Map of Homeric Greece

The location of Homer's Ithaca, i.e. Ithaca as featured in Homer's Odyssey, is a matter for debate.

The central characters of the epic such as Odysseus, Achilles, Agamemnon and Hector are generally believed to be fictional characters. Yet there are many claims that some Homeric hero long ago had inhabited a particular contemporary region or village. This, and the extremely detailed geographic descriptions in the epic itself, have invited investigation of the possibility that Homer's heroes might have existed and that the location of the sites described therein might be found.

Heinrich Schliemann believed he tracked down several of the more famous traditions surrounding these heroes. Many locations around the Mediterranean were claimed to have been the heroes' "homes", such as the ruins at Mycenae and the little hill near the western Turkish town of Hissarlik. Schliemann's work and excavations proposed, to a very sceptical world, that Homer's Agamemnon had lived at Mycenae, and that "Troy" itself indeed had existed at Hissarlik. Much work has been done to identify other Homeric sites such as the palace of Nestor at Pylos. These attempts have been the subject of much scholarly research, archaeological work, and controversy.

Theories on the location of "Homer's 'Ithaca'" were formulated as early as the 2nd century BC to as recently as AD 2003. Each approach to identifying a location has been different, varying in degrees of scientific procedure, empirical investigation, informed hypothesis, wishful thinking, fervent belief, and sheer fantasy. Each investigator and each investigation merits interest, as an indicator both of the temper of the times in which a particular theory was developed, and of the perennial interest in Odysseus and the possible facts of his life. Some of the latest "Homer's 'Ithaca'" approaches resemble some of the earliest.

Leading Precursors[link]

Theorists, and excavations elsewhere, on the location of "Homer's 'Ithaca'" --

• Eratosthenes (276 BC – 194 BC).

• Demetrius of Scepsis (near Troy) -- writing mid-2d c. BC (near Troy) -- source used by Strabo (below).
  • Pfeiffer, R. (1968). History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  pp. 249–51. See Bittlestone/Diggle/Underhill (below): James Diggle at p. 508.

• Apollodorus of Athens (born ca. 180 BC) -- writing mid-2d c. BC—source used by Strabo (below), and Apollodorus also relied upon Demetrius of Scepsis (above).
  • Jacoby, Felix (1929). Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker II B. Berlin: Weidmann.  244, F 154-207.
  • Pfeiffer, Rudolf (1968). History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  pp. 249–51. See Bittlestone/Diggle/Underhill (below): James Diggle at p. 508.

• Strabo (63/4 BC – ca. AD 24).
  • Jones, P.V. (1917-1932). Strabo : Geography (Loeb Classical Library ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 

• William Gell -- writing in 1807—he believed Homer's "Ithaca" was on the Aetos isthmus of Ithaki island, facing east, in or near the bay of Vathy.
  • The Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme. 1807. 

• William M. Leake -- writing in 1835—he thought "Ithaca" was on the northwestern coast of Ithaki island, near Polis Bay.
  • Travels in the Morea with a Map and Plans. London: John Murray. 1830. 
  • Travels in Northern Greece. London: John Murray. 1835. 

• Théophile Cailleux -- writing in 1878—located "Ithaca" in south-west Spain, in the delta of the Guadalete, near Cádiz.
  • Pays atlantiques décrits par Homère, Ibérie, Gaule, Bretagne, Archipels, Amériques, Théorie nouvelle. (trsl: Atlantic lands described by Homer: the Iberian peninsula, Gaul, Britain, the Atlantic islands, the Americas. A new theory). Paris: Maisonneuve et cie; OCLC: 23413881. 1878 

• Wilhelm Dörpfeld (December 26, 1853 – April 25, 1940) -- having performed extensive excavations at various locations of Ithaca and Lefkada, he proposed that the palace of Odysseus was located west of Nidri at the south coast of Lefkada.
  • Dörpfeld, Wilhelm (1965). Alt-Ithaka, ein Beitrag zur Homer-Frage. Studien und Ausgrabungen aus der insel Leukas-Ithaka. Unter Mitarbeit von Peter Goessler [u.a.] (Neudruck der Ausg. 1927. ed.). Osnabrück: Zeller. 

• G. Volterras—writing in 1903—he believed Paliki once may have had "Strabo's channel" at the isthmus which now separates Paliki and Kefalonia (see Bittlestone/Diggle/Underhill, below).
  • Kritiki Meleti peri Omerikis Ithakis (A Critical Study of Homeric Ithaca). Athens: [self?]. 1903. 

• A.E.H. Goekoop—writing in 1908—he believed "Ithaca" was in southwestern Kefalonia island, on the St. George hilltop near Mazarakata village, southeast of the city of Argostoli, with its harbor at Minies near the modern airport.
  • Ithaque La Grande. Athens: Beck & Barth. 1908. 

• Lord Rennell of Rodd—writing in 1927—believed "Ithaca" was on Ithaki island.
  • Rennell, J.R. (1927). Homer's Ithaca : A Vindication of Tradition. London: Arnold. 

• W.A. Heurtley and Sylvia Benton—believed "Ithaca" was on Ithaki island, and their excavations at the Polis Bay harbor turned up 8th-9th c. BC artifacts.

• C.H. Goekoop—writing in 1990, grandson of A.E.H. Goekoop—he thought "Ithaca" was on Kefalonia, but in the northern Erissos region, near the town of Fiscardo.
  • Op zoek naar Ithaka. Weesp: Heureka. 1990. 
  • Where on Earth is Ithaca? A Quest for the Homeland of Odysseus. Delft: Eburon. 2010. ISBN 978-90-5972-344-3. 

• E.S. Tsimaratos—published posthumously in 1998—he thought "Ithaca" was in central Kefalonia, but he agreed with Strabo about Paliki once having been cut off from Kefalonia.
  • Poia I Omeriki Ithaki? (Which is Homeric Ithaca?). Athens: Etaireias Meletes Ellenikes Historias. 1998. 

• J.V. Luce -- (1920-2011) -- writing in 1998—he believed "Ithaca" was on Ithaki island.
  • Luce, John Victor (1998). Celebrating Homer's landscapes : Troy and Ithaca revisited. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07411-5. 

