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.”
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?
To answer this question we must accept the simple fact that the island called Ithaca today — apart from its name — is far removed from the Homeric descriptions that concern its geographic position and geomorphological appearance as recorded in the Homeric texts. Consequently, the so-called “Homeric Ithaca,” as it is described in the Homeric epics, clearly does not coincide with the Ithaca of historical times. That, in turn, is the reason why the search for the location of Homeric Ithaca has been (or was?) one of the great unsolved problems related to the ancient world.
And the reasonable
question is: do Homeric and Mycenaean Ithaca coincide or not? Does Mycenaean
Ithaca — that is, the Ithaca of the Trojan War era (1250–1200 BC), which
allegedly had Odysseus as its king — coincide with, or is it possibly different
from, the so-called “Homeric Ithaca” as Homer refers to it, given that, according
to the prevailing view so far, the Odyssey was composed in Ionia
somewhere between the 9th and 7th centuries BC?
Our view on the geographic location
of the so-called Homeric–Mycenaean Ithaca, as well as of the nearby places and
islands, has already been set out in detail in a series of earlier posts on
this blog (see: https://homericithaca.blogspot.com/). In those posts we analyzed in detail why the island that
has borne the name “Cephalonia” (Kefalonia, Kephallenia) since historical times seems —
archaeologically, geographically, and geomorphologically — to correspond during
the Mycenaean period to the Ithaca of Homer’s descriptions.
HOMERIC AND MYCENAEAN WORLDS
But how much does the
Homeric world coincide with the Mycenaean world, i.e., with the so-called Late
Helladic [4] (Mycenaean) period?
A careful analysis of the new data,
combined with verification of Homeric topography and the results of recent
archaeological finds in southeastern Cephalonia [5] (and across the Greek area),
leads us to the conclusion that Homer’s descriptions and references are not
vague memories of a remote past, but rather derive from and principally
describe the Mycenaean world of their time — not the world known to us from
historical times (with the few exceptions that concern inserted, excised, or
tampered-with verses that were the result of interventions over time by the
various rhapsodes, singers, librarians, copyists and correctors of the Homeric
epics).
In other words, the search for and
verification of Homeric topography and the “world of Homer” makes sense and
yields real answers when we place it within the environment of the Late
Helladic (Mycenaean) period and not within the environment of historical times.
This, it seems, was until now the main and fundamental mistake that led
inevitably to the familiar dead-ends.
According to the new evidence [6] that
has emerged, the initial times of the composition and formation of the various
episodes of the Odyssey concerned epic motifs that were created not in
the historical period but in the Late Bronze Age, their topography adapted to
the area in which, during the Late Helladic (Mycenaean) period, the then ruling
class (the local elite) of the town of what is today called Homeric (Mycenaean)
Ithaca exercised power.
Recent studies, which attempt a biographical approach to early epic poetry, confirm the antiquity of the Odyssey and detect its root substratum in parallel epic compositions which appear to have been adapted accordingly for the composition of local epic songs in honor of the contemporary leaders of the palatial structures of the Mycenaean elite. These studies help us understand the path of this particular composition (from Crete to the Ionian islands), which seems to have been adapted and modified relative to its older or different forms (editions), but remained firmly and inextricably geolocated within the authentic for that era (Late Helladic IIIA–C) toponymic, geographic and topographic environment, in order to praise with plausible realism the kleos and achievements of the leaders of a powerful Mycenaean center that flourished in southeastern Cephalonia, the name of which is preserved in the Homeric texts as the city of «υπονηίου Ιθάκης» (Od. 3.81).
The site of that city, it appears,
was on a prominent hill in the modern locality of Rogos (Riza) near the place
called the “harbor of Rheithron” (Od. 1.180–186). This harbor lay well
protected inside the impressive gorge of Poros, through which the waters of the
river Vohyna flow into the sea.
The plane-tree–shaded riverbeds of
the river divide the present small town of Poros into two parts and together
form one of the most impressive landscapes of the island of Cephalonia (see the
relevant image and the related post with full information: https://homericithaca.blogspot.com/2017/05/2.html).
