Odyssey 20.356-57 and the Eclipse of 1178 b.c.e .: A Response to Baikouzis and Magnasco

Abstract

The recent argument of Constantino Baikouzis and Marcelo Magnasco that Odyssey 20.356–57 preserves a reference to the solar eclipse of 26 April 1178 b.c.e . has received widespread attention in generalist publications. Unlike Carl Schoch’s 1926 argument, which came to the same conclusion,the new argument cannot be dismissed on the basis of the passage’s context. Baikouzis and Magnasco require several other tacit assumptions, however, and many of these may be rejected with great confidence.