The Ithaca of the Odyssey

Abstract

The identity of the Ithaca of the Odyssey with the island which has borne that name since remote antiquity had never been disputed until recent times. When, therefore, the tradition of centuries was called in question by so eminent an authority as Dr. Dörpfeld it was inevitable that zealous defenders would come forward to contest his arguments. The exploration of the traditional Ithaca (or Thiáki as the name has become by the metathesis not unusual in medieval Greek) by a group of British archaeologists and scholars, together with the excavations carried out there over some four years under the direction of Mr. W. A. Heurtley, who was able to devote the summers to this work, have established important conclusions for the solution of a controversy which has divided Homeric students. Investigation on the spot has revealed how closely the narrative of the epic, rationally interpreted, conforms to geographical conditions. Its episodes take place in scenes readily recognisable to-day and evidently drawn from personal observation. Even calculations of distance to be traversed incidentally to the story by land or sea are correctly estimated. The excavations confirm the evidence derived from a text in which amplitude of local detail, so unusual in early literature, tends to confirm another tradition accepted in ancient times, namely, that the poet was personally familiar with Ithaca.