The island of Ithaca exists today, but historians debate if it is Odysseus’ homeland as described in The Odyssey

In case you were wondering, Ithaca is real. You can visit it today, sail into its coves, climb its steep hills and buy all the Odysseus-themed souvenirs you could possibly need.

Here’s a glimpse.

The harder question, though, is whether modern Ithaca – Ithaki, in Greece’s Ionian Islands – is the same Ithaca Homer had in mind when he described the homeland of Odysseus in The Odyssey.

Tradition says yes.

For centuries, modern Ithaca has been treated as the island kingdom of the man who spent ten years trying to get home after the Trojan War. It is still the default answer, and for obvious reasons: the name survived, the location fits the broad Ionian setting, and the island has fully embraced the myth.

But historians, classicists and geologists have never been totally satisfied.

Homer’s description creates problems. In The Odyssey, Ithaca is described in relation to nearby Same, Dulichium and Zakynthos, and some readings place it further west than modern Ithaca really is. There is also debate over whether Homer’s “low-lying” Ithaca fits a rugged island with mountains such as Neriton.

What other theories are there about Ithaca?

That has opened the door to rival theories. The most famous recent one points not to modern Ithaca, but to Paliki, a peninsula on nearby Kefalonia. The argument, developed by Robert Bittlestone with classicist James Diggle and geologist John Underhill, suggests Paliki may better match Homer’s geography. Earlier versions of the theory even proposed that Paliki was once separated from Kefalonia by a sea channel, making it an island in the Bronze Age.

A new twist in 2026 has pushed the debate back into view. Research published in Antigone argues that Homer may not have called Ithaca an island in the strict modern sense at all, weakening one of the main objections to the Paliki theory.

Still, none of this proves the case beyond doubt. Homer was writing epic poetry, not a GPS guide, and the world of The Odyssey mixes memory, myth and geography.

So yes, Ithaca exists. Whether it is definitely Odysseus’ Ithaca remains another little odyssey entirely. And either way, you may just be here because Christopher Nolan’s new movie caught your imagination.

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