The Oracle (47 page)

As far as the epilogue to Odysseus’s adventures is concerned, many hypotheses have emerged throughout the ages. According to the
Telegonia
– a poem written by Eugammon of Cyrene in the sixth century
BC
– Telegonus, son of Odysseus and the enchantress Circe, sailing in search of his father, actually kills him in a duel, without realizing it is him. Eugammon thus fulfils the prophecy of Tiresias: ‘Death [will come to you] from the sea’, although the poet is most likely unaware of the part which speaks of the hero’s journey inland. Telegonus later marries Penelope, and Telemachus, Circe, on the Isle of the Blessed.

This version of the story does not seem as old as the
Odyssey,
but is probably crafted by Eugammon on the basis of Tiresias’s prophecy as expressed in the eleventh book of the
Odyssey.
Much more ancient – and perhaps directly connected to the
Odyssey
– was the lost poem called Thesprotis, from which the place names ‘Bouneima’ and ‘Kelkea’ are perhaps the only existing fragments.

A scholium of Lykophron (Scheer, II, p. 253, l. 21), a Hellenistic poet, reports (perhaps on the basis of Theopompus, frgm. 354 Jacoby) two different hypotheses regarding the death of Odysseus. The first has the hero dying at Gortynia in Etruria and buried at Perge (Pyrgi), while according to the other tradition, Odysseus died in a city of Epirus called Eurytana (of which no trace remains). In reality, the hero’s end is still shrouded in mystery.

As far as the topography of the places is concerned, it is largely accurate. I’ve taken some liberty in describing the caves of Dirou and their immediate surroundings. Portolagos is nowadays a town like any other; my description refers to the dank atmosphere of an overnight stay of mine under the stars, quite a few years ago, when the place was semi-deserted.

Icarus is inspired by the Hewlett-Packard program Ibicus, just in the making when this book was first written.

Dionysìou Street doesn’t exist. Not under that name, anyway.

Translations of the passages from the
Odyssey
:

Robert Fitzgerald, Book Nine, lines 366–7, and Book Eleven, lines 14–20, 23–8, 122–41, Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company Inc., 1963;

Robert Fagles, Book Eleven, lines 471–3, Penguin Books, 1996.

V
ALERIO
M
ASSIMO
M
ANFREDI
is professor of classical archaeology at the Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. He has carried out a number of expeditions and excavations in many sites throughout the Mediterranean, and has taught in Italian and international universities. He has published numerous articles and academic books, mainly on military and trade routes and exploration in the ancient world.

He has published nine works of fiction, including the ‘Alexander’ trilogy, translated into twenty-seven languages in forty-two countries.

He has written and hosted documentaries on the ancient world transmitted by the main television networks, and has written fiction for cinema and television as well.

He lives with his family in the countryside near Bologna, Italy.

Also by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

A
LEXANDER:
C
HILD OF A
D
REAM

A
LEXANDER:
T
HE
S
ANDS OF
A
MMON

A
LEXANDER:
T
HE
E
NDS OF THE
E
ARTH

S
PARTAN

T
HE
L
AST
L
EGION

T
HE
T
ALISMAN OF
T
ROY

T
HE
T
YRANT

Endnote

¹
A slight change was made in the original ‘I’m naked, I’m cold’ (rendered as ‘She’s naked. She’s cold’ in English) in order to maintain the feminine meaning expressed by the adjectives in the ancient Greek.

First published 2005 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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ISBN 978-0-330-52761-3 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-52760-6 EPUB

Copyright © Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. 1990
Translation copyright © Pan Books 2005

First published in Italian 1990 as
L’Oracolo
by
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano

The right of Valerio Massimo Manfredi to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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