Editing Ithaca (island) (section)

==Home of Odysseus==
{{Main|Homer's Ithaca}}
[[File:Francesco Hayez 028.jpg|thumb|''[[Odysseus]] at the court of Alcinous'' by [[Francesco Hayez]] (1813–1815).]]
[[File:20140411 ithaki131.JPG|thumb|Odysseus' statue in Vathy.]]

Since antiquity, Ithaca has been identified as the home of the mythological hero [[Odysseus]]. In the ''Odyssey'' of Homer, Ithaca is described thus

<blockquote>...dwell in clear-seen Ithaca, wherein is a mountain, Neriton, covered with waving forests, conspicuous from afar; and round it lie many isles hard by one another, Dulichium, and Same, and wooded Zacynthus. Ithaca itself lies close in to the mainland the furthest toward the gloom, but the others lie apart toward the Dawn and the sun—a rugged isle, but a good nurse of young men<ref>{{cite book |last1=Homer |author-link1=Homer |translator-last=Murray |translator-first=Augustus Taber |year=1919 |title=The Odyssey with an English Translation |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D9%3Acard%3D1 |chapter=9.21–27 |language=grc, en |location=London, UK |publisher=William Heinemann, Ltd. |access-date=2016-06-06 |via=[[Perseus Project|Perseus Digital Library]]}}</ref></blockquote>

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" ({{lang|grc|χθαμαλή}}), but Ithaca is mountainous. Second, the words "farthest out to sea, towards the sunset" ({{lang|grc|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 [[Dulichium|Doulichion]] and [[Same (ancient Greece)|Same]].<ref name="EncBritt" />

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.<ref name="Telegr2010">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/7962445/Greeks-discover-Odysseus-palace-in-Ithaca-proving-Homers-hero-was-real.html|title=Greeks 'discover Odysseus' palace in Ithaca, proving Homer's hero was real'|last=Squires|first=Nick|date=24 August 2010|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=25 January 2017}}</ref> Perhaps the best known proposal is that of [[Wilhelm Dörpfeld]], who believed that the nearby island of Lefkada was Homer's Ithaca, whereas [[Same (ancient Greece)|Same]] was the present-day Ithaca.<ref>Wilhelm Dörpfeld, ''Alt-Ithaka'' (1927).</ref><ref>Map of [http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/doerpfeld1927bd2/0152/image?sid=fcf216d51bfa1ce778d308c6ebc0fcb8 Homer's Ithaka], Same and Asteris according to [[Wilhelm Dörpfeld]]. Digital library of [[Heidelberg University]].</ref>

It has also been suggested that [[Paliki]], the western peninsula of Kefalonia, is Homer's Ithaca. It has been argued that in Homeric times Paliki was separated from Kefalonia by a sea channel since closed up by earthquake-induced rockfalls.<ref name=Bittlestone2005 >{{citation | last1=Bittlestone | first1=Robert | year=2005 | title=Odysseus unbound: the search for Homer's Ithaca | last2=Diggle | first2=James | last3=Underhill | first3=John | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-85357-6 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/odysseusunbounds00bitt }}</ref> However, no scientific review publications are available in support of this theory.<ref name="Telegr2010" /> Indeed, scholars have found that "all the geological and geomorphological evidence refutes this hypothesis".<ref> Kalliopi Gaki-Papanastassiou, Hampik Maroukian, Efthymios Karymbalis, and Dimitris Papanastassiou, “Geomorphological study and paleogeographic evolution of  NW Kefalonia Island, Greece, concerning the hypothesis of  a possible location of  the Homeric Ithaca,” in ''Geoarchaeology, Climate Change, and Sustainability'', Geological Society of  America, Special Paper 476, 2011, pp. 78-79</ref>

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.

[[File:The geography and antiquities of Ithaca (IA geographyantiqui00gell).pdf|thumb|The ''School of Homer'' presented in ''The geography and antiquities of Ithaca'' in 1806|page=144]]
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''.<ref>Frank H. Stubbings, "Ithaca", in Wace and Stubbings, eds., ''A Companion to Homer'' (New York, 1962).</ref> The Archaeological site of "School of Homer" on modern Ithaca is the only place in the Lefkas–Kefalonia–Ithaca Triangle where [[Linear B]] inscriptions may have been found,<ref>Litsa Kontorli-Papadopoulou, Thanasis Papadopoulos, Gareth Owens, “A possible Linear sign from Ithaki (AB09 ‘SE’)?” ''Kadmos'', Band 44 (2005), pp. 183-186</ref> near royal remains. In 2010, Greek archaeologists discovered the remains of an 8th-century BC palace in the area of Agios Athanasios, leading to reports that this might have been the site of Odysseus's palace.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/7962445/Greeks-discover-Odysseus-palace-in-Ithaca-proving-Homers-hero-was-real.html|title=Greeks 'discover Odysseus' palace in Ithaca, proving Homer's hero was real'|first=Nick|last=Squires|date=24 August 2010|access-date=27 March 2018|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://greece.greekreporter.com/2010/08/25/greek-archaelogists-discover-odysseus-palace-in-ithaca/|title=Greek archaelogists [sic] discover Odysseus' palace in Ithaca – GreekReporter.com|website=greece.greekreporter.com|date=25 August 2010|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref>

Another archaeological feature on Ithaca is the so-called Polis Cave near Stavros in the north of the island. [[Heinrich Schliemann]] identified it as the cave that Odysseus visited on his return. [[Sylvia Benton]], who carried out research in the cave in the 1930s, also interpreted her findings as an indication of a connection to Odysseus. However, as is now known, the site served as a place of worship for many centuries, from the beginning of the Bronze Age (Early Helladic) to the Roman period, without any clear connection to a possible life environment of Odysseus. Numerous votive offerings indicate that the [[nymph]]s in particular were the target of the ritual acts in the Polis cave.<ref>Deoudi, Maria (2008). ''Ithake: Die Polis-Höhle, Odysseus und die Nymphen'' [Ithake: The Polis Cave, Odysseus and the Nymphs]. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, {{ISBN|978-9-601-21695-9}} (see also the [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.11.22/ review of this work] by [[Jorrit Kelder]]).</ref>

Modern scholars generally accept the identification of modern Ithaca with Homeric Ithaca,<ref>Jonathan Brown, ''In search of Homeric Ithaca'' (Canberra: Parrot Press, 2020). [https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2841151431/view National Library of Australia, Trove]</ref> 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 licence.<ref>{{cite book |last=West |first=M. L. |author-link=Martin Litchfield West |date=2014 |title=The Making of The Odyssey |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=66 |isbn=978-0-19-871836-9}}</ref>