What? You haven't heard?

The geography laid out in The Iliad and The Odyssey is said by many to be that of the North Sea rather than that of the Aegean, and, while it is not disputed that Homer heard the poems in Greece and wrote them down in Greek, it is thought, as well, that the stories came from "the north." This is directly at odds with everything most of us were taught.

What does it mean, from "the north?"

It means that civilization could have originated from the lands touching on the North Sea, and not from those that touch upon the Mediterranean.