From Ithaca to Troy, is nearly 320 miles as the crow flies. Around the Peloponnese, like Odysseus would have had to go, it was 561 miles, as shown in the picture. This is only if the ship could sail in a complete;y straight line. In a Greek war ship, fully laden with goods and necessities, a speed of 7 knots or 13 km/hr is a good speed. This would have taken a fully manned war ship going cruising speed, rowing for 24 hours straight, a little over 5 days to accomplish. However for most of the 10 years he was at sea, he was on Calypso's island (7 years) and the remaining time he was on a ship for very little of it. He was often floating around in the ocean or on one of the hospitable islands. This therefore, is an incredible and daunting feat, but highly unlikely. The crew was hardly able to make the trip for 11 days straight and most likely, they were not going at high speeds because they needed to conserve energy. Odysseus also traveled more miles than just there and back to Troy, including North-African Coast, Italian coast, and many islands near the Peloponnese.
Through all this evidence, the trip seems more and more unlikely, at least to this extent. The many miles and locations visited are described with such vivid and typically correct details, that we can not help but think that the excursions might have happened, but just not to the full degree.
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