Eclipse Used to Date Odysseus' Massacre of the Suitors

Update: Download the journal article PDF

The news is abuzz with the discovery of the exact day on which Odysseus, having finally returned from the Trojan War, took aim at the suitors who had been eating his family out of house and home. An article from Scientific American, Homer's Odyssey Said to Document 3,200-Year-Old Eclipse, says that biophysicists Constantino Baikouzis and Marcelo Magnasco, from Rockefeller University, have determined that Odysseus massacred the suitors on exactly April 16, 1178 B.C. The scholars don't know that the events actually occurred or Odysseus ever lived, but they think their date is right, based on the dating of a solar eclipse and their reading of the Odyssey.

• Homer and Troy
• Odyssey Book XXII - The Book of the Slaughter
• M.I. Finley, The World of Odysseus

Also see Can You Date Myths by Eclipses, Alun Salt

The original research article is in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: "Is an eclipse described in the Odyssey?" by Baikouzis and Magnasco PNAS.2008; 0: 0803317105v1-0

What do you think of using astronomy to date events in Greek mythology?

Here are some more of the details from Rockefeller University Newswire's Celestial clues hint at eclipse in Homer’s Odyssey:
The scientists combed the epic to find specific mention of astronomical phenomena. Doing this, they found 4 events:

1. The Day of the Slaughter is a new moon
2. "Six days before the slaughter, Venus is visible and high in the sky"
3. Two constellations were visible 29 days before the slaughter
4. 33 days before there is a possibility that Homer refers to the relative place of the planet Mercury. Homer actually refers to the god Hermes. The scientists say that the association of gods with planets is a Babylonian invention that can be dated to about 1000 B.C. Their twelfth century B.C. date precedes this, and is not Babylonian, but they believe it works.

The scientists then looked for a date that would correspond with these discrete events that was within a century of the date of the fall of Troy(?).

I do agree with the goal of encouraging people to read the Odyssey:

"Ultimately, whether they’re right or wrong, the researchers are interested in reopening the debate. 'Even though there are historical arguments that say this is a ridiculous thing to think about, if we can get a few people to read The Odyssey differently, to look at it and ponder whether there was an actual date inscribed in it, we will be happy,' Magnasco says."