Beyond stretches the fertile Herakleian plain, dominated by the majestic, fir-clad Mount Ainos, the “Neriton,” celebrated as the pride of Odysseus and of all Cephallenians everywhere (Odyssey 9.19–28).
At the end of the gorge, upon the prominent hill of Bourzi–Rogos at the village of Riza–Tzanata, a powerful Mycenaean center arose in Odysseus’ time. Archaeology suggests that this center exercised dominion over the four Ionian islands (Cephalonia, Ithaca, Lefkada, Zakynthos) as well as adjacent coastal territories.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CEPHALONIA
This area clearly concerns
southeastern Cephalonia and the Mycenaean center of Tzannata, which
archaeological excavation first revealed in 1992-1994 under the direction of
archaeologist Dr. Lazaros Kolonas and whose research continued in 2011 under
the archaeologist Dr. Antonis Vasilakis and the archaeological school of Simon
Fraser University, with support from the dean of the archaeological school
Professor Dr. John Pierce [7] and from the late director of the Stavros Niarchos
Chair of Greek Studies at SFU Professor Dr. Andre Gerolymatos. Near the same
place and within the Poros gorge, interdisciplinary field research with
excavations was carried out under the direction of archaeologist Dr. Georgia
Stratouli in the site known as the “Drakaina Cave.” Systematic and long-term
field research for the detailed recording and study of the archaeological sites
of this area (and of almost all of Cephalonia) was conducted by the University
of Copenhagen under the supervision of the late world-renowned archaeologist
Dr. Klavs Randsborg. Rescue excavations at selected sites in the same area were
undertaken by former Ephor of Antiquities Andreas Sotiriou and SFU
archaeologist Dr. Geoffrey Schmalz. (For all these excavations see the relevant
references in previous publications and in the footnotes at the end of this
post.)
On the basis of these finds and the
new data from archaeology and linguistics, we are led to the conclusion that
Homeric and Mycenaean Ithaca coincide and are the same place.
What happened in western insular Greece at the time of the transition from the so-called prehistoric period to historical times, when island names were lost forever from the toponymic map (Dulichium, Samos, Asteris) and other islands changed their names within the whirlpool of the Dark Ages and the generalized collapse that followed?
Answers to this pivotal question have indeed begun to be given by the science of archaeology and by the accompanying disciplines that contribute decisively to the clarification of these issues. It appears that, after the collapse of the Mycenaean world, motifs of this particular “Cephalonian epic” were preserved in the memory of later generations and, via migratory flows and refugee movements, were transferred to distant Ionia to later constitute material for the so-called rhapsodes, one of whom — possibly the foremost — may have been the figure called Homer. These epic motifs (Telemachy, Nekyia and the Apologues [Phaeacia]) were preserved and skillfully stitched together to form later the so-called epic of the Odyssey. These texts, along with several other compositions attributed to Homer, were initially transmitted orally and later written down during historical times in the Greek world, to become from then on a principal source for the formation, entertainment and education of the Greeks and ultimately the foundation of what has been called Western civilization.
From all the territory associated
with Odysseus, insofar as we can know at present, one place seems to have
reconnected in historical times the memories of those epic motifs and honored
the leader of the Cephalonians and conqueror of Troy. That place is undoubtedly
the Ithaca of historical times, and there are sound reasons for why this
occurred. [This issue will not be analyzed here; it merits a separate treatment
— a future post.]
THE ROLE OF HISTORICAL ITHACA
In historical times the island that inherited the name “Ithaca” was the hospitable place called upon to honor that name and to manage the myth of Odysseus, even though the Homeric descriptions did not correspond to the location and geomorphological characteristics of the Ithaca of the time of the king of the "great-hearted Cephalonians" (Mycenaean era). As a consequence, attempts were made — to a limited degree — later to intervene in the Homeric text in order to “fit” the topography of the epic to the measures and geographic position of the Ithaca of historical times, though in truth without notable success.
