Geography of the Odyssey from historical inquiries that Hesiod had made. The 2nd century BC poet-historian Apollodorus of Athens sympathises with Eratosthenes, believing that Homer imagined the wanderings as having taken place in a kind of fairyland in the Atlantic; he actively criticises the standard identifications in and around Sicily, and refuses to offer any identifications of his own. The 2nd century BC historian Polybius discusses the wanderings in book 34 of his history. He refutes Apollodorus' idea that the wanderings were in the Atlantic on the basis of "Odyssey" 9.82, where Odysseus says that he sailed for nine days from Cape Malea in
Troy VII city circuit wall, which was found after excavation to be a ditch, enclosed a much larger area suggesting a city "at least ten times larger than earlier excavators — and thus the broader public — had supposed". The site remained inhabited following the destruction of Troy VIIa. Troy VIIb dates to a time when Greek influence began to extend to the area (the "Greek Dark Ages"). Troy VIIb (ca. 1120 BC) and Troy VIIb (ca. 1020 BC) appear to have been destroyed by fires. Troy VIIb was deserted in the mid-10th century BC, and the site remained uninhabited for more