Snap-Shots by Samuel Butler Esq. (1893-94)

(IX/Albums/3/56-57)

Butler first visited Sicily in July 1892 on the invitation of Emanuele Biaggini, a Sicilian who shared his views about the origins of the Odyssey. Butler repeated the visit almost every year of the following decade, investigating sites of archaeological, topographical and cultural interest, and gathering photographic and anecdotal evidence to support his theories. Trapani and Eryx (Erice), and the islands off the west coast, were favourite destinations. In Butler’s take on the classical geography, Trapani became Scheria, Marettimo was Odysseus’s Ithaca, and Pantelleria identified with Calypso’s Island.

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