Lampas, the island of Comino

Abstract

For a long period of time scholars interpreted Lampas to mean Lampedusa, which island is far distant from Malta and Gozo about one hundred miles to the West. However, this cannot be so, both because the three islands are taken together by the author, and for the following reason. Homer recounts that after leaving Circe’s island, Aeaea, identified as Ustica in the North of Sicily, Odysseus and his men in their only surviving boat out of twelve, visited the Sirens and passed through the Straits of Messina known as Scylla and Charybdis. This last landmark before they came to Thrinacia proved to be a shock to Odysseus, for later on, after leaving Thrinacia, Odysseus, having lost all his comrades in the sea, was much afraid that the South Wind would blow his raft northward precisely toward Scylla and Charybdis. In fact, he did approach the straits, but managed to steer his way away from them to North-East, till he came to Ogygia. [excerpt]