• Nicolas G. Livadas (Author), Constantine Bisticas (Editor, Translator)
  • Odysseus' Ithaca: The Riddle Solved (Paperback)

• Henriette Putman Cramer, Gerasiomos Metaxas - the authors believe that the centre of Homeric Ithaca was in south-east Kefalonia where now the village of Poros in the Eleios-Pronnoi municipality is situated.
  • Omiriki Ithaki – ena atavtisto kentro sta nesia ton Kefallenon-. Kaktos editions, Athens, 2000. ISBN 960-382-408-9.

• Gilles le Noan—writing in 1989-2004—he suggested Paliki as the location of "Ithaca", but discounted the geology supporting "Strabo's channel".
  • A la recherche d'Ithaque, la ferme d'Eumée, le palais d'Ulysse. Quincy-sous-Senart, France: Editions Tremen. 2005. 
  • The Ithaca of the sunset. Quincy-sous-Senart, France: Editions Tremen. 2005. 
  • Η καλόδυση Ιθάκη. Quincy-sous-Senart, France: Editions Tremen. 2005. 

• Christos Tzakos—writing 1999 - 2002—he believed "Ithaca" was on Ithaki island.
  • "Concerning Homeric Ithaki: Asteris". Odusseia (95): –. 1999. 
  • "kefa-ll-ines Kefa-ll-inia Kefa-ll-onia". Odusseia (70–2): –. 2000. 
  • Ekthesi Synoptiki peri Omerikis Ithakis (A Brief Essay on Homeric Ithaca) (Angelos Eleutheros ed.). Athens. 2002. 

• Robert Bittlestone, James Diggle & John Underhill—first working in 2003—they believe Paliki is the location of "Ithaca", also believe in "Strabo's Channel" separating it from Kefalonia, see Odysseus Unbound.
  • Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2005. ISBN 0-521-85357-5.  Odysseus Unbound website

• Felice Vinci - using meticulous geographical analysis, shows that many Homeric places can be identified in the geographic landscape of the Baltic.
  • The Baltic Origins of Homer's Epic Tales. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions. 2006. ISBN 1-59477-052-2. 

Other ideas[link]

Theories about the location of Odyssean wanderings have included^[1]:

• the Baltic & Estonia
• the Crimea
• Troy-at-Atlantis
• America / Bermuda
• Greenland
• Culloden Moor in Scotland
• Homer's Secret Odyssey
• Troy: the Gog Magog hills of Cambridgeshire..., Ithaca: Cadiz
• Ithaca was in Erissos (near Fiscardo village) - In search of Ithaca (Holland Film)

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Homer

• Geography of the Odyssey
• Historicity of the Iliad
• Homer
• Ithaca
• Kefalonia
• Odysseus
• Trojan War
• Where Troy Once Stood

References[link]

• Bittlestone, Diggle & Underhill (2005), cited above, Chapter 9 generally.
• several of the floruit dates above are taken from Wikipedia articles about the writers.

1. ^ Bittlestone, Diggle & Underhill (2005), cited above, page 39, note 2.

External links[link]

• www.friendsofhomer.gr
• Odysseus Unbound website; Odysseus Unbound discussion forum
• Collection of Homer-related links
• Homer's Odyssey resources on the Web, by Jorn Barger
• The Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University
  • Perseus at Tufts, Greek & Roman materials
  • Perseus at Tufts, a search on "homer*", which currently reaches 77 results, including "homeric": Art objects (1), Images (8), Reference articles (6), Text sections (19), Source citations (30), Texts (13)

Homer (Ὅμηρος Homēros)

Idealized portrayal of Homer dating to the Hellenistic period. British Museum.
Born	ca. 8th century BC
Influenced by rhapsodic oral poetry
Influenced Classics (Western canon)

In the Western classical tradition, Homer ( /ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος, Hómēros) is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.

When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before Herodotus' own time, which would place him at around 850 BC;^[1] while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC.^[2] Modern researchers appear to place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.

The formative influence played by the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece.^[3] Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of Homer account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds.^[4]

Period[link]

For modern scholars "the date of Homer" refers not to an individual, but to the period when the epics were created. The consensus is that "the Iliad and the Odyssey date from around the 8th century BC, the Iliad being composed before the Odyssey, perhaps by some decades,"^[5] i.e. earlier than Hesiod,^[6] the Iliad being the oldest work of Western literature. Over the past few decades, some scholars have argued for a 7th century BC date. Oliver Taplin believes that the conclusion of modern researchers is that Homer dates to between 750 to 650 BC.^[7] Some of those who argue that the Homeric poems developed gradually over a long period of time give an even later date for the composition of the poems; according to Gregory Nagy for example, they only became fixed texts in the 6th century BC.^[8] The question of the historicity of Homer the individual is known as the "Homeric question"; there is no reliable biographical information handed down from classical antiquity.^[9] The poems are generally seen as the culmination of many generations of oral story-telling, in a tradition with a well-developed formulaic system of poetic composition. Some scholars, such as Martin West, claim that "Homer" is "not the name of a historical poet, but a fictitious or constructed name."^[10]

Life and legends[link]

Homer and His Guide, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905), portraying Homer on Mount Ida, beset by dogs and guided by the goatherder Glaucus (as told in Pseudo-Herodotus)

"Homer" is a Greek name, attested in Aeolic-speaking areas,^[11] and although nothing definite is known about him, traditions arose purporting to give details of his birthplace and background. The satirist Lucian, in his True History, describes him as a Babylonian called Tigranes, who assumed the name Homer when taken "hostage" (homeros) by the Greeks.^[12] When the Emperor Hadrian asked the Oracle at Delphi about Homer, the Pythia proclaimed that he was Ithacan, the son of Epikaste and Telemachus, from the Odyssey.^[13] These stories were incorporated into the various^[14] Lives of Homer compiled from the Alexandrian period onwards.^[15] Homer is most frequently said to be born in the Ionian region of Asia Minor, at Smyrna, or on the island of Chios, dying on the Cycladic island of Ios.^[15][16] A connection with Smyrna seems to be alluded to in a legend that his original name was Melesigenes ("born of Meles", a river which flowed by that city), with his mother the nymph Kretheis. Internal evidence from the poems gives evidence of familiarity with the topography and place-names of this area of Asia Minor, for example, Homer refers to meadow birds at the mouth of the Caystros (Iliad 2.459ff.), a storm in the Icarian sea (Iliad 2.144ff.), and mentions that women in Maeonia and Caria stain ivory with scarlet (Iliad 4.142).^[17]

