ODYSSEY RELIVED IN ITINERANT MUSEUM

An itinerant museum in the South of Italy highlights the spots where tradition places the various adventures of the Ancient Greek hero Ulysses on his troubled homeward journey after the Trojan War. The new Odissea Musuem therefore displays the same antiquities, installations, curiosities and work of art in its various venues, with an emphasis on the myth traditionally linked to that particular place. The new museum is part of the Italian regional museum network, based on mutual collaboration and coordination within various regional territories.

To date, the Odissea Musuem has been set up in Catanzaro, Tropea, Vibo Valentia, Palermo

and, most recently, in Altafiumara at Villa San Giovanni, on the Italian side of the Strait of Messina, which many researchers and archaeologists believe can be identified with the narrow sea passage that the hero had to manoeuvre between the deadly whirlpool Scylla and the many-headed man-eating monster Cariddi.

Trinacria, described by Homer as “the Island of the Sun” is widely believed to be Sicily, while the Li Galli Islands off the coast of Sorrento have become identified with the sirens who lured mariners to their death with their spell-casting song. The Land of the Faeci where Ulysses ultimately took refuge, could be the so-called Coast of the Gods around Vibo Valentia on the southwestern coast of Calabria.

Rete Museale Regionale

Info; www.odesseamuseum.it