We Followed Odysseus

One of the most entertaining and informative books I've read. I've never sailed the oceans blue but this book offered me insights into what the life would be like leaving me envious, but entertained. I had been reading Fagles recent and beautifully worded translation of the Odyssey. Like many, The Odyssey was required reading for me back in high school. I didn't remember much about it but became entranced while reading Fagles version by how primitive and modern the story seems at the same time. As I started to read We Followed Odysseus I became aware of how the The Odyssey was so fuzzy in my mind, a sort of mythical Disney sort of world. We Followed allowed a harder edged world to enter into the story. It filled it with what the real harbors may have looked like, what the actual journey may have felt like, and sharply clarified what the route could have been like. In short it gave me an insight into what this Greek hero may have actually endured giving Homer's story greater depth. Bottom line: when a book is entertaining, informs the reader in itself, and informs the reader about another great classic it rates five stars.

We Followed Odysseus is the engaging story of sailing a small boat along the sea path of Odysseus' famous voyage. Crossing oceans and seas Hal Roth, with the help of his wife Margaret, re-traced the voyages of Odysseus along the Turkish coast and the isles of Greece. Roth sailed to a desert island in Tunisia, visited Sicily and Corsica, and traveled to Italy and Malta before returning to Greece. We Followed Odysseus blends two stories. One the ancient Hellenic account of the legendary voyage of Odysseus as recounted in "The Odyssey". The other is Roth's modern voyage to each of the nineteen legendary locations that Odysseus visited during his ten-year attempt to return to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. Of special fascination is Roth's candid discussion of what things may have been like in the days of Odysseus, and what they are like today. We Followed Odysseus is highly recommended reading for all armchair travelers, anyone who has thrilled to Homer's tale of the trials of Odysseus in his decade long struggle to return to his home and family, and an inspiration to set sail ourselves in search of our an adventure of our own!

During many years of sailing the oceans of the world, we sought in advance the history of the places we intended to visit. We knew that due to weather conditions or language barriers we would not always benefit from "local knowledge". Rarely would we find a writer who could combine the love of sailing with a love of history. We have just read WE FOLLOWED ODYSSEUS and found that combination in Hal Roth. The presentation of his newest book is most interesting and makes Homer's tale so easy to follow. Cruising along with WHISPER, visiting anchorages, going on hikes, getting history lessons ~ WE FOLLOWED ODYSSEUS is a good read for any armchair traveler but a "must read and keep aboard" for those traveling through the Mediterranean under sail.

As pointed out on the inner flap of the dust cover for We Followed Odysseus, many have heard of but never read either of Homer's The Illiad or The Odyssey but "they are planning to read some day." Few are ever likely to. With his well researched book, Mr. Roth has come to the rescue. It is unlikely that anyone else has ever gone to the trouble of attempting to sight all of the locations in Homer's books and then to have actually sailed all of the stretches of sea between them. We Followed Odysseus is not only a first class read but a delightful history lesson.

There is a small but wonderful genre of books seeking to correlate sites mentioned in Homer's Odyssey with actual islands, harbors, and caves throughout the Mediterranean. Some scholars scoff at the very idea; others, less desk-bound, find a string of sites so tantalizingly close to what Homer describes that they believe the epic poet very likely structured his story on the basis of crude, but factual, geographical knowledge passed on by sailors who had actually been in the western Mediterranean. Hal and Margaret Roth, world-famous sailors in their own right, spent two years in a 35-foot sloop travelling 6,500 miles across the length and breadth of both the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas examining in detail all of the various landfalls proposed by previous writers. Mr. Roth has written this charming travel narrative as a result. Since most of us will never see any of these places ourselves, having the Roths as our eyes and ears is the next best thing. They didn't just sail past the sites; they landed, trooped around, talked to the locals (often through interpreters), and pinned down specifics about the current situations and past histories of the places. And they add the kind of perspective that only sailors could bring to The Odyssey, as in Roth's description of Taormina on Sicily, a likely site for the epic's Thrinacia: "This place really is the first possible stop for a small vessel because from Messina the coast of Sicily is high and bound by cliffs." Or his retracing of the route from Gozo (Calypso's isle) to Corfu (Phaeacia): "Calypso had instructed Odysseus to keep the Pleaides, Arcturus, and the constellation of Ursa Major (also called the Big Dipper, the Great Bear, or the Plow) close to port, that is 30 -40 degrees to the left of his heading. This meant Odysseus sailed northeast." Although he basically accepts the route proposed by Ernle Bradford in his classic Ulysses Found (1963), Roth is no slavish follower; he adds sites in the Aegean overlooked by Bradford, and proposes a different island for Aeolus's kindgom, in opposition to both Bradford and Samuel Butler. I particularly liked his inclusion of photographs of many of the smaller sites that are only verbally described by previous writers, such as the likely cave of Polyphemus, the harbor of Bonifacio, Scilla's rock, and the whirlpool of Charybdis. Clear maps of the sailing routes, and of the various places in relation to each other, are provided throughout. For readers who have discovered, or rediscovered, the charms of The Odyssey through any of the recent and excellent translations (Lattimore, Mandelbaum, or Fagels), or just for armchair adventurers of any sort, Roth's book is a wonderful read.