The association with Chios dates back to at least Semonides of Amorgos, who cited a famous line in the Iliad (6.146) as by "the man of Chios". An eponymous bardic guild, known as the Homeridae (sons of Homer), or Homeristae ('Homerizers')^[18] appears to have existed there, tracing descent from an ancestor of that name,^[19] or upholding their function as rhapsodes or "lay-stitchers" specialising in the recitation of Homeric poetry. Wilhelm Dörpfeld^[20] suggests that Homer had visited many of the places and regions which he describes in his epics, such as Mycenae, Troy, the palace of Odysseus at Ithaca and more. According to Diodorus Siculus, Homer had even visited Egypt.^[21]

The poet's name is homophonous with ὅμηρος (hómēros), "hostage" (or "surety"), which is interpreted as meaning "he who accompanies; he who is forced to follow", or, in some dialects, "blind".^[22] This led to many tales that he was a hostage or a blind man. Traditions which assert that he was blind may have arisen from the meaning of the word in both Ionic, where the verbal form ὁμηρεύω (homēreúō) has the specialized meaning of "guide the blind",^[23] and the Aeolian dialect of Cyme, where ὅμηρος (hómēros) is synonymous with the standard Greek τυφλός (tuphlós), meaning 'blind'.^[24] The characterization of Homer as a blind bard goes back to some verses in the Delian Hymn to Apollo, the third of the Homeric Hymns,^[25] verses later cited to support this notion by Thucydides.^[26] The Cymean historian Ephorus held the same view, and the idea gained support in antiquity on the strength of a false etymology which derived his name from ho mḕ horṓn (ὁ μὴ ὁρῶν: "he who does not see"). Critics have long taken as self-referential^[27] a passage in the Odyssey describing a blind bard, Demodocus, in the court of the Phaeacian king, who recounts stories of Troy to the shipwrecked Odysseus.^[28]

Many scholars take the name of the poet to be indicative of a generic function. Gregory Nagy takes it to mean "he who fits (the Song) together".^[29] ὁμηρέω (homēréō), another related verb, besides signifying "meet", can mean "(sing) in accord/tune".^[30] Some argue that "Homer" may have meant "he who puts the voice in tune" with dancing.^[31][32] Marcello Durante links "Homeros" to an epithet of Zeus as "god of the assemblies" and argues that behind the name lies the echo of an archaic word for "reunion", similar to the later Panegyris, denoting a formal assembly of competing minstrels.^[33][34]

Some Ancient Lives depict Homer as a wandering minstrel, like Thamyris^[35] or Hesiod, who walked as far as Chalkis to sing at the funeral games of Amphidamas.^[36] We are given the image of a "blind, begging singer who hangs around with little people: shoemakers, fisherman, potters, sailors, elderly men in the gathering places of harbour towns".^[37] The poems, on the other hand, give us evidence of singers at the courts of the nobility. There is a strong aristocratic bias in the poems demonstrated by the lack of any major protagonists of non-aristocratic stock, and by episodes such as the beating down of the commoner Thersites by the king Odysseus for daring to criticize his superiors. In spite of this scholars are divided as to which category, if any, the court singer or the wandering minstrel, the historic "Homer" belonged.^[38]

Works attributed to Homer[link]

The Greeks of the sixth and early fifth centuries BC understood by "Homer", generally, "the whole body of heroic tradition as embodied in hexameter verse".^[39] Thus, in addition to the Iliad and the Odyssey, there are "exceptional" epics which organize their respective themes on a "massive scale".^[40] Many other works were credited to Homer in antiquity, including the entire Epic Cycle. The genre included further poems on the Trojan War, such as the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Cypria, and the Epigoni, as well as the Theban poems about Oedipus and his sons. Other works, such as the corpus of Homeric Hymns, the comic mini-epic Batrachomyomachia ("The Frog-Mouse War"), and the Margites were also attributed to him, but this is now believed to be unlikely. Two other poems, the Capture of Oechalia and the Phocais were also assigned Homeric authorship, but the question of the identities of the authors of these various texts is even more problematic than that of the authorship of the two major epics.

Problems of authorship[link]

The idea that Homer was responsible for just the two outstanding epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, did not win consensus until 350 BC.^[41] While many find it unlikely that both epics were composed by the same person, others argue that the stylistic similarities are too consistent to support the theory of multiple authorship. One view which attempts to bridge the differences holds that the Iliad was composed by "Homer" in his maturity, while the Odyssey was a work of his old age. The Batrachomyomachia, Homeric Hymns and cyclic epics are generally agreed to be later than the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Most scholars agree that the Iliad and Odyssey underwent a process of standardisation and refinement out of older material beginning in the 8th century BC. An important role in this standardisation appears to have been played by the Athenian tyrant Hipparchus, who reformed the recitation of Homeric poetry at the Panathenaic festival. Many classicists hold that this reform must have involved the production of a canonical written text.

Other scholars still support the idea that Homer was a real person. Since nothing is known about the life of this Homer, the common joke—also recycled with regard to Shakespeare—has it that the poems "were not written by Homer, but by another man of the same name."^[42][43] Samuel Butler argues, based on literary observations, that a young Sicilian woman wrote the Odyssey (but not the Iliad),^[44] an idea further pursued by Robert Graves in his novel Homer's Daughter and Andrew Dalby in Rediscovering Homer.^[45]

Independent of the question of single authorship is the near-universal agreement, after the work of Milman Parry,^[46] that the Homeric poems are dependent on an oral tradition, a generations-old technique that was the collective inheritance of many singer-poets (aoidoi). An analysis of the structure and vocabulary of the Iliad and Odyssey shows that the poems contain many formulaic phrases typical of extempore epic traditions; even entire verses are at times repeated. Parry and his student Albert Lord pointed out that such elaborate oral tradition, foreign to today's literate cultures, is typical of epic poetry in a predominantly oral cultural milieu, the key words being "oral" and "traditional". Parry started with "traditional": the repetitive chunks of language, he said, were inherited by the singer-poet from his predecessors, and were useful to him in composition. Parry called these repetitive chunks "formulas".

