Qualla: Ithaca (island)

Ithaca (island): Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Christos Vittoratos assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The coins they minted in Ithaca during the Hellenistic period bore the face of Odysseus. That choice — selecting a legendary king as the island's defining symbol — tells you something about how seriously the Ithacans took their literary inheritance. Whether or not Homer's wandering hero actually sailed from this narrow, mountainous island in the Ionian Sea, the people of Ithaca have spent roughly 2,500 years behaving as though he did. The 3rd-century BC inscription that refers to a local hero-shrine of Odysseus, the games called the Odysseia held in his honour — these are not the monuments of a community uncertain about its claim.

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Christos Vittoratos assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Ithaca (island): An Island of Ridges and Water

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edward Dodwell, Public domain. Ithaca is small — 96 square kilometres, with a 2021 population of 2,862 people. It stretches 23 kilometres from north to south, never more than 6 kilometres wide. The island is essentially two hilly masses connected by a narrow isthmus at Aetos, just 600 metres across, which encl...

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Image: Edward Dodwell | Public domain

Ithaca (island): The Homeric Question

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Abfab27 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The identification of modern Ithaca with Homer's Ithaca has never been entirely settled, and the debate has attracted serious scholars for centuries. Homer's text describes Ithaca as low-lying, but the island is mountainous. He places it 'farthest out to sea, towards the sunset,'...

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Image: Abfab27 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Ithaca (island): Six Thousand Years of Occupation

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pitichinaccio, Public domain. People have been living on Ithaca since the 4th millennium BC. The Neolithic settlers left traces of buildings, walls, and roads. During the Mycenaean period the island may have served as the capital of the wider Cephalonian kingdom. Romans arrived in the 2nd century BC; the Byza...

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Image: Pitichinaccio | Public domain

Ithaca (island): The Cave, the School, the Palace

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Three archaeological sites on the island have drawn the most attention from those hunting Odysseus. The Polis Cave near Stavros in the north was identified by Heinrich Schliemann as the cave Odysseus visited on his return, and research by Sylvia Benton in the 1930s found objects ...

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Image: Public domain

Ithaca (island): The Island That Keeps Returning

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christos Vittoratos, Public domain. Ithaca today has under 3,000 residents and a slow summer rhythm punctuated by the arrival of visitors who come specifically because of Homer. The capital, Vathy, sits at the head of its deep harbour, the buildings climbing the hillside in the characteristic Ionian style. The port...

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Image: Christos Vittoratos | Public domain