Over time, and with more intensity
today, efforts are made to bridge the gap and to consolidate the narrative that
the original conception and composition of the epic took place in the early
historical period in Ionia — an era that is far removed from the Mycenaean
period — thereby justifying the obvious discrepancies already noted in
antiquity [8] in the Homeric texts, on the grounds that we are dealing with a
purely literary composition which is not obliged, by poetic license, to deliver
lessons in topography, proposing furthermore, with a Procrustean logic, the
corresponding corrections and excisions of verses that do not agree with the
geomorphological environment of Ithaca of historical times.
The truth is that after these interventions and the corruptions to which many verses of the Homeric text have been subjected (particularly since the Alexandrian period onward), and especially in the case of Asteris [9] and the transformation of “wide Ithaca” «ευρείας Ιθάκης» [10] from “wide”«ευρεία» to “not wide” «ουκ ή ουδ΄ ευρείας Ιθάκης»[ [i.e., textual alterations], the position of “Homeric Ithaca” today, in the eyes of most Homeric scholars (who base their studies mainly on the current standardized printed texts of Leipzig and Cambridge), with a touch of humor, appears to wander “between Ithaca and Samos,” «μεσσηγὺς Ἰθάκης τε Σάμοιό τε παιπαλοέσσης»[11] i.e., between modern Cephalonia and modern Ithaca. There are, of course, those who place Homeric Ithaca (for the Greek area) at Lefkada, at Kalamos, at Paxos, at Paleros, on the Paliki peninsula or on any other island or place in attempts to answer the complex problems of Homeric topography inherited from historical times.
What we can retain as a firm
conclusion is that Mycenaean and Homeric Ithaca coincide absolutely and are in
the same frame when we place the so-called “Homeric Ithaca” within the
environment of the Late Helladic (Mycenaean) period.
If we finally accept
that according to the initial composition of the texts the modern island of
Ithaca is not indeed the Homeric (Mycenaean) Ithaca, could the present Ithaca
nevertheless be “the island of Odysseus” of the latest adaptation of the
Homeric texts and especially of the version that makes Odysseus “Corinthian”
and a descendant of the Sisyphus clan?
Modern Ithaca is indisputably the
Ithaca of historical times (just as the islands that belonged to him in his era
— 1250 BC — were modern Cephalonia, Lefkada, Zakynthos and the other islands
and mainland coasts at the entrance of the Gulf of Patras). Particularly from
the second half of the 5th century BC and onward, when the Athenian version of
the presence of the mythical Kephalus on the island now called Cephalonia was
consolidated and the Corinthian version became the most accepted, the present
island of Ithaca appears as the only isle that inherits (and manages) exclusively
the myth and the name of the homeland of “the king of the great-hearted
Cephalonians,” which it preserves and honors to this day. The recent
announcement by the University of Ioannina regarding the identification of the
sought-for sanctuary on historical Ithaca that was dedicated to the memory of
Odysseus indisputably demonstrates this relationship. (See: 🔗 https://t.ly/Ro2gs
#MinCultureGr)
The modified (tampered) texts of the
epic, despite the interventions made to adapt them to the geography of Ithaca
of historical times, continue to preserve almost intact their root substratum
and to draw information directly from their own era (the Mycenaean period).
This is precisely why researchers and archaeological work have never ceased to
search persistently for the location of the center of Mycenaean Ithaca — that
exact place which the original composer(s) of the epic had in mind.
The myth of Odysseus, which appears initially to start in Crete, then during the Middle Mycenaean period to pass to western insular Greece — specifically to the then Ithaca (i.e., Cephalonia) — and finally to end up in historical times on the present-day Ithaca, from which it then radiated as far as Italy, gives no exclusive entitlement to any one of these places to claim the sole civic identity of Odysseus?
