THE HARBOUR RHEITHRON. NOW SALT WORKS OF S. CUSUMANO.
MOUTH OF THE HARBOUR RHEITHRON, NOW SILTED UP.
Given a mass of water, nearly a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad, with a narrow exit, and the tide, which here has a rise and fall of from two to three feet, would cause a current that at times would be strong, and justify its being described as a river and also as a harbour with a current in it; returning for a moment to Scheria, I suppose this to be the river at the mouth of which Ulysses landed, and the river's staying his flow (v. 451), I take to mean that he arrived there just at the turn of the tide. I may also say that this harbour is used five times in the Odyssey:—
1. As the "flowing harbour, in the country beyond the town, under Mt. Neritum"—reading, as explained earlier, Νηρίτῳ for Νηίῳ—where Minerva said she left her ship, when she was talking with Telemachus i. 185, 186. 2. As the place where Ulysses landed in Scheria and where Nausicaa washed her clothes. 3. As the place where Ulysses landed in Ithaca. 4. As the place where Telemachus landed in Ithaca on his return from Pylos (xv. 495 &c.). 5. As the spot pointed to by Ulysses as the one where his ship was lying "in the country beyond the town" (xxiv. 308).