ODYSSEY MAP · STOP 14/14
Where Is Ithaca?
The last trial of a man coming home after twenty years
“Rocky, but a good nurse of men” — that is how Odysseus describes his homeland. When he returns after twenty years, what waits is not a feast but a hundred and eight suitors besieging his wife. Athena disguises him as a beggar; in the faithful swineherd’s hut he embraces his son Telemachus. The first to know him is his dog Argos, who waited nineteen years — and dies the moment he does.
He strings the bow no one else can bend; the arrow passes through twelve axe-heads; the reckoning is made. Penelope stays careful even then: she asks the secret of the bed carved from a living olive tree. The right answer ends twenty years of waiting.
Where is it in the real world?
Ithaca is still on the map: the island of Ithaki in the Ionian Sea, just east of Cephalonia. Some scholars, arguing the island does not quite match Homer’s descriptions, have proposed candidates such as Cephalonia’s Paliki peninsula; for the islanders there is no debate — this is the home of Odysseus.
What awaits you in the game?
The finale: beggar’s rags or open identity? When do you ask for the bow, and who holds the doors? How many men and how much fame you bring here decides your “against fate” score in the epilogue.
Quick facts
- Position on the route
- 14 / 14
- Previous stop
- Phaeacia (Scheria) · 80 nautical miles · ≈ 2 sail days
- Next stop
- The voyage ends here — this is home
- Modern location
- Island of Ithaki, Ionian Islands, Greece
- Region
- Ionian Sea, east of Cephalonia
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