Perhaps here the saying applies that "two cats - and perhaps more- fighting over a mouse they didn’t catch“. The presence of Odysseus as a widely-traveled “superman” (superhuman) of that era is the continuation of a myth that is encountered in parallel narratives of other cultures of the distant past with a pronounced pre-Greek origin. His original myth in the Greek domain indeed seems to start in Crete. During the Mycenaean period we find him in the western insular Greece under the name “Odysseus” as the king of the great-hearted Cephalonians, with his seat on the island then called Ithaca (today’s Cephalonia). Later, in historical times, his memory is worshipped under the same name on the present island of Ithaca. From there many mythographers, as is known, send him to move to Epirus as king of the Thesprotians or to be honored as a local hero, as is the case with Penelope in various places of that era such as Aetolia, Evrytania, Arcadia, Italy, etc., sometimes as an emigrant and other times as a suzerain through reported marital ties. It is needless to say that, according to the new theories of the last hundred-plus years, the seat of Odysseus’ kingdom, depending on the theory, has been suggested as Lefkada, Corfu, the Paxoi, Aetolia-Acarnania, Italy, Croatia, Malta, Israel, England, Norway, the Netherlands, etc., etc.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we can say that the
identity and citizenship of Odysseus are, to some extent, “determined”
according to the era in which we place him. He begins as a Minoan voyager to
flourish as a Mycenaean king of the “great-hearted Cephalonians” and ends his
trajectory as a perennial wanderer, sometimes even as “a harsh clatter of the
Sisyphus stock” [12] who preserved his memory mainly in present-day Ithaca and
secondarily in Thesprotia, Evrytania, Arcadia, and finally in Italy where some
mythographers send him according to the various versions of the myths.
What we can say with certainty,
however, is that in our modern historical era Odysseus, according to the late
professor of philology K. U. A. Theseus Tzannetatos, [13] “is absolutely proven to
be the representative figure that symbolizes the Greek and, above all, the
Cephalonians [14] among the Greeks.”
........................................................................................................................................................
[1] Iliad (2.631-637), Odyssey (9.19-28), (Od. 13.236-249), (Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo 421-429)
[2]The description of Odysseus’ realm in the ‘Catalogue of Ships’ in the Iliad (2.631-637):who inhabited Ithaka and the forested peak of windswept Neriton,
and Krokyleia and rugged Aigilips,
and Zakynthos and Samos too,
and the mainland opposite the islands.
These were the forces of Odysseus, whose wisdom was equal to that of Zeus;
and with him came twelve ships with red-painted bows. Iliad (2.631-637):
Αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς ἦγε Κεφαλλῆνας μεγαθύμους,
οἵ ῥ᾽ Ἰθάκην εἶχον καὶ Νήριτον εἰνοσίφυλλον
καὶ Κροκύλει᾽ ἐνέμοντο καὶ Αἰγίλιπα τρηχεῖαν,
οἵ τε Ζάκυνθον ἔχον ἠδ᾽ οἳ Σάμον ἀμφενέμοντο,
οἵ τ᾽ ἤπειρον ἔχον ἠδ᾽ ἀντιπέραι᾽ ἐνέμοντο· 635
τῶν μὲν Ὀδυσσεὺς ἦρχε Διὶ μῆτιν ἀτάλαντος·
τῷ δ᾽ ἅμα νῆες ἕποντο δυώδεκα μιλτοπάρῃοι. (Ιλιάδα Β, 631-637)
to all men, and my fame reaches the heavens.
Neriton, covered with waving forests, majestic; and on either side of it
lie many islands very close to each other:
Doulichion, Same, and forested Zakynthos.
Ithaca itself lies offshore [the farthest out] in the boundless sea
towards the dusk, but the others lie apart toward the dawn and the sun;
a rugged isle, but a fine nursery of young men. And I myself
can see no other place sweeter in all the earth. (Odyssey (9.19-28)
ναιετάω δ᾽ Ἰθάκην ἐυδείελον· ἐν δ᾽ ὄρος αὐτῇ
Νήριτον εἰνοσίφυλλον, ἀριπρεπές· ἀμφὶ δὲ νῆσοι
πολλαὶ ναιετάουσι μάλα σχεδὸν ἀλλήλῃσι,
Δουλίχιόν τε Σάμη τε καὶ ὑλήεσσα Ζάκυνθος.