Exactly when these poems would have taken on a fixed written form is subject to debate. The traditional solution is the "transcription hypothesis", wherein a non-literate "Homer" dictates his poem to a literate scribe between the 8th and 6th centuries BC. The Greek alphabet was introduced in the early 8th century BC, so it is possible that Homer himself was of the first generation of authors who were also literate. The classicist Barry B. Powell suggests that the Greek alphabet was invented ca. 800 BC by one man, probably Homer, in order to write down oral epic poetry.^[47] More radical Homerists like Gregory Nagy contend that a canonical text of the Homeric poems as "scripture" did not exist until the Hellenistic period (3rd to 1st century BC).

New methods try also to elucidate the question. Combining information technologies and statistics, the stylometry allows to scan various linguistic units: words, parts of speech, sounds... Based on the frequencies of Greek letters, a first study of Dietmar Najock^[48] particularly shows the internal cohesion of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Taking into account the repartition of the letters, a recent study of Stephan Vonfelt^[49] highlights the unity of the works of Homer compared to Hesiod. The thesis of modern analysts being questioned, the debate remains open.

Homeric studies[link]

The study of Homer is one of the oldest topics in scholarship, dating back to antiquity. The aims and achievements of Homeric studies have changed over the course of the millennia. In the last few centuries, they have revolved around the process by which the Homeric poems came into existence and were transmitted over time to us, first orally and later in writing.

Some of the main trends in modern Homeric scholarship have been, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Analysis and Unitarianism (see Homeric Question), schools of thought which emphasized on the one hand the inconsistencies in, and on the other the artistic unity of, Homer; and in the 20th century and later Oral Theory, the study of the mechanisms and effects of oral transmission, and Neoanalysis, the study of the relationship between Homer and other early epic material.

Homeric dialect[link]

The language used by Homer is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in dactylic hexameter.

Homeric style[link]

Homer in the company of Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry (replica of Roman Imperial mosaic, c. 240 AD, from Vichten)

Aristotle remarks in his Poetics that Homer was unique among the poets of his time, focusing on a single unified theme or action in the epic cycle.^[50]

The cardinal qualities of the style of Homer are well articulated by Matthew Arnold:

[T]he translator of Homer should above all be penetrated by a sense of four qualities of his author:—that he is eminently rapid; that he is eminently plain and direct, both in the evolution of his thought and in the expression of it, that is, both in his syntax and in his words; that he is eminently plain and direct in the substance of his thought, that is, in his matter and ideas; and finally, that he is eminently noble.^[51]

The peculiar rapidity of Homer is due in great measure to his use of hexameter verse. It is characteristic of early literature that the evolution of the thought, or the grammatical form of the sentence, is guided by the structure of the verse; and the correspondence which consequently obtains between the rhythm and the syntax—the thought being given out in lengths, as it were, and these again divided by tolerably uniform pauses—produces a swift flowing movement such as is rarely found when periods are constructed without direct reference to the metre. That Homer possesses this rapidity without falling into the corresponding faults, that is, without becoming either fluctuant or monotonous, is perhaps the best proof of his unequalled poetic skill. The plainness and directness of both thought and expression which characterise him were doubtless qualities of his age, but the author of the Iliad (similar to Voltaire, to whom Arnold happily compares him) must have possessed this gift in a surpassing degree. The Odyssey is in this respect perceptibly below the level of the Iliad.

Rapidity or ease of movement, plainness of expression, and plainness of thought are not distinguishing qualities of the great epic poets Virgil, Dante,^[52] and Milton. On the contrary, they belong rather to the humbler epico-lyrical school for which Homer has been so often claimed. The proof that Homer does not belong to that school—and that his poetry is not in any true sense ballad poetry—is furnished by the higher artistic structure of his poems and, as regards style, by the fourth of the qualities distinguished by Arnold: the quality of nobleness. It is his noble and powerful style, sustained through every change of idea and subject, that finally separates Homer from all forms of ballad poetry and popular epic.

Like the French epics, such as the Chanson de Roland, Homeric poetry is indigenous and, by the ease of movement and its resultant simplicity, distinguishable from the works of Dante, Milton and Virgil. It is also distinguished from the works of these artists by the comparative absence of underlying motives or sentiment. In Virgil's poetry, a sense of the greatness of Rome and Italy is the leading motive of a passionate rhetoric, partly veiled by the considered delicacy of his language. Dante and Milton are still more faithful exponents of the religion and politics of their time. Even the French epics display sentiments of fear and hatred of the Saracens; but, in Homer's works, the interest is purely dramatic. There is no strong antipathy of race or religion; the war turns on no political events; the capture of Troy lies outside the range of the Iliad; and even the protagonists are not comparable to the chief national heroes of Greece. So far as can be seen, the chief interest in Homer's works is that of human feeling and emotion, and of drama; indeed, his works are often referred to as "dramas".

History and the Iliad[link]

Greece according to the Iliad

The excavations of Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik in the late 19th century provided initial evidence to scholars that there was an historical basis for the Trojan War. Research into oral epics in Serbo-Croatian and Turkic languages, pioneered by the aforementioned Parry and Lord, began convincing scholars that long poems could be preserved with consistency by oral cultures until they are written down.^[46] The decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris (and others) convinced many of a linguistic continuity between 13th century BC Mycenaean writings and the poems attributed to Homer.

