THE PHAEACIANS
A Rock off the Coast of Paleokastritsa on Corfu (Photo by J. Peradotto)
| The Cyclopes are at one extreme of
the social spectrum of the Odyssey. The almost godlike Phaeacians
are at the other extreme, with the social and inventive Greeks somewhere
in between. In the country of the Phaeacians it is perpetual spring. Their
ships are the stuff of fairy tales, crossing the seas without the work of
steersmen or oarsmen. Their life is made easy and graceful by their
wealth, and the very gods sometimes dine with them. But they are slightly
soft. (Their king tells Odysseus "We are not good boxers or wrestlers, but
fast runners and unrivaled oarsmen. We love banquets, the lyre and the
dance, frequent changes of clothing, warm baths, and the bed.") By helping
Odysseus reach home, they will anger the sea-god Poseidon, father of the
blinded Cyclops. He will punish them by transforming their returning ship
into stone. You see here a photograph of a rock off the coast of
Palaiokastritsa on Corfu, traditionally identified with that petrified
Phaeacian ship.
The Cyclopes and the Phaeacians are evidently primitive and utopian extremes between which human life must be defined more realistically.
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