore the man on the throne and speak directly to Arete. He is told that she is the one who rules. The early lines imply -- all the way to the time of the games held in Odysseus's honor -- that the island is a matriarchy.

However, once the games are underway, the king does all the talking, and he attempts to persuade Odysseus to marry Nausicaa. In the setting of the Mycenaean world, this would be practical and political for a patriarchy setting up a "brother king" alliance (see Erich Cline, 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed), but Arete all but disappears from the narrative. It is possible that two separate tales/places were elided or that there was the infamous "Homer was an editor" thesis at work.

Regardless, I am too lazy and remote from U. servers to do it, but surely one scholar or another has written about the implicit matriarchy of the pre-games portion of the description. ~2026-33515-71 (talk) 13:59, 4 August 2026 (UTC)