It is probable, therefore, that the story of the Trojan War as reflected in the Homeric poems derives from a tradition of epic poetry founded on a war which actually took place. It is crucial, however, not to underestimate the creative and transforming power of subsequent tradition: for instance, Achilles, the most important character of the Iliad, is strongly associated with southern Thessaly, but his legendary figure is interwoven into a tale of war whose kings were from the Peloponnese. Tribal wanderings were frequent, and far-flung, ranging over much of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean.^[53] The epic weaves brilliantly the disiecta membra (scattered remains) of these distinct tribal narratives, exchanged among clan bards, into a monumental tale in which Greeks join collectively to do battle on the distant plains of Troy.

Hero cult[link]

The Apotheosis of Homer, by Archelaus of Priene (marble relief, possibly 3rd century BC, now in the British Museum)

In the Hellenistic period, Homer was the subject of a hero cult in several cities. A shrine, the Homereion, was devoted to him in Alexandria by Ptolemy IV Philopator in the late 3rd century BC. This shrine is described in Aelian's 3rd century AD work Varia Historia. He tells how Ptolemy "placed in a circle around the statue [of Homer] all the cities who laid claim to Homer" and mentions a painting of the poet by the artist Galaton, which apparently depicted Homer in the aspect of Oceanus as the source of all poetry.

A marble relief, found in Italy but thought to have been sculpted in Egypt, depicts the apotheosis of Homer. It shows Ptolemy and his wife or sister Arsinoe III standing beside a seated poet, flanked by figures from the Odyssey and Iliad, with the nine Muses standing above them and a procession of worshippers approaching an altar, believed to represent the Alexandrine Homereion. Apollo, the god of music and poetry, also appears, along with a female figure tentatively identified as Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses. Zeus, the king of the gods, presides over the proceedings. The relief demonstrates vividly that the Greeks considered Homer not merely a great poet but the divinely inspired reservoir of all literature.^[54]

Homereia also stood at Chios, Ephesus, and Smyrna, which were among the city-states that claimed to be his birthplace. Strabo (14.1.37) records an Homeric temple in Smyrna with an ancient xoanon or cult statue of the poet. He also mentions sacrifices carried out to Homer by the inhabitants of Argos, presumably at another Homereion.^[55]

Transmission and publication[link]

Though evincing many features characteristic of oral poetry, the Iliad and Odyssey were at some point committed to writing. The Greek script, adapted from a Phoenician syllabary around 800 BC, made possible the notation of the complex rhythms and vowel clusters that make up hexameter verse. Homer's poems appear to have been recorded shortly after the alphabet's invention: an inscription from Ischia in the Bay of Naples, ca. 740 BC, appears to refer to a text of the Iliad; likewise, illustrations seemingly inspired by the Polyphemus episode in the Odyssey are found on Samos, Mykonos and in Italy, dating from the first quarter of the seventh century BC. We have little information about the early condition of the Homeric poems, but in the second century BC, Alexandrian editors stabilized this text from which all modern texts descend.

In late antiquity, knowledge of Greek declined in Latin-speaking western Europe and, along with it, knowledge of Homer's poems. It was not until the fifteenth century AD that Homer's work began to be read once more in Italy. By contrast it was continually read and taught in the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire where the majority of the classics also survived. The first printed edition appeared in 1488 (edited by Demetrios Chalkokondyles and published by Bernardus Nerlius, Nerius Nerlius, and Demetrius Damilas in Florence, Italy).

One often finds books of the Iliad and Odyssey cited by the corresponding letter of the Greek alphabet, with upper-case letters referring to a book number of the Iliad and lower-case letters referring to the Odyssey. Thus Ξ 200 would be shorthand for Iliad book 14, line 200, while ξ 200 would be Odyssey 14.200. The following table presents this system of numeration:

See also[link]

	Poetry portal
	Literature portal

Topics[link]

Modern scholars[link]

Notes[link]

Selected bibliography[link]

Editions[link]

(texts in Homeric Greek)

• Demetrius Chalcondyles editio princeps, Florence, 1488
• the Aldine editions (1504 and 1517)
• Th. Ridel, Strasbourg, ca. 1572, 1588 and 1592.
• Wolf (Halle, 1794–1795; Leipzig, 1804 1807)
• Spitzner (Gotha, 1832–1836)
• Bekker (Berlin, 1843; Bonn, 1858)
• La Roche (Odyssey, 1867–1868; Iliad, 1873–1876, both at Leipzig)
• Ludwich (Odyssey, Leipzig, 1889–1891; Iliad, 2 vols., 1901 and 1907)
• W. Leaf (Iliad, London, 1886–1888; 2nd ed. 1900-1902)
• William Walter Merry and James Riddell (Odyssey i–xii., 2nd ed., Oxford, 1886)
• Monro (Odyssey xiii.–xxiv. with appendices, Oxford, 1901)
• Monro and Allen (Iliad), and Allen (Odyssey, 1908, Oxford).
• D.B. Monro and T.W. Allen 1917-1920, Homeri Opera (5 volumes: Iliad = 3rd edition, Odyssey = 2nd edition), Oxford. ISBN 0-19-814528-4, ISBN 0-19-814529-2, ISBN 0-19-814531-4, ISBN 0-19-814532-2, ISBN 0-19-814534-9
• H. van Thiel 1991, Homeri Odyssea, Hildesheim. ISBN 3-487-09458-4, 1996, Homeri Ilias, Hildesheim. ISBN 3-487-09459-2
• M.L. West 1998-2000, Homeri Ilias (2 volumes), Munich/Leipzig. ISBN 3-598-71431-9, ISBN 3-598-71435-1
• P. von der Mühll 1993, Homeri Odyssea, Munich/Leipzig. ISBN 3-598-71432-7
• Ilias in Wikisource

Interlinear translations[link]

• The Iliad of Homer a Parsed Interlinear, Handheldclassics.com (2008) Text ISBN 978-1-60725-298-6

English translations[link]

This is a partial list of translations into English of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

