With Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey so fresh in many people’s minds, there was no better time for Richard E. Grant to release a travel show about Odyssey’s journey.
His trip took him straight to Gozo, and specifically to Calypso’s Cave, a natural cave near Xagħra where the nymph Calypso is said to have held Odysseus for seven years.
As historian Timothy Gambin tells Grant, people have been trying to fit physical places to locations mentioned for thousands of years.
Indeed, Gozo’s identification as the possible location of Calypso’s home dates back to at least the late fourth century BC, when Greek mythographer Euhemerus linked the island to the mythical Ogygia.
“Given reference to the naval of the Mediterranean, some suggested that Calypso’s Cave must be linked to Gozo, to the extent that some travellers would circle around Gozo to figure out which cave would have corresponded to it,” he explained.
“This is the beauty of Homer – it is a very democratic story and is open to interoperation.”
While we may never know whether Gozo was indeed once home to a mythical nymph, archaeological evidence does point to maritime activity around the Maltese Islands dating back to the era associated with the Odyssey.