A new research paper published in the online journal Antigone on July 5 challenges a long-held assumption about the geography of Homer's Ithaca.
Emeritus Professor James Diggle of Cambridge University and Professor John Underhill of the University of Aberdeen argue that Ithaca was not a standalone island but part of a larger landmass.
Their text-based and geological evidence suggests that Odysseus' homeland corresponds to the Paliki peninsula on the Ionian island of Kefalonia.
The study arrives amid renewed global interest in the ancient epic, fueled by Christopher Nolan's upcoming film adaptation of the Odyssey, set for release on July 17.
Professor Diggle points out that Homer never explicitly calls Ithaca an island in the texts.
Instead, terms like "land" or "native land" are used, even though the Greek word for island would fit the poetic meter.
He highlights a specific passage where Odysseus returns home, often mistranslated to imply the ship approached the island of Ithaca.
The original Greek reads: "In the domain of Ithaca there is a bay of Phorcys," suggesting Ithaca is part of the island the ship is approaching.
The findings redirect a 20-year investigation sparked by Robert Bittlestone's 2005 book, which proposed that Paliki was isolated by a marine channel during the Bronze Age.
Professor Underhill conducted two decades of geological research on the Paliki isthmus to test whether earthquakes and landslides had filled an ancient channel.
The data disproved the existence of a Late Bronze Age marine channel, confirming Paliki was always a peninsula.
This prompted Diggle to re-examine Homer's wording. Underhill clarified that the Greek geographer Strabo described an overland watercourse, not an active sea channel.
"Where the island is narrowest it forms a low isthmus, so that it is often submerged from sea to sea," Strabo wrote, according to a translation by H.L.
Jones.
The researchers state that the corrected geographic model aligns ancient texts, geological records, and regional topography.
Recent excavations of Early Bronze Age sites at Livadi Marsh by local authorities have further verified Paliki's historical prominence.
"We are confident that an elegant explanation has emerged that unifies the geoscience, the Homeric texts and Strabo and is entirely consistent with Robert Bittlestone's founding idea of Odysseus Unbound – that Paliki is the location of Homer's Ithaca," say Professors Diggle and Underhill.