• Augustus Taber Murray (1866–1940)
  • Homer: Iliad, 2 vols., revised by William F. Wyatt, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press (1999).
  • Homer: Odyssey, 2 vols., revised by George E. Dimock, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press (1995).
• Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)
  • The Iliad, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004) ISBN 0-374-52905-1
  • The Odyssey, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1998) ISBN 0-374-52574-9
• Robert Fagles (1933–2008)
  • The Iliad, Penguin Classics (1998) ISBN 0-14-027536-3
  • The Odyssey, Penguin Classics (1999) ISBN 0-14-026886-3
• Stanley Lombardo (b. 1943)
  • Iliad, Hackett Publishing Company (1997) ISBN 0-87220-352-2
  • Odyssey, Hackett Publishing Company (2000) ISBN 0-87220-484-7
  • Iliad, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) ISBN 1-930972-08-3
  • Odyssey, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) ISBN 1-930972-06-7
  • The Essential Homer, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) ISBN 1-930972-12-1
  • The Essential Iliad, (Audiobook) Parmenides (2006) ISBN 1-930972-10-5
• Samuel Butler (novelist) (1835–1902)
  • The Iliad, Red and Black Publishers (2008) ISBN 978-1-934941-04-1
  • The Odyssey, Red and Black Publishers (2008) ISBN 978-1-934941-05-8
• Herbert Jordan (b. 1938)
  • "Iliad", University of Oklahoma Press (2008) ISBN 978-0-8061-3974-6 (soft cover); ISBN 978-0-8061-3942-5 (cloth bound)

General works on Homer[link]

• Pierre Carlier, Homère, Fayard 1999. ISBN 2-213-60381-2
• Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Le monde d'Homère, Perrin 2000. ISBN 2-262-01181-8
• Jacqueline de Romilly, Homère, Presses Universitaire de France, 5th ed. 2005. ISBN 2-13-054830-X
• J. Latacz 2004, Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-926308-6; 5th updated and expanded edition, Leipzig 2005 (in Spanish 2003 ISBN 84-233-3487-2, modern Greek 2005 ISBN 960-16-1557-1)
• Robert Fowler (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Homer, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004. ISBN 0-521-01246-5
• I. Morris and B. B. Powell 1997, A New Companion to Homer, Leiden. ISBN 90-04-09989-1
• B. B. Powell 2007, "Homer," 2nd edition. Oxford. ISBN 978-1-4051-5325-5
• Wace, A.J.B.; F.H. Stubbings (1962). A Companion to Homer. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-07113-1. 

Influential readings and interpretations[link]

• E. Auerbach 1953, Mimesis, Princeton (orig. publ. in German, 1946, Bern), chapter 1. ISBN 0-691-11336-X
• M.W. Edwards 1987, Homer, Poet of the Iliad, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-3329-9
• B. Fenik 1974, Studies in the Odyssey, Wiesbaden ('Hermes' Einzelschriften 30).
• M.I. Finley, The World of Odysseus 1954, rev. ed. 1978.
• I.J.F. de Jong 1987, Narrators and Focalizers, Amsterdam/Bristol. ISBN 1-85399-658-0
• G. Nagy 1980, "The Best of the Achaeans", Baltimore. ISBN 978-0-8018-6015-7

Commentaries[link]

• Iliad:
  • P.V. Jones (ed.) 2003, Homer's Iliad. A Commentary on Three Translations, London. ISBN 1-85399-657-2
  • G. S. Kirk (gen. ed.) 1985-1993, The Iliad: A Commentary (6 volumes), Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-28171-7, ISBN 0-521-28172-5, ISBN 0-521-28173-3, ISBN 0-521-28174-1, ISBN 0-521-31208-6, ISBN 0-521-31209-4
  • J. Latacz (gen. ed.) 2002–, Homers Ilias. Gesamtkommentar. Auf der Grundlage der Ausgabe von Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868–1913) (6 volumes published so far, of an estimated 15), Munich/Leipzig. ISBN 3-598-74307-6, ISBN 3-598-74304-1
  • N. Postlethwaite (ed.) 2000, Homer's Iliad: A Commentary on the Translation of Richmond Lattimore, Exeter. ISBN 0-85989-684-6
  • M.W. Willcock (ed.) 1976, A Companion to the Iliad, Chicago. ISBN 0-226-89855-5
• Odyssey:
  • A. Heubeck (gen. ed.) 1990–1993, A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey (3 volumes; orig. publ. 1981–1987 in Italian), Oxford. ISBN 0-19-814747-3, ISBN 0-19-872144-7, ISBN 0-19-814953-0
  • P. Jones (ed.) 1988, Homer's Odyssey: A Commentary based on the English Translation of Richmond Lattimore, Bristol. ISBN 1-85399-038-8
  • I.J.F. de Jong (ed.) 2001, A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey, Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-46844-2

Trends in Homeric scholarship[link]

"Classical" analysis

• A. Heubeck 1974, Die homerische Frage, Darmstadt. ISBN 3-534-03864-9
• R. Merkelbach 1969, Untersuchungen zur Odyssee (2nd edition), Munich. ISBN 3-406-03242-7
• D. Page 1955, The Homeric Odyssey, Oxford.
• U. von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff 1916, Die Ilias und Homer, Berlin.
• F.A. Wolf 1795, Prolegomena ad Homerum, Halle. Published in English translation 1988, Princeton. ISBN 0-691-10247-3

Neoanalysis

• M.E. Clark 1986, "Neoanalysis: a bibliographical review," Classical World 79.6: 379–94.
• J. Griffin 1977, "The epic cycle and the uniqueness of Homer," Journal of Hellenic Studies 97: 39–53.
• J.T. Kakridis 1949, Homeric Researches, London. ISBN 0-8240-7757-1
• W. Kullmann 1960, Die Quellen der Ilias (Troischer Sagenkreis), Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-515-00235-9

Homer and oral tradition

• E. Bakker 1997, Poetry in Speech: Orality and Homeric Discourse, Ithaca NY. ISBN 0-8014-3295-2
• J.M. Foley 1999, Homer's Traditional Art, University Park PA. ISBN 0-271-01870-4
• G.S. Kirk 1976, Homer and the Oral Tradition, Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-21309-6
• A.B. Lord 1960, The Singer of Tales, Cambridge MA. ISBN 0-674-00283-0
• M. Parry 1971, The Making of Homeric Verse, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-520560-X
• B. B. Powell, 1991, Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet, ISBN 0-521-58907-X

