To all who are fimilar with the landscape of kefalonia: It is said in Robert Brittlestone's marvalos book that mt neriton, which was described in the odyssey as "far-visable", is located on the Northern Paliki penninsula. When taking a look at Paliki one does indeed see a mountain(s) of some sort(s). However, my proposed topic of discussion is did the bronze clad greeks view Brittlestone's mt neriton to actually be a mountain, 'far-visable'? (Greece is a very rocky mountainous region of the world and it's peoples are perhaps without a doubt fimilar with great mountains.) And if so, are there any other forms of evidence that a megali-hill, forlack of a better word, could be interpreted as a mountain, and stand to convince homer and ultimatly be concidered factual for the greek audience?

Since it's the biggest "megahill" around, why not refer to it as a mountain?

I haven't been to Paliki. Per the maps in the book, tho -- one is online at,

http://www.well.com/~kessler/paliki.html

-- the elevation of the northern Paliki "hill" does appear to be significant, for its immediate surroundings anyway. And it's westernmost position makes it clearly visible from the sea: the Greeks of that time were seafaring people -- visibility from the sea would have made that particular hill a landmark, for them, more than some other inland hill perhaps higher but less visible from a boat.

So I'd say, in reply, that first the philology on "far-visible" needs to be looked at: I don't remember Diggle's having done so in the book, did he? That could be a Greek term making specific reference to the sea, or containing some other clue as to what distances might be involved in "far".
If someone here has the Greek and could explain, that might be interesting.

And then we have to remember that we're talking about villagers, here. To a small village, landmarks and most other significant things all get defined in relation to the village: not to anything more global, as we now can see on our maps and GPS and "from Space" -- any villager's universe tends to be his village, even today, and the nearest visible hilll is his "mountain".

So I don't question that Greece today is mountainous, kefalas, or that modern Greeks are not familiar with great mountains. But we're not talking about Greece or modern Greeks, here; we're talking about a tiny village, on an outlying island -- the most outlying -- a little group of people cut off from most others, feeling little more connection with their "outside world" than traditional aristocratic customs and family relationships might minimally dictate. In Bronze Age Pylos, the nearest hill visible from town would have been "the mountain" -- in Bronze Age Ithaca, it's nearest visible hill would have been their "Mt. Neriton".

In Homer's text (9. 22) Mt. Neriton is described as "ariprepes". I understand this word to come from "ari-" and "-prepes". The prefix "ari-" conveys easiness, much like the prefix "eu-" which is closer to wellness. The suffix "-prepes" probably refers to (external) appearance (e.g. "andro-prepes" = of manly appearance, masculine looking). Similarly, "eu-prepes" (a word still in use in modern greek) means neat, of decent appearance. So, I presume "ari-prepes" would stand for easiness of appearance, probably meaning easy to spot, standing out, etc. Another such composite word is "ari-gnotos"=easily recognisable.

I would therefore agree with Robert Bittlestone that such descriptions could only come from a local, or somebody well acquainted with the geography and the landmarks of the immediate region.

It generally makes sense to assume that a Bronze Age island citadel would be located at a spot which would combine defensive advantages with ample visibility, particularly of the main harbour (which in the Ionian islands is expected to be east facing due to the prevailing western winds). The importance of such a location would thus be reciprocal: the sea travellers can easily guide themselves to the harbour by the sighting of the landmark mount.

This reminds me of the story of a sailor who was in a bad storm in the english channel, and promised to build a chapel on the first land he sighted if only he were saved. This first sighting was Brent Tor about 20miles north of Plymouth. You actually have to sail in the channel to see that this hill is a very prominant landmark, dispite the proximity of dartmoor and other hills. The chapel is, of course, there for all to see.

http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/brentor.htm

Using Google earth and NASA Worldwind confirms that Mt Neron (on Paliki) is very visible and could act as a navigation landmark when coming up the southern channel, or approaching from the north. However, it is dwarfed by the mountains of Kefalonia when approaching from the west.

However, I have not sailed around this area myself. Perhaps someone can confirm.