Ithaca
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 municipality of Ithaca includes some smaller islands as well.
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.
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.
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.
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
Nirito (806 m), the second tallest is
Merovigli (669 m).
*[
1] 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)
*
Aetos*
Agios Ioannis*
Anogi*
Exogi*
Frikes*
Kioni*
Lefki*
Perachori*
Platithria*
Stavros*
VathyIthaca has schools, lyceums, a few gymnasia, banks, a post office, a sporting centre and squares (
plateies).
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.
Odysseus Unbound website
*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