Dating the Homeric poems[link]

• R. Janko 1982, Homer, Hesiod and the Hymns, Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-23869-2

Further reading[link]

• Ford, Andrew (1992). Homer : the poetry of the past. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-2700-2. 
• Kirk, G.S. (1962). The Songs of Homer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
• Schein, Seth L. (1984). The mortal hero : an introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05128-9. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Homer

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Homeros

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Homer

• Iliad by Homer
• Works by Homer at Project Gutenberg.
• Works by or about Homer in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Iliad bilingual edition bks 1–12 at archive.org
• Collection of Homer-related links
• Greek lessons based on Homer
• Clyde Pharr, Homer and the study of Greek
• Homer
• SORGLL: Homer, Iliad, Bk I, 1–52; read by Stephen Daitz
• Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again A former college president attended St. John's College and wrote a memoir about his experience reading Homer, rowing Crew, and examining the importance of a liberal arts education in today’s society.
• Heath, Malcolm (May 4, 2001). "Aristotle's Poetics: Notes on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey". Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080908005656/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/poetics/poet-hom.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-01 
• Translation issues: Iliad translator Herbert Jordan (U. of Oklahoma Press 2008) describes translation issues including: how literal should it be; whether to call the besiegers Achaeans, Argives, Danaans, or Greeks; how—and whether—to translate "winged words"; what the wall by the ships looked like; whether the besiegers slept in tents, huts, camps—or nothing.

vep:Gomer

Ithaca Περιφερειακή ενότητα / Δήμος Ιθάκης
—  Regional unit  —
View of Vathy
Ithaca within the Ionian Islands
Coordinates: 38°22′N 20°43′E / 38.367°N 20.717°E / 38.367; 20.717Coordinates: 38°22′N 20°43′E / 38.367°N 20.717°E / 38.367; 20.717
Country	Greece
Region	Ionian Islands
Capital	Vathy
Government
• Vice Governor	Sotiris Kouris
• Mayor	Ioannis Kassianos
Area
• Total	117.8 km2 (45.5 sq mi)
Population (2001)
• Total	3,084
• Density	26/km2 (68/sq mi)
Postal codes	283 0x
Area codes	26740
Car plates	ΚΕ
Website	www.ithaki.gr

Ithaca or Ithaka (Greek: Ιθάκη, Ithakē) is an island located in the Ionian Sea, in Greece, with an area of 45 square miles (120 km²) and a little more than three thousand inhabitants. It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. It lies off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and to the west and within sight of continental Greece. The municipality of Ithaca includes some islets as well. The capital, Vathy or Ithaki, has one of the world's largest natural harbours. Modern Ithaca is generally identified with Homer's Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, whose delayed return to the island is one of the elements of the Odyssey's plot.

Origin of name[link]

Ithaca is to the upper right of the larger Kefalonia island in this picture. The small island in the top-right corner is the uninhabited Atokos (NASA World Wind satellite picture).

The fact that classical Greek authors often used eponymous explanations to explain away names through folk etymology makes it more likely that Ithakos derives from Ithaca rather than vice versa.

The name Ithaca has remained unchanged since ancient times, but it has been noticed that in written documents of different periods, it has also been referred to by other names such as:

• Val di Compare (Valley of the Bestman), Piccola (Small) Cephallonia, Anticephallonia (Middle Ages till the beginning of the Venetian period)
• Ithaki nisos (Greek for island), Thrakoniso, Thakou, Thiakou (Byzantine period)
• Thiaki (before the Venetian period, also called so by the sailors and has remained the name used by the inhabitants)
• Teaki (Venetian period)
• Fiaki (Turkish period)

History[link]

Ithaca by Edward Dodwell (1821).

The island has been inhabited since the 2nd millennium BC. It may have been the capital of Cephalonia during the Mycenaean period, and the capital-state of the kingdom ruled by Odysseus. 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 13th century, and after a short Turkish rule, it fell into Venetian hands (Ionian Islands under Venetian rule).

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 protectorate of the British Empire. In 1830 the local community requested to join with the rest of the newly restored nation-state of Greece. Under the 1864 Treaty of London, Ithaca, along with the remaining six Ionian islands, were ceded to Greece as a gesture of diplomatic friendship to Greece's new Anglophile king, George I. The U.K. kept its privileged use of the harbour at Corfu.^[1]

First settlers[link]

The origins of the first people to inhabit the island, which occurred during the last years of the Neolithic Period (4000–3000 BCE), are not clear. The traces of buildings, walls and a road from this time period prove that life existed and continued to do so during the Early Hellenic era (3000–2000 BCE). In the years (2000–1500 BCE) some of the population migrated to part of the island. The buildings and walls that were excavated showed the lifestyle of this period had remained primitive.

Mycenaean era[link]

During the Mycenaean period (1500–1100 BCE), Ithaca rose to the highest level of its ancient history. Mostly based on the Odyssey and oral traditions, it is believed that the island became the capital of the Ionian Kingdom-State, which included the surrounding lands, and was referred to as one of the most powerful states of that time. The Ithacans were characterized as great navigators and explorers with daring expeditions reaching further than the Mediterranean Sea.

The epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, shed some light on Bronze-Age Ithaca. Those poems are generally thought to have been composed sometime in the 9th or 8th centuries BC, but may have made use of older mythological and poetic traditions; their depiction of the hero Odysseus, and his rule over Ithaca and the surrounding islands and mainland, preserve somes memories of the political geography, customs and society of the time.

After the end of the Mycenaean period, Ithaca's influence diminished, and it came under the jurisdiction of the nearest large island.

Hellenistic era[link]

During the ancient Hellenic prime (800–180 BCE), independent organized life continued in the northern and southern part of the island. In the southern part, in the area of Aetos, the town Alalcomenae was founded. From this period, many objects of important historical value have been found during excavations. Among these objects are coins imprinted with the name Ithaca and the image of Odysseus which suggest that the island was self-governed.

According to the different periods, conquerors and circumstances, the population of the island kept changing. Although there is no definite numerical information until the Venetian period, it is believed that from the Mycenaean to the Byzantine period, the number of inhabitants was several thousand, who lived mainly in the northern part of Ithaca. During the Middle Ages, the population decreased due to the continuous invasions of pirates, forcing the people to establish settlements and live in the mountains.

