After a year with Circe and a 335-kilometer walk down the
Ulysses Riviera from Rome to Naples, I established a base camp last
April in an isolated apartment in Marina del Cantone on the
Sorrentino Peninsula. My squat overlooked Isola dei Galli, the
three islands allegedly inhabited by the Sirens who failed to
seduce Odysseus as my cunning and crafty hero had his crew bound
him to the spar of his ship to withstand their mind-blowing
chants.
Like almost every other venue in the
"Odyssey," this one (la galla, incidentally, means "afloat" while
lo gallo means "cock") is disputed. But that doesn't bother me or
many other Homerphiles, including Rudolf Nuryev who once owned the
islands.
"I suppose there are some academics that
concentrate on finding the exact location of events in the
'Odyssey,' but it's the rich oral tradition that impresses me,"
said Vince Tomasso, the young academic in the classics department
at Stanford University who reads my copy and tries to prevent me
from making too many mistakes about the ancient Greeks.
I awaken at five am with a sense of
anticipation and intimidation. It's been almost six months since
"The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean" appeared in
Australia to generally good reviews. But I'm not sure if I have
another book of that physical length (4,401 kilometers walked and
165,000 words printed) and emotional/spiritual revelation (a number
of reviewers compared "The Idiot" to "Eat Pray Love") in me.
Lots of Homeric lines from the 'Odyssey' - like "the light on
the sea rim gladdened Odysseus" -- spit themselves out at me as I
sit on the dawn-dark terrace and watch the light, the birds, the
bugs and the clouds beckon the rainy day to come. But as I stare at
the half moon floating above the sea, listen to the waves lapping
the shore directly below me and let the breeze wash my mind during
my morning meditation, I get my MedTrek mindset back by looking out
on views like this.
Photos: Joel Stratte-McClure