Ithaca

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Ithaka (Greek Ithaki Ιθάκη ( f sg )) is one of the Ionian Islands off the west coast of Greece and, together with some uninhabited islets community Ithaka (Greek Dimos Ithakis Δήμος Ιθάκης ), the Ionian as Regional District Ithaca region islands a deputy in the Regional Council deploys. The island has an area of ​​96 km ². The highest elevation is the Niritos with 809 m, the capital and principal port is the village of Vathi. The island is very green and has lots of bays. Large parts of the island were destroyed in a 1953 earthquake. The island is reached by ferry from today Lefkada, Kefalonia, Patras.

  • 2.1 doubts recently
  • 2.2 Literary king of Ithaca

Recent History

The island was conquered in 1185 by the Normans, and then was part of the "kingdom" of Margaritos of Brindisi. After his dazzling 1194 it fell to his son Maio Orsini, who eventually surrendered to Venice in 1209. Based on the neighboring island of Kefalonia, the Ithaca is culturally connected, the island was called by the Venetians Cefalogna Piccola. Large damages taught at the earthquake in August 1953.

Population

The island has about 3,000 inhabitants today. When Heinrich Schliemann visited the island in 1868, it had around 12,000 inhabitants. Many of the residents have emigrated over the years, mainly to Australia, the United States of America and South Africa.

Municipality Sarakiniko

1978 formed on the peninsula Sarakiniko a municipality under the name Sarakiniko Alternative living GmbH .. Most residents commute to Germany, only about a dozen people now live there permanently .. As a follow-up project in 2010 was the -grid ecovillage Ecotopia.

Mythical home of Odysseus

Ithaca is the legendary home of Odysseus. Schliemann believed to have discovered on Mount Aetos the palace of Odysseus, because can bring some local descriptions of Homer with the landscape cover and the top is fastened with a vast Cyclopean wall, which suggests a Mycenaean settlement. The conclusions, however, are controversial and Schliemann's another place on the island competing for the ancient palace site.

Doubt, more recently,

It is controversial whether Ithaca is ever home to Odysseus ' been. The British businessman and amateur historian Robert Bittlestone examines this rather on the peninsula Paliki (Greek Παλική ) on the west coast of the neighboring island of Kefalonia, since in his view the following description from the ninth canto of the Odyssey can hardly be reconciled with the present nature of the island in accordance:

" Ithaca's sunny Höhn are my home; in this To Türmet Neritons main with rushing tops; and all around Sown close together, many populated islands, Same, Dulichium and waldbewachsne Zakynthos. Ithaca is located in the lake at the highest up in the firmament, Against the north; the others are entfernet east and south. "

Paliki the other hand, although today no independent island, but a part of Kefalonia ( Dimos Palikis is the official name of the town of Lixouri ). However, there are indications that she was the one in the Archaic period once. For example, speaks Strabo in the 1st century BC by a location on Kefalonia, which was often flooded by the sea. If Paliki actually have been a separate island, it would the description in Homer next.

This theory is supported by the British geologist John Underhill, who examined the strata from the Paliki and Kefalonia Peninsula. He found no solid rocks, but only sediments and detritus that may have washed ashore in a long deposition phase there and the two islands may be linked to a.

Literary king of Ithaca

  • Arkeisios
  • Laertes
  • Ulysses
  • Telemachus

Sons and daughters of the island

  • Odysseas Androutsos (1788 - 1825), hero of the Greek fight
  • Plato Drakoulis (1858 - 1934), philosopher, writer, politician
  • Panagis Lekatsas (1911 - 1970), writer, journalist
  • Lorentzos Mavilis (1860 - 1912), scholar, poet
  • Ioannis Metaxas (1871 - 1941), Dictator
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