Odysseus' Island
The story of The Odyssey has captured the human imagination for centuries. Odysseus' homeland of Ithaca, a breathtakingly beautiful island in the Ionian Sea, still attracts visitors who are intrigued by Homer's epic adventure. But can we connect today's Ithaca to the romantic island in Homer’s Odyssey? Was Odysseus a real, or a mythological figure? With a sleuth's eye for detail, Jane Cochrane reveals fascinating answers to these questions, combining thorough academic research with her own personal perspective of this extraordinary island.
Interwoven with these discoveries is a touching and entertaining personal story of Jane's relationship with the island - one that started over 40 years ago. Ithaca is brought into the present day with the exploits of Jane and Alec's gradual restoration of an ancient ruin as a summer retreat and the accounts of deep friendships made over the years with the island's tight-knit community.
Inspired by her husband Alec and with the help of the eminent Classics Professor George L Huxley, Jane takes us on a journey of Classical proportions to uncover the ancient truth behind the island of Odysseus. Odysseus' Island is a must-read for all visitors to the island, romantics and academics alike.
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Walking in the Footsteps of Odysseus
A Practical Guide to the Homeric Paths of Ithaca
This book leads the visitor on a self-guided tour of Homer’s Ithaca. It follows ancient footpaths to landmarks traditionally identified by Homerists, philologists and archaeologists with the descriptions made by Homer in his epic poem The Odyssey. Visitors can see for themselves the landscape and topography of Ithaca and make their own comparisons with the ancient words of Homer.
The guide follows the footsteps of the island’s ancient hero Odysseus on his return to his beloved home island. The paths lead to the site, at Agios Athanasios / School of Homer, most widely believed by scholars to be that of his palace. There the finds made between 1994 and 2010 by the archaeologists Litsa and Thanasis Papadopoulos from the University of Ioannina in Central Greece are described.
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Homer’s epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey are among the oldest extant works of Western literature, on which they have had a profound influence. The Iliad tells the story of the ninth year of the Trojan War; The Odyssey tells how King Odysseus, a hero of that war, makes his eventful journey back to his home island of Ithaca.
By the time Odysseus arrived back on Ithacan soil, twenty years had passed since he set out to fight in the Trojan War. He left behind his young wife, Penelope, and their baby son, Telemachus. Back in Ithaca, as the years went by, Penelope was besieged by suitors who assumed that Odysseus was dead and wanted to claim his kingdom. The poet Homer describes Odysseus’ reunion, first with his son, Telemachus, a baby when he left and now a fine young man, and then with his loyal wife, Penelope. He tells, in gruesome detail, how he and a small group of colleagues kill all 108 of Penelope’s suitors.
Twelve out of 24 books of The Odyssey take place after Odysseus’ arrival back in Ithaca. This famous story was passed down through the generations for over 3,000 years. Yet, even after all these years, and its many different translations, it is hard not to conclude that, to make such precise descriptions, Homer must have visited Ithaca to see its landscape with his own eyes.
There are a few objects, coins and tripods, on public display on Ithaca, and some that can be seen elsewhere, that firmly link the hero Odysseus with this island and no other. These are also described in this guide along with a brief background history of their discovery.
Many and varied theories have been put forward that the location of Homeric Ithaca may be in a different place to the modern Greek island of Ithaca. These are summarised, along with the main textual argument used in their support. After taking the walks described in this book the intelligent visitor may be convinced that the kingdom of Odysseus was centred on this island, and that Homeric and modern Ithaca are one and the same.
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The Archaeological Evidence for
The Palace of Odysseus on Ithaca
This new publication will be especially valuable to people visiting the neglected site at Agios Athanasios on Ithaca, who currently find little information to guide them. It also offers a rich resource for all those interested in Homeric studies, archaeology, and the enduring legacy of Odysseus.
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The book brings together two significant archaeological reports: The Archaeological Excavation at Agios Athanasios / School of Homer on Ithaca and The Heroön of Odysseus in Ithaca Reconsidered. Both papers document a long-term excavation conducted between 1994 and 2011 on the Greek island of Ithaca by a team from the University of Ioannina in Central Greece, led by Professor Thanasis Papadopoulos and his wife, Professor Litsa Kontorli-Papadopoulou.
