Ithaca Not an Island? Scholars Re-Examine Homer’s Odyssey

James Diggle of Cambridge University and John Underhill of University of Aberdeen challenge the long-held belief that Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, was a separate island. The scholars argue Homer’s texts consistently describe Ithaca as a land or domain, never an island, despite centuries of interpretation to the contrary.

They propose that Ithaca was actually a peninsula called Paliki on the larger island of Kefalonia in Greece. Previous research by Robert Bittlestone suggested Paliki geographically aligned with Homer’s descriptions, but required geological evidence of its former island status.

Underhill’s 20-year geological survey found no evidence of a channel separating Paliki from Kefalonia, and recent archaeological digs at sites like Livadi Marsh support the peninsula’s importance in the Bronze Age. The researchers combine philological analysis of the Odyssey with geological findings to present a unified explanation for the location of Homer’s Ithaca, building on Bittlestone’s earlier work. Their findings were published in the journal Antigone.