Odysseus Beyond the Pillars: A Geo-Mythological Exploration of Atlantean Echoes in Homer's Odyssey and the Afar Depression

Homer's Odyssey (circa 8th century BCE) presents the Phaeacian episode (Books 6–8, 13) as a utopian interlude in Odysseus's wanderings, featuring an advanced seafaring society with gleaming bronze architecture, eternal orchards, and thought-guided ships. This paper proposes a geo-mythological reinterpretation: that Phaeacia, alongside speculative extensions of Odysseus's post-Ogygia drift southward, preserves distorted cultural memories of Plato's Atlantis (Timaeus and Critias, circa 360 BCE), localized in the Afar Depression's paleolake remnants. Integrating close reading of Homeric text, Platonic parallels (concentric design, orichalcum-like metals, stellar navigation, hubris-cataclysm), paleoclimatic data on African Humid Period mega-lakes (circa 15–5 ka BP), and Afar geology (hypersaline basins, volcanic rings, hydrothermal systems), the study hypothesizes transmission via Red Sea networks and Egyptian Punt expeditions. The narrative arc—Troy's fall as divine rivalry echo, Odysseus's vengeance leading to Afar shipwreck and local Atlantis tale, Phaeacia as humble survivor—forms a mythic palimpsest encoding real landscapes. While speculative, this framework complements traditional utopian readings, aligning with geo-mythology (Vitaliano 1973; Piccardi and Masse 2007) and debates on Atlantis historicity. Implications include reevaluating epic as deep-time memory vessel and suggesting archaeological surveys in Afar paleoshorelines.