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The findings from this excavation form the archaeological backbone of my books Odysseus’ Island and Walking in the Footsteps of Odysseus on Ithaca. The philological foundation for my books was provided by my friend and mentor, Professor George L. Huxley, whose scholarly conclusions on Homeric Ithaca can be found here. Despite the global interest in the question of Odysseus’ historical home, the results of this excavation have, until now, remained largely inaccessible. The financial crisis of 2008 severely affected Greece, and in 2010, funding for the excavation at Agios Athanasios was abruptly cut. Tragically, in 2015, Professor Litsa Kontorli-Papadopoulou passed away before she could publish her findings. Fortunately, her husband was able to complete and compile their work the following year, and we are now able to present both reports in full.
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Over the past century, alternative theories have emerged, suggesting that Odysseus’ kingdom was based not on Ithaca but on the neighbouring, larger islands of Lefkada or Kefalonia. These claims have gained traction, though they remain unsubstantiated by any serious archaeological evidence. In this publication, Professor Papadopoulos directly challenges such theories and calls on their proponents to produce credible findings.
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The first paper, The Archaeological Excavation at Agios Athanasios / School of Homer on Ithaca, presents compelling evidence for identifying this site as the historical Palace of Odysseus. The architectural and topographical features of the site closely match the descriptions in Homer’s Odyssey. As Professor Papadopoulos notes, the site “seems to be a promising and strong candidate for the political centre of the island and the Homeric Palace of Odysseus.” If this is so, the poet Homer will have used this very megaron (or main hall) as the setting for Odysseus’ battle with 108 suitors on his return, after 20 years, from the Trojan War and for his reunion with his faithful wife Penelope.
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Yet, despite the strength of this evidence, some scholars continue to dispute these conclusions. As a result, this culturally and literary significant Bronze Age site remains only partially excavated. There are no explanatory signs for visitors, and the open pits left on site pose both safety hazards and risks to the preservation of the remains.
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The second paper, The Heroön of Odysseus in Ithaca Reconsidered, gives Professor Papadopoulos’ view on the location of the worship of Odysseus in ancient times (a heroön being a place of hero-worship). Published here for the first time, it takes the form of a discussion with the German archaeologist Hans-Gunter Buchholz, who participated in the middle stage of this excavation. It concludes that worshipping Odysseus took place over centuries near the Cave at Polis Bay in Ithaca, but that the home attributed to Odysseus should be identified as being located at Agios Athanasios / School of Homer.
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Jock
The Father I Never Knew
On 4 February 1942, Major James Owen ‘Jock’ Cochrane wrote to his wife from North Africa: I cannot tell you how I am longing to see you and the offspring. She wrote to him: Darling, I love you almost more than I can bear, and I am longing and longing for the day you come home. A few days later, when his little daughter Jane was scarcely six weeks old, Jock was killed in action with the 51st Highland Division, and hastily buried in the desert.
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Throughout a busy life, as daughter, stepdaughter, wife, mother and grandmother, and as an architect and accomplished artist, Jane carried the loss of her father like an unhealed wound. No one talked about him. During her childhood, only her grandparents mentioned their son, her father, but they too vanished from her life when she was only twelve.
In her late 40s Jane told her mother that she was going to Tunisia, having been told that was where Jock had died, and asked if there was any more detailed information. Her mother sent four letters written by fellow officers following his death; one included a rough drawing, done on the spot, of a small earth grave under a camelthorn bush in western Libya. Although brought up to keep a stiff upper lip, Jane cried for four days and four nights. How, she wondered, could a man she had never known affect her in this way?
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In her search and on her many journeys, sometimes with her husband Alec and sometimes with her mother and children, Jane discovered more than she dreamed existed. She learned about war, a subject she had always avoided, from many different angles and viewpoints. She met people who had known Jock, and eventually discovered the father she never knew.
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By turns entertaining, reflective, fascinating and painful, Jane’s narrative braids together the stories of her grandparents, her parents and their too-brief marriage, her own life, her research and – as tensely as any thriller – the events leading, three weeks before his death, to the Battle of the Hills where her father was awarded the Military Cross. Not only an account of a deeply personal quest, it is also a group portrait of several generations, and a story of determination, perseverance and, ultimately, healing.
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