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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.
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Our world is full of the unexplainable.
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And if history is an open book.
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All of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who'd traveled far and wide after he sacked the famous town of Troy. Those words probably sound familiar to you, at least those of you who didn't sleep through high school English. These are the first lines of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey. In 800 BCE, Homer wrote down the story of an ancient Greek's incredible journey to find his way home. Two thousand years later, another Greek went on his own journey to see if he could find Odysseus, the king of old, right in his own backyard. The time described in the Odyssey is what historians call the Mycenaean period. Mycenaean Greece was made up of several distinct, sophisticated kingdoms that shared a common culture and language. According to Homer, Odysseus was the ruler of a Mycenaean kingdom called Ithaca. In Homer's previous poem, the Iliad, Odysseus led his troops into battle with the rest of the Greeks to sack the city of Troy. Probably his most famous contribution to the legend was coming up with the Trojan Horse. After the war, Odysseus angers Poseidon, the God of the sea, and is cursed to wander the Mediterranean for 10 whole years. He encounters monsters, sorceresses, a Cyclops and sirens before he finally makes it home to his wife and son in Ithaca. Now, for years, the island of Ithaca, off the western coast of Greece, has claimed that it was the ancient site of Odysseus homeland, Ithaca. Today, you'll find dozens of things named after him there, from apartments to boat tours. The island's website calls it the home of Odysseus. And a statue of the ancient king watches over the harbor. Honestly, a whole cottage industry has sprung up marketing Ithaki as Homeric Ithaca. But back in 1991, a local man named Mikas Metaxas began to think something didn't quite fit. Namely, because there were no Mycenaean Greek ruins on Ithaki. Makis was born and raised in Kefalonia, the island just to the west of Itaki. And just like any proud Greek man, he spent hours as a schoolboy studying the Odyssey. As he read Homer's verses over and over, something began to bother him. Homer's description of Ithaca did not match the island of Ithaki. First, there is the river. Homer describes Ithaca's port as being the mouth of a river. There are no rivers on Ithaca. And then there's the cave of the nymphs. In the Odyssey, Homer describes a great hidden sea cave that ships may enter from the harbor. But no such cave exists in Ithaki either. Finally, there's Raven's Rock, a geological feature that Odysseus uses as a meeting place for him and a friend to plot his return to his throne. Many spots on it have been rumored to be this place, but none seem to really fit Homer's description. Macus realized that while all these places don't exist on it, they perfectly correspond to Kefalonia. There is a harbor with a river flowing into it, a great lake trapped in a cave, and most importantly, the boulder that he'd grown up climbing as a boy. The boulder that everyone knows as Corycoptera, which means Raven's Rock. Following these clues, Macus zeroed in on the place near Raven's Rock where Homer says that Odysseus palace was located. And he noticed something strange. Hidden behind a thick copse of trees was a series of roughly carved stones stacked together. He could already tell that they were very, very old. Following ancient directions from Homer himself, Maccas had stumbled upon one of the largest Mycenaean tombs ever discovered. After decades of excavations, Maccas discovery shakes down to a giant beehive shaped tomb hidden in the side of the mountain. And although it had already been looted by ancient grave robbers, several artifacts remained which pointed toward it being the resting place of a Mycenaean king. And hidden in the grave, a strangely unique seal. You see in the Odyssey. Odysseus is known to be wearing a cloak pin which depicts a dog attacking a fawn. And hidden at the bottom of this grave was a small piece of carved crystal, the carving a hound pinning a deer to the ground. At this point, the historical record is not complete enough to definitively state whether this tomb is part of Ithaca or if the body inside had belonged to Odysseus. In fact, it's hard to say whether Odysseus himself ever really existed. And the island of Ithaki has put up a fight, using bureaucracy to slow down investigation into the site. Odysseus had a long and difficult voyage home. But maybe after thousands of years and many more obstacles, the journey to find him again is almost over. John Denver's 1971 song, Take Me Home, Country Roads paints a beautiful picture of West Virginia it references both the rolling tree covered Blue Ridge Mountains and the crystal clear Shenandoah River. But West Virginia isn't all sunshine and roses. It has a darker side, one that is full of strange creatures. West Virginia is allegedly home to many cryptids, which are animals whose existence hasn't been proven yet. In West Virginia, the Mothman is probably the most famous cryptid of all, but there are many others, like the Snallygaster, Sheepsquatch, and Bat Boy. If those sound ridiculous to you, it's because they are. But West Virginia has had other supernatural sightings that are more difficult to dismiss. In 1966, for example, traveling salesman Woodrow Derenberger was returning from a sales trip to Ohio. He was driving down the interstate towards his home in Mineral Wells, West Virginia. It was dark out, and he was nearly home when another car suddenly sped past him. He wouldn't have thought anything of it, except another vehicle of some kind followed right behind the first car. But this second vehicle was strange. It was larger than a car, and it didn't have any lights. As Woodrow kept driving, his headlights illuminated more of the object. It was about 8ft long and had a sort of tulip shape to it. Even more incredible, it had no wheels and it hovered above the ground. It rose into the air and then settled across the road, blocking Woodrow's path. He had no choice but to pull over. Before he knew what was happening, a voice in his head told him to roll down his window. He complied only to find a man standing just outside his car. The man was illuminated by Woodrow's headlights and the cabin lights inside. He had dark hair and tanned skin. He was handsome, but otherwise looked more or less normal. He wore a dark trench coat, and underneath it was some sort of shirt that Woodrow could only describe as metallic. There was one other thing about the man that Woodrow found unnerving though. His smile. It never seemed to fade, and it felt out of place so late on the side of the road, according to Woodrow, the man began to speak, but his mouth did not move. He just kept smiling. And Woodrow heard the voice in his head. Don't be frightened, the voice said. We wish you no harm. The man said that his name was Cold. And then he asked Woodrow about the city that was ahead, which Woodrow told him was called Parkersburg. Even stranger, Cold asked if most all the people live there. As if he didn't understand the concept of a city, Woodrow explained it to him. And then Cold said that his people referred to cities as gatherings. Cold kept smiling, mouth never moving through this whole conversation. And Then finally he said, we will see you again, and then got back into his aircraft and flew away as soon as he got home. Woodrow reported all of this to the police. Unfortunately, he was just another in a long list of UFO witnesses throughout the 1960s. But his story caught the attention of a UFO investigator named John Keel, who found Woodrow credible when compared to many other UFO witnesses. Woodrow lived a very normal life prior to his sighting and was not prone to making up stories. Then, once John met him, he had him analyzed by a psychoanalyst who said that Woodrow was not suffering from mental illness. John spent more and more time in West Virginia, and while he was there, he met dozens of other people with similar stories. Woodrow went on to be interviewed about his sighting multiple times throughout his life, including on live TV in West Virginia. And as the years passed by, he claimed to have even more sightings of that same being named Cold, who told him that his first name was Indrid and that he came from a distant planet. Now, if all of that sounds too ridiculous to believe, John Keel thought so too. He often found that his interview subjects had a believable first sighting, only to share wilder and wilder stories as time went on. John didn't believe in aliens, but he did believe that some sort of psychic phenomenon was causing these sightings. In his opinion, West Virginia just had too many strange occurrences during this time for all of them to be made up. Was it a case of the researcher giving into his subject's delusions? Or is there something out there in the woods? Well, if you're curious, make a stop in West Virginia on your next road trip. But if a mysterious aircraft lands in front of you on the highway, it might be best to just drive around it.
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I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting curiositiespodcast.com the show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series and television show and you can learn all about it over@theworldoflore.com and until next time, stay curious.