Talk:Odysseus Unbound
The title of this article is a bit misleading, in two ways. First, the article is not about Paliki as such, it's about Bittlestone's theory that Paliki is Homeric Ithaka. Second, the title makes it sound like the identification of the peninsula as Homer's Ithaca is generally accepted. The text of the article also gives this impression--talking about "the identification," "the discovery," etc. But Bittlestone's book is only one of a long series of attempts to find the "real" Ithaca, and none of these attempts has (yet) been convincing. Bittlestone's may, the book is very new and it doesn't seem like many classicists have looked at it yet (I haven't had time to do more than look at a couple of chapters). Right now, though, the idea that Paliki is Homer's Ithaca has to be classed as an interesting possibility rather than proven fact.
At the least it should be made clear in the opening paragraph that this is Bittlestone's theory and not a consensus view. I'd like to change the title, also, since the article is about a book and not a place. I think it would be a good idea to change the title to Odysseus Unbound. Akhilleus 20:18, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
- I'll put in some qualifiers in that initial paragraph... Great problems in changing the title of the article, as you can appreciate: it's done, lots of links etc., changing all that would be a major headache. But agreed that some reference to the longstanding debate about all of this, to which Bittlestone & Diggle & Underhill are a very respectable addition but certainly only the latest -- would be appropriate.
- OK that's done. I'll also add some additional material regarding the other theories of the location, so that the article is not just about the one.
- Depending on the direction that the edits go, it would not be hard to [1] the page to something like [Homer's Ithaca] or [Geography of the Odyssey] or [Odysseus Unbound]--the Wikipedia software will automatically redirect traffic to the new page. I myself favor a new page on [Geography of the Odyssey]--that can take in debates not just on the location of Ithaka, but of the places O. visits in Books 9-12 as well.