For other places named Ithaca, see Ithaca (disambiguation).

Ithaca, or Ithaka (Greek: Ιθάκη, Itháki; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an island in the Ionian Sea, in Greece with an area of 96 km² and 5,000 inhabitants. It is an independent municipality of the prefecture of Kefalonia, and lies off the North East coast of Kefalonia.

The capital, Vathy, has one of the world's largest natural harbours.

As of 2002, Ithaca became a popular destination for holiday tourists on day visits from the other Ionian Islands, especially after Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales spent part of their honeymoon there.

History

The island has been inhabited since the 2nd millennium BC. It was the capital of Cephalonia during the Mycenaean period. The Romans occupied the island in the 2nd century BC, and later it became part of the Byzantine Empire. The Normans ruled Ithaca in the 12th and 13th century, and after a short Turkish rule it fell into Venetian hands.

Ithaca was then occupied by France under the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio. It was liberated by a joint Russo-Turkish force in 1798, before becoming part of the Septinsular Republic. It became a French possession again in 1807, until it was liberated by the United Kingdom in 1809. Under the 1815 Treaty of Paris, Ithaca became a state of the United States of the Ionian Islands, an amical protectorate of the United Kingdom. Under the 1864 Treaty of London, Ithaca, along with the islands, were ceded to Greece as a mark of cordiality with Greece's new king, the Anglophile George I.Ionian Islands. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911 Edition

Much of the island's architecture was destroyed in an earthquake in 1953.

In the 1970s, Kalamos split from the province and became part of the prefecture of Lefkada and the province of Ithaca became a non-provincial municipality.

Ithaca: Home of Odysseus?

Since antiquity, Ithaca has been identified as the home of the mythological hero Odysseus. In the Odyssey of Homer, Ithaca is described thus (13.21-27):

I dwell in shining Ithaca. There is a mountain there,

high Neriton, covered in forests. Many islands

lie around it, very close to each other,

Doulichion, Same, and wooded Zacynthos--

but low-lying Ithaca is farthest out to sea,

towards the sunset, and the others are apart, towards the dawn and sun.

It is rough, but it raises good men.

It has sometimes been argued that this description does not match the topography of modern Ithaca. Three features of the description have been seen as especially problematic. First, Ithaca is described as "low-lying" (χθαμαλὴ), but Ithaca is mountainous. Second, the words "farthest out to sea, towards the sunset" (πανυπερτάτη εἰν ἁλὶ ... πρὸς ζόφον) are usually interpreted to mean that Ithaca must be the island furthest to the west, but Kefalonia lies to the west of Ithaca. Lastly, it is unclear which modern islands correspond to Homer's Doulichion and Same.

The Greek geographer Strabo, writing in the 1st century AD, identified Homer's Ithaca with modern Ithaca. Following earlier commentators, he interpreted the word translated above as "low-lying" (χθαμαλὴ) to mean "close to the mainland", and the phrase translated as "farthest out to sea, towards the sunset" as meaning "farthest of all towards the north." Strabo identified Same as modern Kefalonia, and believed that Homer's Doulichion was one of the islands now known as the Echinades. Ithaca lies farther north than Kefalonia, Zacynthos, and the island that Strabo identified as Doulichion, consistent with the interpretation of Ithaca as being "farthest of all towards the north."

Strabo's explanation has not won universal acceptance. In the last few centuries, some scholars have argued that Homer's Ithaca was not modern Ithaca, but a different island. Perhaps the best known proposal is that of Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who believed that the nearby island of Lefkas was Homer's Ithaca.Wilhelm Dörpfeld, Alt-Ithaka (1927).

It has also been suggested that Paliki, the western peninsula of Kefalonia, is Homer's Ithaca. This identification has been proposed several times; in a recent book, Odysseus Unbound, Robert Bittlestone argues that at the time the Odyssey was composed, Paliki was an island, separated from Kefalonia by a narrow channel.

One of the main points of the book attempts to suggest that Ithaki has no sunset views. What is left out is that the northern part of Ithaki has a much higher elevation than Kefalonia and comforms to the Homeric description as it overlooks the Palaki section and does indeed have a western view. As for low-lying, this is a comparative since the Ionian chain is a group of mountainous islands and Ithaki is in fact the lowest of the Ionians.

Despite any difficulties with Homer's description of the island, in classical and Roman times the island was universally held to be the home of Odysseus. The island has been known as Ithaca from an early date, as coins and inscriptions show. Coins from Ithaca frequently portray Odysseus, and an inscription from the 3rd century BC refers to a local hero-shrine of Odysseus and games called the Odysseia.Frank H. Stubbings, "Ithaca", in Wace and Stubbings, eds., A Companion to Homer (New York 1962). Modern scholars generally accept the identification of modern Ithaca with Homeric Ithaca, and explain discrepancies between the Odyssey's description and the actual topography as the product of lack of first-hand knowledge of the island, or as poetic license.

Geography

There is also a strait situated in the western part of the island called the Strait of Ithaca.

The capes in the island include Exogi, the westernmost but not in land, Melissa to the north, Mavronos and Agios Ilias to the east, Schinous, Sarakiniko and Agios Ioannis, the easternmost to the east and Agiou Andreou, the southernmost in the south. Bays include Afales Bay to the northwest, Frikes and Kioni Bays to the northeast and Ormos Gulf and Sarakiniko Bay to the southeast. The tallest mountain is Neriton (908 m), the second tallest is Nerovoulo elevating 552 m.

Persons

• ^* Σπυρος Αρσένης 20 years Mayor of ithaca - Spiros Arsenis
• Lorentzos Mavilis (1860 - November 28, 1912 in the Ioannina area)
• General Ioannis Metaxas (April 12, 1871 – January 29, 1941 in Athens)

Communities

• Aetos
• Agios Ioannis
• Anogi
• Exogi
• Frikes
• Kioni
• Lefki
• Perachori
• Platithria
• Stavros
• Vathy

Other

Ithaca has schools, lyceums, a few gymnasia, banks, a post office, a sporting centre and squares (plateies).

Municipality

The municipality includes islands other than Ithaca including one near Cape Melissa, Atokos to the northeast and several islands in the east including Drakonero, Echinades, Oxeia and Petallades to the east near Aitoloacarnania.

Further reading

Odysseus Unbound website

References

External links

• http://www.ithaki.gr (also in Greek)
• http://www.odysseus-unbound.org
• Mapquest - Ithaca, street map not yet available
• Coordinates:
• www.ithaki.net Ithaki Metasearch(Powerful search engine named in honour of Ithaka)
• http://www.arsenis.info
• http://www.ithacagreece.com

Islands of Greece | Ithaca | Cities and towns in Greece | Homer | Greek literature | Ionian Islands

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