Odysseus Unbound

Odysseus Unbound (2005), by Robert Bittlestone with the assistance of Professor James Diggle of Cambridge University and Professor John Underhill of the University of Edinburgh, Paliki, puts forth a premise that a peninsula of Kefalonia is the location of Homer's Ithaca, the home of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.

The initial insight leading to the argument came from a tourist roadmap of the Paliki area, which Bittlestone purchased following a visit to the region, in preparation for another visit — one this time to the modern island known as "Ithaki" (Ithaca). Scholars for centuries have noticed that the island of Ithaki does not correspond to the detailed descriptions of the home of Odysseus offered by Homer in the Odyssey. Many explanations, from simple ignorance on Homer's part to "poetic license", have been used to account for the discrepancies.

Bittlestone had noticed, however, that the western peninsula of Kefalonia appeared to correspond with the principal clues offered by Homer, yet it is not an island. On his previous trip, though, his daughter's question, about an inland hilltop fortress on neighboring Lefkas island — "But why did they build it here?" — had led to the thought that sea levels in the area might once have been much higher, that in turn leading to the idea that higher sea levels might once have cut off the Paliki peninsula from its mainland, Kefalonia, making Paliki an island. The tourist map seemed to confirm this: on it, Bittlestone saw, the neck of land connecting Paliki to Kefalonia did appear to be very narrow and, more importantly in this mountainous region, relatively low along most of its length.

Confirmation was needed from at least two sources: philology — to ensure that the Homeric account of "Ithaca" was properly understood — and geology, to establish among other points that the narrow neck of land on Kefalonia could in fact have been the site of a sea channel, in the times of Homer and of Odysseus.

James Diggle, co-author of the study which argued that Paliki was Homer's "Ithaca", is Professor of Greek and Latin at Cambridge University and a recognized authority on Ancient Greek texts. His detailed analysis of the "clues" contained both in Homer and in Strabo and other texts was crucial to supporting the Paliki argument.

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