The Storm at Malea — Cape Malea (Μαλέα), landfall 3 of 15 on the voyage of odysseus
Homer's Odyssey, Book IX. The great storm — blown off the known world. Traditional location: Cape Maleas, SE Peloponnese, Greece.
Rounding Malea, the last great cape before home waters, the fleet is nine days from Ithaca. Then Zeus sends the north wind.
For nine days the storm drives them south past Cythera and off every chart the Achaeans know. When the wind drops, they are beyond the world of men — from here on, the voyage belongs to legend.
Nine days before the wind
Malea is the last great cape of the Peloponnese — the corner of the known world. Round it, and Ithaca lies a few days north. The fleet is almost home; men can begin to name the headlands.
Then Zeus sends the north wind. Sails split; the ships run helpless past Cythera, the last familiar rock, and out into open water. For nine days the storm drives them south. When it drops, on the tenth, they are beyond every chart. From this moment the Odyssey leaves geography and enters legend — and this map follows the ancients' guesses about where legend touched the real sea.
“But the wave and the current and the North Wind beat me back as I rounded Malea, and drove me wandering past Cythera.” — Odyssey IX, 80–81
'Round Malea and forget your home': Cape Maleas was so feared by ancient sailors that it bred a proverb: Μαλέαν δὲ κάμψας ἐπιλάθου τῶν οἴκαδε — 'once you double Malea, forget your homeland.' Greek coasters preferred to haul cargo across the isthmus at Corinth rather than round it.
The fleet after this landfall: 12 of 12 ships. All twelve ships survive the storm — but the known world is lost astern.