Celestial clues may end ancient debate about eclipse in Odyssey(guardian.co.uk)
guardian.co.uk
Celestial clues may end ancient debate about eclipse in Odyssey
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/24/spaceexploration.sciencenews
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/24/spaceexploration.sciencenews
It is reasonably likely that there was some man on whom Odysseus is largely based.
It is slightly likely that said man, upon returning from the Trojan War, did something along the lines of killing his wife's suitors.
It is somewhat unlikely that this event happened to coincide with a solar eclipse.
It is reasonably unlikely that Homer (if indeed that was one man), writing four or five centuries later, managed to get that particular detail right, rather than making it (like most of the rest of the story) up.
It is extremely unlikely that Homer, writing four or five centuries later, not only managed to get that particular detail off the (purely oral at the time) historical record, but also some accurate information about the positions of the planets at the time.
In conclusion, this was in PNAS why?