Dulichium
Encyclopedia
Dulichium, Dolicha, or Doliche was a place noted by numerous ancient writers that was either a city on, or an island off, the Ionian Sea
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...

 coast of Acarnania
Acarnania
Acarnania is a region of west-central Greece that lies along the Ionian Sea, west of Aetolia, with the Achelous River for a boundary, and north of the gulf of Calydon, which is the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. Today it forms the western part of the prefecture of Aetolia-Acarnania. The capital...

, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.

In the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

, Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

 says that Meges, son of Phyleus
Phyleus
In Greek mythology, Phyleus was a son of King Augeas of Elis and father of Meges. He supported Heracles instead of his father and was exiled. After Heracles killed Augeas and his other sons, he gave Phyleus the kingdom. During the time of his exile, Phyleus led a colony of Epeans to the island of...

, led 40 ships to Troy
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

 from Dulichium and the sacred islands he calls Echinae (the Echinades
Echinades
thumb|300px|The EchinadesThe Echinades are a group of islands in the Ionian Islands, off the coast of Acarnania, Greece...

), which are situated beyond the sea, opposite Elis
Elis
Elis, or Eleia is an ancient district that corresponds with the modern Elis peripheral unit...

. Phyleus was the son of Augeas
Augeas
In Greek mythology, Augeas , whose name means "bright", was king of Elis and father of Epicaste. Some say that Augeas was one of the Argonauts....

, king of the Epeians in Elis, who emigrated to Dulichium because he had incurred his father's anger. In the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...

, Dulichium is frequently mentioned along with Same
Same (Ancient Greece)
Same is an Ancient Greek name of a Homeric and unidentified island in the Ionian Sea, near Ithaca and Cephalonia. In Homer's Iliad, book II, in the Catalogue of Ships, Same is described as part of Odysseus's kingdom...

, Zacynthus, and Ithaca
Homer's Ithaca
The location of Homer's Ithaca, i.e. Ithaca as featured in Homer's Odyssey, is a matter for debate.The central characters of the epic such as Odysseus, Achilles, Agamemnon and Hector are generally believed to be fictional characters. Yet there are many claims that some Homeric hero long ago had...

 as one of the islands subject to Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....

, and is celebrated for its fertility.

The site of Dulichium gave rise to much dispute in antiquity. Hellanicus supposed that it was the ancient name of Kefalonia; and Andron
Andron
Andron , or Andronitis, is part of a Greek house that is reserved for men, as distinguished from the gynaeceum , the women's quarters. Symposium, social events with food and wine, were held in the andron. For this purpose the andron held several couches and tables in addition to artwork and any...

, that it was one of the cities of Kefalonia, which Pherecydes
Pherecydes
Pherecydes was the name of:*Pherecydes of Syros, a pre-Socratic philosopher and author from the island of Syros, by some believed to have influenced Pythagoras...

 supposed to be Pale, an opinion supported by Pausanias
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

. However, Strabo maintains that Dulichium was one of the Echinades, and identifies it with Dolicha , an island which he describes as situated opposite Oeniadae (Oinadai) and the mouth of the Achelous
Achelous
In Greek mythology, Achelous was the patron deity of the "silver-swirling" Achelous River, which is the largest river of Greece, and thus the chief of all river deities, every river having its own river spirit. His name is pre-Greek, its meaning unknown...

, and distant 100 stadia from the promontory of Araxos
Araxos
Araxos , Latin form: Araxus is a village located in the municipal unit of Larissos in the northwestern part of Achaea, Greece. It is located on a road connecting south to Lappa and east to Lakkopetra and Kato Achaia and also a road to Kalogria and Metochi...

 (Araxus) in Elis. Dolicha appears to be the same which now bears the synonymous appellation of Makri
Makri
Makri is a Greek island, one of the Echinades, in the Ionian Islands group. It is administered by the municipality of Ithaca and is northeast of the island...

 (Greek: Μάκρη), derived from its long narrow form.

Most modern writers have followed Strabo in connecting Dulichium with the Echinades, though it seems impossible to conclusively identify it with any particular island. It is observed by Leake
William Martin Leake
William Martin Leake, FRS , British antiquarian and topographer, was born in London.After completing his education at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and spending four years in the West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was sent by the government to Constantinople to instruct the...

 that Petalas
Petalas
Petalas or Petalá is the largest island of the Echinades, among the Ionian Islands group of Greece. Some, including Leake, have conjectured that Petalas is the ancient Dulichium, from which the Iliad reports that 40 ships sailed to Troy, but Strabo and most modern authors prefer the...

 (Petalá), being the largest of the Echinades, and possessing the advantage of two well-sheltered harbours, seems to have the best claim to be considered the ancient Dulichium. It is, indeed, a mere rock, but being separated only by a strait of a few hundred meters from the fertile plains at the mouth of the Achelous and river of Oenia, its natural deficiencies may have been there supplied, and the epithets of grassy and abounding in wheat, which Homer applies to Dulichium — — may be referred to that part of its territory. But Leake adds, with justice, that there is no proof in the Iliad or Odyssey that Dulichium, although at the head of an insular confederacy, was itself an island: it may very possibly, therefore, have been a city on the coast of Acarnania, opposite to the Echinades, perhaps at Tragamésti, or more probably at the harbour named Pandeléimona or Platyá, which is separated only by a channel of a mile or two from the Echinades.

Another story has Dulichium placed approximately 3 kilometers from the island of Kefalonia
Kefalonia
The island of Cephalonia, also known as Kefalonia, Cephallenia, Cephallonia, Kefallinia, or Kefallonia , is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece, with an area of . It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit...

but reportedly sunk following an earthquake.
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