Ottoman era[link]

In 1479, Turkish forces reached the islands and many of the people fled from the island out of fear of the new Turkish settlers. Those that remained hid in the mountains to avoid the pirates who controlled the channel between Cephallonia and Ithaca and the bays of the island. In the following five years, the Turks, Toques and Venetians laid claim to the islands diplomatically. Possession of the islands was finally taken by the Ottoman Empire from 1484 to 1499. During this period, the Venetians had strengthened into a major power with an organized fleet. The Venetians pursued their interest in the Ionian Islands, and in 1499 a war between the Venetians and the Turks began. The allied fleets of the Venetians and the Spanish besieged Ithaca, and the other islands. The fleets prevailed, and from 1500 onwards the Venetians controlled the islands. According to a treaty of 1503, Ithaca, Cephallonia and Zante would be ruled by the Venetians (Ionian Islands under Venetian rule), and Lefkada by the Turks.

French era[link]

A few years after the French Revolution, the Ionian area came under the rule of the First French Republic (1797–1798), and the island became the honorary capital of Cephallonia, Lefkada, and part of the Greek mainland, which formed the French département of Ithaque (the prefecture was at Argostoli on Kefalonia).

The population welcomed the French, who took care in the control of the administrative and judicial systems, but later the heavy taxation they demanded caused a feeling of indignation among the people. During this short historical period, the new ideas of system and social structure greatly influenced the inhabitants of the island. At the end of 1798, the French were succeeded by Russia and Turkey (1798–1807), which were allies at that time. Corfu became the capital of the Ionian States, and the form of government was democratic, with a fourteen-member senate in which Ithaca had one representative.

The Ithacan fleet flourished when it was allowed to carry cargo up to the ports of the Black Sea. In 1807, according to an agreement with Turkey, the Ionian Islands once again came under the French rule (1807–1809 AD). The French quickly began preparing to face the British fleet, which had become very powerful, by building a fort in Vathy.

Prominent citizens of Ithaki participated in the secret "Filiki Etairia" which was instrumental in organizing the Greek Revolution of 1821 against Turkish rule, and Greek fighters found refuge there. In addition, the participation of Ithacans during the siege of Messologi and the naval battles with Turkish ships at the Black Sea and Danube was significant.

Modern Ithaca[link]

Many structures were 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.

Home of Odysseus[link]

Odysseus at the court of Alcinous by Francesco Hayez (1813-1815).

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)

" 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" (χθαμαλή), 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" 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 Leukas was Homer's Ithaca.^[2]

It has also been suggested that Paliki, the western peninsula of Kefalonia, is Homer's Ithaca. It has been argued that in Homeric times this western peninsula was separated from Kefalonia by a sea channel since closed up by earthquake-induced rockfalls.^[3] However, no scientific review publications are available in support of this theory.

Despite any difficulties with Homer's description of the island, in classical and Roman times the island now called "Ithaca" was universally held to be the home of Odysseus; the Hellenistic identifications of Homeric sites, such as the identifications of Lipari as the island of Aeolus, are usually taken with a grain of salt, and attributed to the ancient tourist trade.

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.^[4] The Archaeological site of "School of Homer" on modern Ithaca is the only place between Lefkas-Kefalonia-Ithaca Triangle where Linear B has been found, near royal remains. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Geography[link]

View of northern Ithaca.

Olive tree of Ithaca that is claimed to be at least 1500 years old.

There is a strait situated to the west 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 Nirito (806 m), the second tallest is Merovigli (669 m).

Lazaretto Islet (or Island of The Saviour) guards the harbor. The church of The Saviour and the remains of an old gaol sit on the island.^[5]

Notable people[link]

• Odysseas Androutsos (1788 – 1825), hero of the Greek War of Independence
• Platon Drakoulis (1858 – 1934), philosopher, writer, politician
• Panagis Lekatsas (1911 – 1970), writer, journalist
• Lorentzos Mavilis (1860 – 1912), poet
• Ioannis Metaxas (1871 – 1941), general and dictator of Greece
• St. Joachim Papoulakis (1786 - 1868), Athonite monk and an Orthodox Saint

Administration[link]

Ithaca is a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Ithaca was created out of part of the former Kefalonia and Ithaca Prefecture.^[6] The municipality, unchanged at the Kallikratis reform, includes islets other than Ithaca including two near Cape Melissa, Arkoudi and Atokos to the northeast and the numerous islets in the Echinades Island group (the larger ones being Drakonera, Makri, Oxeia, Petalas, and Vromonas) to the east near the mainland of Aitoloakarnania. Its largest towns are Itháki (pop. 1,816), Perachóri (354), Stavrós (325), Platreithiá (210), and Kióni (171).

Communities and villages[link]

Aetos, Afales, Agios Ioannis, Agia Saranta, Anogi, Exogi, Frikes, Kalivia, Kathara, Kioni, Kolieri, Lachos, Lefki, Marmaka, Perachori, Piso Aetos, Platrithia, Rachi, Stavros, Vathy/Ithaki.

Further reading[link]

• Bittlestone, Robert; James Diggle and John Underhill (2005). Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85357-5. 
• Tzakos, Christos I.. Ithaca and Homer: The Truth, The Advocacy of the Case. Translator: Geoffrey Cox. http://www.arsenis.info/Ithaca_and_Homer/Ithaca_and_Homer.html. 

See also[link]

• List of traditional Greek place names

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ithaca

• Everything about Ithaca (English)
• Official website (Greek)
• Blog about Ithaca (Greek)

v t e Administrative division of the Ionian Islands Region Area: 2,307 km² • Population : 212,984 (2001) • Capital: Corfu Regional unit of Corfu Corfu • Paxoi Regional unit of Ithaca Ithaca Regional unit of Cephalonia Cephalonia Regional unit of Lefkada Lefkada • Meganisi Regional unit of Zakynthos Zakynthos Regional governor: Spyros Spyrou • Website: www.pin.gov.gr