by Ernle Bradford
Hodder & Stoughton, 1964
Comments: This book is the perfect combination of history, geography, mythology, and sailing. Bradford is a distinguished historian who spent three decades as a military and merchant seaman on the Mediterranean. He brings a deep familiarity with those waters and the region to an investigative analysis of the route taken by Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey. In much the same way that modern entertainment media use the concept of "based on a true story" to expand well beyond actual events, Bradford asserts that in Homer's time the same would have occurred with the popular media of that era -- the epic poem.
Looking beyond all the improbable details of giants, sirens, and goddesses, Bradford finds bits of truth in the poem and proposes a story that actually could have occurred. He uses the richly detailed navigational and cultural clues found in the Odyssey to develop and support a very plausible version of the adventure. By bringing context and reality to the story, he delivers a new tale just as engaging as the original, reinforcing its rightful place as one of the greatest adventure stories of all time.
I enjoyed this book immensely and look forward to reading it again in time.
Copy Notes: Harback, first edition, photos, indexed
