Q: (Navigator) Do the Phaeacians in the Odyssey represent a real group of people in history?
A: Yes
Q: (Navigator) If so, where was their "island" called Scheria?
(L) Have you studied up on this, Navigator?
(Navigator) Hey, Laura. Yeah. These are the guys that finally sent Odysseus back to Ithaca, and the way their island was depicted was semi-mythical and they were said to be close to the gods and that the gods walked freely among them. Well, they are eventually the ones that listened to Odysseus' story, so...
(L) So did you read 'Where Troy Once Stood'?
(Navigator) Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. The reason I am asking is because the descriptions are, they seem like out of this world. That's why I was asking.
(Joe) There's some suggestions as well that Scheria, an interpretation of it is that because it was the furthest point of this adventure that it was out in the Atlantic and it was Atlantis basically. There was a reference to 'Atlantean' people. And their land or the island they lived on was referred to as a first utopia, the first reference to utopia in literature.
(L) So they were real. So where was the island located?
A: Not an island. Was a confused memory of an area around present day St. Petersburg.
Q: (L) That's nuts.
(Niall) We should see what's in Petersburg. It's magical. The touristy parts, anyway. [laughter]
(Joe) So who are these people, the Phaecians?
A: Caucasians.
Q: (Joe) Caucasus.
(L) So they came from the Caucasus?
A: Further back, yes.
Q: (Niall) They're just saying they're white people. Present day Russians?
(L) [Reading the question] Scheria...
(Joe) Navigator has got a question.
(Navigator) Yeah, just a real quick one. In a previous session, the Cassiopaeans mentioned that we should look into the Iliad and the Odyssey for references to the people that once opposed Atlantis. Are these Phaecians, these guys that were against Atlantis?
A: Close.