The most recent data on the date of the Trojan War, which was discovered by two English astronomers, was learned yesterday at the Harvard Observatory.
According to this information which depends for its foundation on the date of a total eclipse of the sun, Odysseus returned to his home on the island of Ithaca exactly 3103 years ago today.
Investigations made in England by Dr. Fotheringham and Dr. Schoch, which were based on the most accurate astronomical data available up to the present time, have brought to light the fact that a total eclipse of the sun did occur in the year 1177 B. C. This is the only solar eclipse which happened between 1240 B. C. and 1177 B. C. on the island of Ithaca.
Homer Refers to Eclipse
It seems very probable that. Homer was referring to this eclipse when he had Theoclymenus say in the twentieth book of the Odyssey:
"Ah, unfortunate men, what horror is this that has happened? Shrouded in night are faces and heads; to the knees it descends. See too crowded with ghosts is the porch, ghosts hurrying down to the darkness of Erebus. Out of heaven, withered and gone is the sun, and a poisonous mist is arising."
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Eastward Ho
