I would recommend the student and their advisors make themselves aware first of:

Clay, Evans, and Jasnow, Mapping the Catalogue of Ships, University of Virginia Scholar’s Lab, [ca. 2012]. http://ships.lib.virginia.edu/
Scheidel and Meeks, Orbis: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World, Stanford University, [ca. 2011]. http://orbis.stanford.edu/
Struck, Peter. “Map of Odysseus’ Journey.” In Greek & Roman Mythology. Princeton University Department of Classics, 2000-2009. http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.php?page=odymap.

Contacting some of the principals involved in these projects after following up the project’s publications lists would help the student ground their study with regard to the significant body of prior art regarding ancient sea travel and Homeric historicity and geography.

For essential background (including the sources and comparanda), I would start with Lionel Casson (see below), though one will find nothing really therein in the way of modeling (but he will have addressed Homer and his reception variously).

For the particular emphasis in this thesis, I would suggest attempting to contact Justin Leidwanger, who developed the sea travel model adapted for Orbis (which, if I remember correctly, involves computing a gridded ocean cost raster in GIS on the basis of current, wind, and other factors and then running Monte Carlo simulations across it using some sort of probabilistic model for route preference). Personnel at the Ancient World Mapping Center in Chapel Hill (directed by Lindsay Holman) might also be able to provide additional pointers.

Casson (available in various reprints and paperback editions):

The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.
Travel in the Ancient World. 3rd. ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1995.

On Oct 6, 2018, at 6:49 PM, Ken Grabach <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I don't wish to get snarky here, but for a Master's thesis, I think the best information for the classics would be the ancient texts, Homer, the plays that refer to the Homeric stories (Aeschylus's Agamemnon from the Orestaia comes to mind), perhaps Aeschylus's Persians, related to the naval war between Athens and Persia (Aeschylus was a participant). I suggest the student start reading! Thucydides Persian Wars, might give some insights. But for the ancient world, that is probably about what one could find. But she *does* need to start reading. She could confer with the Classics Dept. for suggestions of good translations to use, perhaps the Loeb editions (green are Greek, Red are Latin), which are parallel translations. Sorry, and I don't mean to sound mean-spirited, but they didn't compile Naval Observatory data at that time, or at least for public consumption!

I am sure various colleagues can suggest contemporary sources for the modern era.
I have been taking some courses in retirement involving the classical literature.

Ken Grabach
(retired, Miami University)
209 Springwood Drive
Oxford, OH 45056

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513-523-2743

On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 5:18 PM Sierra Laddusaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I have a patron who, as part of their master’s thesis, is planning to map the voyages of the Odyssey as described by different authors and compare that to actual travel to see if it would have been possible. For this she is looking for ocean current speed and wind speed of the Mediterranean Sea, she would really like data showing what it was like during Classical Greece but is willing to take anything she can get.

She would also like information on how to do a GIS analysis using ocean current speed and wind speed to predict sailing time.

Help on either or both of those?

Sierra
She/her/hers

Sierra Laddusaw | Assistant Professor
Map Librarian, Maps & GIS
Texas A&M University Libraries
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MS #5000 TAMU | College Station, TX 77843
Tel.(979)845-6588
http://library.tamu.edu