αὐτὴ δὲ χθαμαλὴ πανυπερτάτη εἰν ἁλὶ κεῖται
πρὸς ζόφον, αἱ δέ τ᾽ ἄνευθε πρὸς ἠῶ τ᾽ ἠέλιόν τε,
τρηχεῖ᾽, ἀλλ᾽ ἀγαθὴ κουροτρόφος·οὔ τοι ἐγώ γε
ἧς γαίης δύναμαι γλυκερώτερον ἄλλο ἰδέσθαι. (Οδύσσεια ι 19-28)
[4] Late Helladic (LH) or Mycenaean
Period
LH I A 1700/1680–1675/1650 BC
LH I B 1675/1650–1625 BC
LH II A 1625–1520/1480 BC
LH II B 1520/1480–1435/1405 BC
LH III A1 1435/1405–1390/1370 BC
LH III A2 1390/1370–1360/1325 BC
LH III B 1360/1325–1200/1190 BC
Early LH III C 1200/1190–1150/1140 BC
Middle LH III C 1150/1140–1100/1090 BC
Late LH III C 1100/1090–1060/1040 BC
Sub-Mycenaean period (SM)
1060/1040–1000 BC
[5] Ioannis Moschos, “The Area of Pronnon and the eastern coast of Cephalonia before history, topography of the island, catalogue of sites and conclusions,” Proceedings of the Pronnon Region Conference 2005, pp. 227–324.
Lazaros Kolonas: “Tzannata of Poros,” Archaiologikon Deltion, vol. 47 (1992), part B1, Chronika, pp. 154–157.
Lazaros Kolonas: archaiologia.gr/print-article/?print=35604
Lazaros Kolonas: “Built Chamber Tomb at Tzannata of Poros, Cephalonia,” Kephalliniaka Chronika, vol. 11, pp. 381–382.
Lazaros Kolonas: Proceedings of the Conference on Letters, History and Folklore of the Pronnon region, “The Tholos Tomb of Tzannata of Poros,” p. 339.
Antonis Vasilakis: ttp://www.elliniki-gnomi.eu/archives/47791 “‘Odysseus was king of the Cephalonians’” | ELLINIKI GNOMI.
Antonis Vasilakis: Kefallonia Newspaper, interview with Dr. Antonis Vasilakis by Athanasia Markatou & archaiologia.gr/print-article/?print=35604
Antonis Vasilakis (Honorary Director, Ministry of Culture; Former Ephor of Antiquities of Cephalonia–Ithaca & Zakynthos): “Mycenaean Seminar: Late Helladic Apsidal / Ellipsoid (Ovoid) Megaron at Tzannata of Poros, Cephalonia.”
Ioannis Moschos, “Mycenaean occupation in Cephalonia. Population nuclei, list of sites and conclusions,” 7th Panionian Conference announcement, Lefkada, 2002.
Odysseas Metaxas, “Observations on the early biography of the Odyssey,” 2020, Kymothoe magazine, vol. 30, pp. 55–84.
Athens APE-MPE: “The most important archaeological events in Greece in 2011,” scientists speaking to APE-MPE, 28 Dec. 2011.
Lazaros Kolonas: “Ancient Installations of Southeastern Cephalonia,” 7th Panionian Conference, vol. 2, pp. 37–45, Lefkada 2002.
Georgia Stratouli, Odysseas Metaxas, Anastasios Bekiaris, Anagia Sarpaki: “Practical social cohesions in the Neolithic of the Ionian: readings of archaeological material from the Drakaina Cave in Poros, Cephalonia,” 11th International Panionian Conference (Corfu, 30 April – 4 May 2014), published in the Proceedings 2017.
E. M. Chatziotou–G. Stratouli–E. Kotzambopoulou, “The Cave of Drakaina,” Archaeological Proceedings of Athens (1989), pp. 31–60 & Evangelia-Miranda Chatziotou, Georgia Stratouli, “The Drakaina Cave at Poros Cephalonia: evidence for prehistoric use and cult in historical times,” Proceedings of the 6th Panionian Conference, vol. A, pp. 61–76.
