Do Homeric and Mycenaean Ithaca coincide or not ? Is modern Ithaca the island of Odysseus ?

Homer's Odyssey, Rhapsodies 9.19-28

One of the most discussed passages in the Odyssey that describes in great detail the geographical location of Ithaca in the time of Odysseus. Which "Ithaca" is it really referring to?

Text: Hettie Putman Cramer & Makis Metaxas.                                                                                  Dedicated to the memory of the late Aikaterini (Kitty) Vergoti–Ieronymaki

INTRODUCTION

The present post that you are about to read, like the previous one https://homericithaca.blogspot.com/2025/09/is-monumental-mycenaeantholos-tomb-of.html, continues a series of posts that will be published through this blog in order to provide a number of answers to the perennial and reasonable questions that have been asked over time regarding one of the greatest unsolved problems of world archaeology: the identification of the so-called “Homeric Ithaca.”

THE QUESTION OF HOMERIC ITHACA

In the Homeric texts there are several references and descriptions related to the location and geomorphology of Ithaca in the time of Odysseus[1]. However, two are the most well-known to the general public.

The first is the description of Odysseus’ realm in the ‘Catalogue of Ships’ in the Iliad (2.631-637) [2]. The second passage comes from the Odyssey (9.19-28) [3], where Odysseus is giving an account of himself to Alkinoos, king of the Phaiakes. (For the geographical location of the so-called Homeric Ithaca, see:      https://homericithaca.blogspot.com/2018/09/serching-for-exact-location-of-clearly.html)

But when we search for answers about the so-called “Homeric Ithaca,” which Ithaca are we talking about? The Ithaca of historical times, already known from the 5th century BC? The Ithaca of the so-called “age of Homer” (9th–7th centuries BC)? Or the Mycenaean Ithaca of the time of Odysseus and the Trojan War, which is dated roughly to 1250 BC? To what extent can all these “Ithacas” coincide in one place, and if not, where might they differ?