Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Island Hopping in Spain, Italy, and Croatia

Feb 22, 2024
Laura Coffey, a talented writer and author of *Enchanted Islands: Travels Through Myth and Magic, Love & Loss*, explores her real-life journey inspired by *The Odyssey*. She discusses why she traced Odysseus’s epic path across Mediterranean islands. Listeners discover fascinating island connections to mythical locations, her transformative encounters with local characters, and the joy of cold-water swimming. Laura shares how food and landscape shaped her journey and the profound lessons of awe and acceptance she learned along the way.
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INSIGHT

Myth As A Travel Map

  • The Odyssey can act as a real-world guidebook to Mediterranean islands by linking myths to geography.
  • Mapping myths reveals many competing theories and creative ways scholars connected places to story details.
INSIGHT

The Odyssey's Wider Geography

  • Ancient Greek myths didn't map neatly to modern Greece; the ancient world stretched across the Mediterranean.
  • Scholars place Odyssey scenes from Sicily to North Africa, showing a wider ancient geography.
ANECDOTE

A Translation That Sparked The Trip

  • Laura picked up Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey and found it surprisingly accessible.
  • Wilson's version stripped 19th-century flourishes, making the poem modern and readable for her.
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