Klavs Randsborg, KEPHALLENIA: Archaeology & History, The Ancient Greek Cities, BLACKWELL MUNKSGAARD Vol. 1 & 2, 2002.
Stamatina Zapanti, “The participation of the Pronnon of Cephalonia in the Athenian Alliance,” Keph. Chronika, vol. 5, pp. 193–200.
Odysseas Metaxas: “Archaeolinguistic elements from Cephalonia,” 1A Panionian Conference 2018, vol. IV, pp. 751–769. https://www.openbook.gr/ia-diethnes-panionio-synedrio/
John Albanese: (2020). “Some Preliminary Finds from the Tholos Tomb and Ossuary at Borzi Hill, Tzannata, Kefalonia.” Revista Maracanan 22. Available at: http://seer.unirio.br/revistam/article/view/11211/10988.
Ioannis Boskos & Odysseas Metaxas: “The Tholos Tomb of Mavrata 80 years later,” Proceedings of the 1A Panionion Conference 2018, 5th volume, pp. 125–137. https://panionio.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/04-boskos-metaxas-sel.-123-138_m.pdf
Antonis Vasilakis: “Late Helladic Ellipsoidal Megaron at Tzannata of Poros. New evidence for the Late Helladic period in Cephalonia,” Proceedings of the 1A Panionion Conference 2018, vol. 5, pp. 51–74. https://www.openbook.gr/ia-diethnes-panionio-synedrio/
Lazaros Kolonas: “The geographic advantage, the relief and the prehistory of an area, decisive factors for the foundation of a Mycenaean installation. The example of Cephalonia,” Proceedings of the XI Panionian International Conference, Argostoli Kefalonia2018, vol. 5, pp. 111–122.
Olympia Vikatos, “In the footsteps of the Taphians pirates: their wanderings in the Ionian Sea during the Late Bronze Age and the Dark Ages,” Proceedings Proceedings of the XI Panionian International Conference, Argostoli Kefalonia 2018, pp. 75–110.
Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, Archaeology and the Search for Homeric Ithaca: The Case of Mycenaean Kephalonia Article in Acta Archaeologica · December 2018
Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, Reuse and cult at the Mycenaean tombs of Kephalonia in the ancient historical periods. July 2020 In book: Proceedings of the XI Panionian International Conference, Argostoli Kefalonia 2018 (pp.223-242)
Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, The Ionian Islands in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (3000-850 BC), 2nd edition. August 2025 Publisher: Liverpool University Press.
Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, Islands in the stream:: a maritime perspective of the south-central Ionian islands in the Late Bronze Age, January 2022 DOI:10.2307/j.ctv22fqc0s.15 In book: Archaeology of the Ionian Sea (pp.117-136)
Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, Archaeology of the Ionian Sea: Landscapes, seascapes and the circulation of people, goods and ideas from the Palaeolithic to the end of the Bronze Age January 2022 Publisher: OXBOW BOOKS
Petros Petratos, “From Heracles to the Dragon. Arakli and the strait of Poros,” Proceedings 1st Conference on the Letters, History and Folklore of the Pronnon region, Cephalonia 2005, pp. 379–395.
Petros Petratos, “Homeric Nymph Cave: Melissani Cave,” Keph. Chronika vol. 8, 2003, pp. 239–265.
Petros Petratos, “The Homeric Krokyleia,” Kephalliniaka Chronika, vol. 9, 2003, pp. 155–165.
Antonis Vasilakis: “Mycenaean settlement at Tzannata of Poros, Cephalonia,” archaiologia.gr/?p=35604
Henriette Putman Gramer – Gerasimos Metaxas, Homeric Ithaca: An unidentified Mycenaean center in the islands of the Cephalonians, Cactus Editions, Athens 2000.
https://www.pbs.org/show/odysseus-returns/
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/television/odysseus-returns-review-unearthing-myths-on-pbs-7b93c12f
"IN far SEEN ITHACA Unravelling Homeric Riddles in the Ionian Sea" (forthcoming).
