Safe harbour
03 July 2010
Bonifacio is an "excellent harbour, closed in on all sides by an unbroken ring of precipitous cliffs, with two bold headlands facing each at the mouth so as to leave only a narrow channel in between." Thus Homer describes the home of the Laistrygonians, where Odysseus went with his fleet early in the Odyssey. The inhabitants fell upon the fleet and burnt it, killing many of his men, and leaving Odysseus with small support for the rest of his wanderings.
Two women of this tribe are described, the daughter and wife of the chief Antiphates. The former is a 'strong girl', while the latter is of 'mountainous proportions'. This extends to their menfolk, who are 'more like Giants than ordinary men'. Scholarly disquisitions point out that the 'bad' women of the Odyssey are usually described via their unfortunate effects on the hero and his allies, while the 'good' women get their own narrative. What's more, those who oppose him and bring chaos to his journey, are the agents of Poseidon, warring with Athena's ambition to create civilisation and order. The Laistrygonians are important examples of Poseidon's actors.
The description also prompts comparison to Magellan's and Drake's stories of giants in Patagonia, allegedly fierce, 9ft high occupants of this remote area at the edge of the world as known by Europeans. Could it be that, as the people of Mediterranean and North Atlantic explore, their first encounters become enhanced in the re-telling, so the yarns are all the better when they get home?
Another way to look at this story is to consider the timing. Could these have been the prehistoric occupants of Corsica, the people who built the statue-menhirs of Filitosa and who were already beginning to feel the incursions of those tribes who became the Toreen conquerors? If so, perhaps their fierce reaction is less surprising. Maybe they had already learnt that strangers brought death, and had decided to get their retaliation in first.