Ithaca

Attribution: 

Daskalakis Nikos

Key Dates

2nd century BC: Roman occupation

12th and 13th century: Norman occupation

1479: Ottoman occupation

1797: French occupation

1953: earthquake

 

Key People

Ithaca owes its fame to Homer who made the island Ulysses' home.

Heinrich Schliemann carried out excavation on the site.

 

Heinrich Schliemann

Ithaca, a small island in the Ionian Sea, had a troubled history, including periods of occupation by the Romans, the Ottomans and the French. It was first occupied during Neolithic times, but was at its height during the Myceneaan period (1500–1100 BC), when it was the capital of Cephalonia.

Its fame however comes from the central role it plays in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey as Ulysses’ home and final aim of his travels.

However, the current landscape does not match Homer’s description. The Odyssey says it is “low-lying”, far West and surrounded by the islands of Doulichion and Same, whereas the island is mountainous and more Eastern than other Ionian Sea islands, and some historians doubt it really ever was Ulysses’ home.

Map

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