"New Evidence of Odysseus: Was a Real Man Behind ..." Topic

…the Legend?

"Christopher Nolan's blockbuster adaptation of Homer's epic has finally arrived in cinemas, with Matt Damon's portrayal of the beleaguered king of Ithaca captivating audiences worldwide. Yet as the film sparks fierce debate over casting and historical accuracy, it has also reignited a far older question that has fascinated scholars for centuries: was Odysseus a real person? The answer, as with so much of the ancient world, lies somewhere between the soil and the story.

Modern scholars generally regard the Odyssey as legend rather than historical record, yet the line between myth and memory in the ancient world was never clearly drawn. As the New York Times reported just before the film's release, archaeologists working on the Greek island of Ithaca have uncovered compelling evidence that to the Greeks of antiquity, Odysseus was not merely a literary creation but a figure of genuine, abiding devotion…"

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Armand

I have always thought of Homer as a wandering bard. And that basically agrees with the legend. Blind? 🤷 Meh.
When he visits a new city, he has the story of their legendary hero memorized and loaded. Don't dismiss that. He had no cellphone and Google. His job was to memorize.
So, when he traveled to Argos, he knew what a badass Diomedes was, and gave the locals a fine story. Read Book 5 of the Iliad. He's 2-0-1 vs the Immortal Gods! (That's how *I* read it. YMMV)
Every town he visited, he gave the local hero his due. I am perfectly happy to "believe" that all the important Heroes had a factual background.

I am NOT going to dismiss either the Iliad or Odyssey as "mere legend". What was the background? The background had to come from somewhere.
(Helen and Clytemnestra's mom was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan? Ummmm… 🙄)
But, there has to be a background story somewhere.

I am perpetually irritated by clickbait titles like "New excavations on Argos/Ithica/Sparta/Thebes totally rewrite history!" It's almost always that the "legends" are true, and that some "mythic agnostic" dope dismissed them out of vanity.
Yeah. Rewrite HIS history, because he was a dumb fool.

I will never be surprised when "modern research proves" that Achilles, both Ajaxes, Agamemnon, and of course Diomedes and Idysseus existed. Heck, I'll even throw a bone to Aeneas.

I shall not step into the swamp of when, and how, all the TRUE legends were compiled and written. Oh, yes. And edited.
That's for scholars. Me? I'm just a fanboy, who believes in the literal truth of Homer. D'oh!