Aeaea

Aeaea or Eëa (pronounced /iːˈiːə/; Greek: Αἰαία, Aiaia) was a possibly mythological island said to be the home of the sorceress Circe. Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for a year on his way home to Ithaca.

Though the somewhat inconsistent geography of the Odyssey is often considered more mythic than literal, Aeaea was later identified by classical Roman writers with Mount Circeo on Cape Circaeum on the western coast of Italy — about 100 kilometers south of Rome — which may have looked like an island due to the marshes and sea surrounding its base but is, in fact, a small peninsula. It was already a peninsula in the days of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, according to his work. However, it may have been still an island in the days of Homer, with a long "lido" or sandy peninsula that gradually became attached to the mainland, in a common geological process.

The modern Greek scholar Ioannis Kakridis, who insisted that any attempt of realistic identification is vain, argued that Homer thought of Aeaea somewhere in the Eastern part of his world, perhaps near Colchis, since Circe was daughter of the Sun, sister of Aeëtes and aunt of Medea (another sorceress), and the goddess Dawn had her palace there.

Archeologists have identified one cave or grotto on the cape as "Grotta della Maga Circe", the cave of Circe. A second was found on the nearby Island of Ponza. It is believed that the Circe had her Summer home on Mount Circe and her Winter home on Ponza which may possibly be the island of Aeaea.

Before leaving Aeaea, Odysseus was given instructions by Circe on how to travel to the underworld:

When your ship has traversed the waters of Oceanus, you will reach the fertile shore of Persephone's country with its groves of tall poplars and willows that shed their fruit untimely; here beach your ship upon the shore of Oceanus, and go straight on to the dark abode of Hades. (Odyssey 10.505, tr. Samuel Butler)

Other hypothetical locations

Robert Graves (The Greek Myths) identifies the island of Lošinj, near the Istrian peninsula in the north Adriatic Sea, as Aeaea.

Tim Severin (The Ulyssess Voyage) identifies the island of Paxos in the Ionian Sea near the Greek coast as Aeaea.

Iman Wilkens (Where Troy Once Stood) identifies the island of Schouwen at the delta formed by the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt as Aeaea.

Aeaea in literature

In Richard Aldington's novel "All Men are Enemies" (1933), Aeaea is the island, "twelve hours from Naples" (obviously mythical), where his heroes meet, and love between them flourishes.^[1]

Aeaea as epithet or surname

Aeaea was also used as a surname for several characters in Greek mythology.^[2] Medea Aeaea, derived from Aea, the country where her father Aeëtes ruled.^[3] It was also a surname of Circe, who was the sister of Aeëtes.^[4][5][6] Her son Telegonus is likewise mentioned with this surname.^[7] It was also a surname of Calypso, who was believed to have inhabited a small island of the name of Aeaea in the straits between Italy and Sicily.^[8][9]

References

Sources

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).