Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1394633
NEWS TOWNSCAPES 9 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 21 JULY 2021 JAMES DEBONO A regional development strategy for Gozo is proposing that the proposed "restoration" of the Calypso cave is ac- companied by a "comprehensive pro- gramme" to "embed Gozo within the hearth of the Ulysses mythology." The plan drafted by the Gozo Re- gional Development Authority seeks to develop Gozo's potential in key areas ranging from infrastructure to culture. In the cultural field it seeks to nur- ture the myth that Ogygia, the abode of the nymph Calypso who in Homer's Odysseus seduced the warrior Ulysses detaining him for seven years thus pre- venting his return to his home in Itica in mainland Greece. According to the strategy the myth of Ulysses should be nurtured through the application of "immersive interac- tive technology" as well as "a core pro- gramme of historical and cultural activ- ities steeped within Homer's Ulysses". The reference to Calypso cave in the plan comes in the wake of a planning application presented by the Gozo min- istry, which also includes a 44sq.m in- terpretation centre and souvenir shop. According to the Ministry, the works are primarily intended to consolidate the friable rock face to remove the ex- isting danger and making Calypso Cave accessible again, "while also providing an improved visitor's experience". The application was suspended after the Environment and Resources Authority called for geological studies before any works on the sensitive site. ERA also called for the downscaling of the proposed interpretation centre and its containment in an area current- ly occupied by sanitary facilities. The Superintendence for Cultural Herit- age also expressed concern on Super- intendence expresses concern on "the intensification of development" in this "iconic" location whose value " the in- terface of popular perception and the natural landscape". While in some traditions Ogygia is identified as Gozo, other possible lo- cations include Egypt and the Ionian islands. Homer's Odyssey written around 800 BC, recorded in verse oral traditions based on much older events like the Trojan War and the exploits of Myce- naean warlords whose patchwork of kingdoms controlled mainland Greece from around 1600 to 1200 BC. Gozo is frequently represented as the Homeric romantic abode of the nymph Calypso, a lesser goddess expert at se- duction even offering Odysseus im- mortality. Archaeologist Anthony Bonanno, au- thor of a scholarly works on the subject published in 1983, contends that the identification of Gozo with the Homer- ic Calypso was initiated by Greek po- et and grammarian Callimachus in the third century before Christ. Bonnano does not exclude trade between prehis- toric Malta and Mycenaean Greeks be- fore the onset of the Phoenician period but points out that several other islands have been proposed as the location of Homer's Ogygia while a number of authoritative scholars are excluding a "specific real geographical localities" in their interpretation of the topographi- cal features in Homer's masterpiece. Lure of Greek mythology may be too hard to resist as strategy for island's development seeks to nurture Calypso myth through a 'restoration' of the cave promontory overlooking Ramla l-Hamra Gozo strategy calls on authorities to milk Ulysses' myth