"If that were true," said Yaeger, "the ships loaded with treasure would still lie in the silt of the harbor."
"What is the name of the island?"
"Branwyn," responded Yaeger, "was a Celtic goddess and one of the three matriarchs of Britain."
"What country owns the island?" asked Dirk.
"It's privately owned."
"Do you know by whom?" asked Summer. "A rock star, an actor, maybe some wealthy businessmen?"
"No, Branwyn is owned by a wealthy woman." He paused to check his notes. "Her name is Epona Eliade."
"Epona is the name of the Celtic goddess," said Summer. "Now there's a coincidence."
"Maybe more than mere serendipity," said Yaeger. "I'll check it out."
"Where was Odysseus' next port?" asked Sandecker.
"Now with only one ship out of twelve," Yaeger continued, "he sailed to the island of Circe, called Aeaea, which computes as Navidad Bank, a spot Homer placed on the edge of the world."
"Circe!" Summer gasped. "Circe was the woman who lived and died in the structure we found?"
Yaeger shrugged. "What can I say? This is all conjecture, which is next to impossible to prove."
"But what brought her across the ocean so many centuries ago?" Gunn wondered aloud.
Perlmutter placed his folded hands on his ample stomach. "There was more travel back and forth between the continents than anyone has envisioned."
"I'd be interested in learning where you place Hades," said Sandecker to Yaeger.
"The best guess is the Santo Tomás caverns on Cuba."
Perlmutter daintily blew his nose, then asked, "After he left Hades, where did he meet with the Sirens, Scylla the monster and Charybdis the whirlpool?"
Yaeger threw up his hands. "I have to write those events off to Homer's wild imagination. No geographical location works for any of them this side of the Atlantic." He paused a moment before picking up Odysseus' journey on the chart again. "Next, Odysseus sails eastward until he reaches Calypso's island of Ogygia, which Wilkens and I agree is St. Miguel in the Azores."
"Calypso was the beautiful sister goddess of Circe," said Summer.
"They were women of the very highest rank. Didn't Odysseus and Calypso spend a romantic interlude together in a virtual garden paradise after his affair with Circe on her island?"
"He did," Yaeger replied. "After Odysseus leaves a tearful Calypso on the shore, his final stop is a detour by adverse winds to the palace of King Alcinous, which works out to be Lanzarote Island in the Canaries. After relating his adventures to the king and his family, he is given a ship and finally makes his way home to Ithaca."
"Where do you put Ithaca?" inquired Gunn.
"As Cailleux said, the port of Cadiz in southwestern Spain."
There came a few moments of silence around the table as everyone assimilated the classic tale and the multitude of theories. How much was remotely close to the truth? Only Homer knew, and he hadn't spoken for three thousand years.
Dirk smiled at Summer. "You have to give Odysseus credit for masculine charisma, having affairs with the two most beautiful and influential women of his time. Before he came along and seduced them, both ladies were chaste and inaccessible."
"If the truth be known," said Chisholm, "neither lady was a goddess nor pure as the driven snow. They were both described as incredibly beautiful women with magical personalities. Circe was a sorceress, Calypso an enchantress. As a mere mortal, Odysseus could have never satisfied either one. Chances are they were Druidesses who took part in all manner of wild and perverse rituals. And as such, they intimately conducted human sacrifice, which they considered necessary for eternal life."
Summer shook her head. "It's still hard to believe."
"But true," replied Chisholm. "Druidesses were known to have drawn men into sacrificial rites and orgies. And as leaders of their feminine cult, they had the power to control their worshipers into waging whatever acts they desired."
Yaeger nodded. "Lucky for us, Druidism died out a thousand years ago."