[6] Odysseas Metaxas: “Observations on the early biography of the Odyssey,” 2020, Kymothoe, pp. 55–84.
Odysseas Metaxas: Diverging trajectories within the west Mycenaean koine: the evidence from Kefalonia. (book chapter) In Archaeology of the Ionian Sea, Oxbow Books (2022) 10.2307/j.ctv22fqc0s.18 (pp. 169-178)[7] John T. Pierce, “Homer’s
Influence on Mycenaean Archaeology and the Understanding of Late Helladic
Historical Geography” (John T. Pierce, Professor Emeritus, Departments of
Geography and Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Canada.) https://jaa.thebrpi.org/journals/jaa/Vol_12_2024/1.pdf
[8] Strabo (C454): “For the poet
does not speak clearly either about Cephalonia or about Ithaca and other
neighboring places, so that commentators and historians differ among
themselves.” (Greek original paraphrase: “Οὐ γάρ εὐκρινῶς ἀποδίδωσιν ὁ ποιητής
οὔτε περί τῆς Κεφαλληνίας οὔτε περί τῆς Ἰθάκης καὶ τῶν ἄλλων πλησίον τόπων,
ὥστε καὶ οἱ ἐξηγούμενοι διαφέρουν καὶ οἱ ἱστοροῦντες.”)
[9] https://homericithaca.blogspot.com/2017/10/blog-post_15.html
[10] Vaggelis Pantazis, “The size of Homeric Ithaca,” Kephalliniaka Chronika, vol. 8, Argostoli 1999, p. 271.
Until recently, the dubious line (Od. 13.243) describing Ithaca as ‘not broad’ (οὐδ᾽ εὐρεῖα) gave rise to serious differences of opinion. It was relied on as the main argument in support of the case for accepting the island now called Ithaki as Homer’s Ithaca, as Ithaki is certainly ‘not broad’, while Kephallenia is much too big to have been the island that Homer was referring to. On this subject the historian Dr. Vangelis Pantazis, in a paper (in Greek) entitled «Το μέγεθος της Ομηρικής Ιθάκης» [‘The Size of Homeric Ithaca’], Kefalliniaka Chronika 8 (1999) 267-274, cited conclusive evidence proving that the authentic Homeric line refers to Ithaca as ευρεῖα (broad, large), not as οὐδ᾽ εὐρεῖα or οὐκ εὐρεῖα: the alteration was made later in various versions to make it match the reality of historical Ithaki. According to Dr. Pantazis, the original line «οὐδὲ λίην λυπρή, αὐτὰρ δ᾽ εὐρεῖα τέτυκται» was discovered in a work by Tryphon Grammatikos (1st c. b.c. – 1st c. a.d.) published in the third volume of Anecdota Graeca by J.F. Boissonade. J. La Roche’s firstly published this text in his annotated edition of the Odyssey (Homeri Odyssea) in 1868. This discovery restores not only the actual structure of the line in question (Od. 13.243) but also the extremely problematic line 118 in Book 24 of the Odyssey, where again, as shown by Dr. Pantazis in his exhaustive analysis, the word εὐρεῖα applies to Ithaca and not, of course, to the πόντος (sea), which appears to have been substituted for the original νῆσος (island). Support for the description of Ithaca as ‘broad’ or ‘large’ is to be found in an elegy on Homer’s love of Penelope by the Colophonian poet Hermesianax, who uses the adjective εὐρείης when referring to Penelope’s home island. The relevant passage is preserved by the sophist Athenaeus (Deipnosophistai, XIII.597).
[11] Homer, Odyssey 4. 845
[12] Euripides, Cyclops,"κρόταλον δριμύ Σισύφου γένος" lines 103–104.
[13] Theseus Tzannetatos: “The Cephalonians and Odysseus,” Nea Estia, vol. 81 (1967), p. 144 ff.
[14] Obviously, this applies to the whole body of Cephalonians and Ithacans
worldwide.
https://www.pbs.org/show/odysseus-returns/
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/television/odysseus-returns-review-unearthing-myths-on-pbs-7b93c12f
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