Ithake island,The origin of the first people to inhabit the island, which was during the last years of the Neolithic Period (4000-3000 B.C.), is unknown. The traces of buildings, walls and a road from this time period prove that life existed and continued to do so during the Early Hellenic era (3000-2000 B.C.). During the Mycenaean period (1500-1100 B.C.) Ithaca rose to the highest level of its ancient history. The island became the capital of the Cephalonians states, which included the surrounding islands, and the opposite lands, and was referred to as one of the most powerful states at the time. The Ithacans were characterized as great navigators and explorers with daring expeditions reaching further than the Mediterranean Sea. The famous epic poems of Homer, the Iliad (1193 -1184 B.C.), and the Odyssey (1184-1174 B.C.) relate to this period depicting the political, cultural, and social life on the island. Soon after Ulysses' reign ended, the state's power diminished, and it became subject to the Dorian rule (1100-800 B.C.). Ithaca, no longer an important centre was under the jurisdiction of the nearest large island. There are various interpretations as to the origin the name Ithaca; it is believed that it comes from:
- Ithacos, the hero from mythology
- the Greek word ‘ithy’ which means cheerful
- the Phoenician word ‘utica’ which means colony
According to the different periods, the conquerors and the circumstances, the population of the island kept changing. Although there is not definite numerical information until the Venetian period, it is believed that from the Mycenaean to the Byzantine period the number of inhabitants was several thousand who lived mainly at the northern part of the island. During the Middle Ages, the population decreased due to the continuous invasions of the pirates which forced the people to live on the mountains establishing.  According to the findings of the archaeologists, Ithaki has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC. The most important period of its history was in the 12th Century BC, during Odysseus' reign. In 1479 the Turkish forces landed on the islands setting the villages on fire, plundering, killing people and taking them captives. Ithaca became desolate and isolated. Many of the people fled from the island out of fear of the Turkish occupiers. Those that remained were hiding up in the mountains to avoid the pirates who controlled the channel between Cephallonia and Ithaca and the bays of the island. In the following five years the Turks, Toques and Venetians placed claims on the islands diplomatically. The possession of the islands was finally given to the Turkish Empire (1484-1499 A.D.).During this time the Venetians had strengthened into major power with an organized fleet. The Ionian Islands were part of their pursuits, and in 1499 a war between the Venetians and the Turks started. Finally the Venetians prevailed, and from 1500 A.D. they controlled the islands. According to a treaty of 1503, Ithaca, Cephallonia and Zante belonged to the Venetians, and Lefkada to the Turks.
A few years after the French revolution took place, the Ionian area came under the rule of the French Democrats (1797-1798 A.D.) The population welcomed the French, who took care in the control of the administrative and judicial systems, but later the heavy taxation they demanded, caused a feeling of indignation among the people. During this short historical period the new ideas of system and social structure greatly influenced the inhabitants of the island. At the end of 1798 the French were succeeded by Russia and Turkey (1798-1807 A.D.), which were allies at that time. Corfu became the capital of the Ionian States, and the form of government was democratic with a fourteen-member senate in which Ithaca had one representative.
The Ithacan fleet flourished when it was allowed to carry cargo up to the ports of the Black Sea. In 1807, according to an agreement with Turkey the Ionian Islands once again came under the French rule (1807-1809 A.D.). The French quickly began preparing to face the English fleet, which had become very powerful, by building a fort in Vathy. It is worth pointing out of the role, which it played during the struggle of the Greeks against the Turks. Prominent citizens of Ithaki participated in the secret "Filiki Etairia" which was instrumental in organizing the Greek Revolution of 1821, and Greek fighters found refuge there. Finally, the treaty of London, in 1863, allowed the union of the island with the rest of the free Greek state.
ODYSSEUS (ULYSSES)
Odysseus (called Ulysses in Latin) was the son of Laertes and was the ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca. He was one of the most prominent Greek leaders in the Trojan War, and was the hero of Homer's Odyssey. He was known for his cleverness and cunning, and for his eloquence as a speaker.
Odysseus was one of the original suitors of Helen of Troy. When Menelaus succeeded in winning Helen's hand in marriage, it was Odysseus who advised him to get the other suitors to swear to defend his marriage rights. However, when Menelaus called on the suitors to help him bring Helen back from Troy, Odysseus was reluctant to make good on his oath. He pretended to have gone mad, plowing his fields and sowing salt instead of grain. Palamedes placed Odysseus' infant son in front of the plow, and Odysseus revealed his sanity when he turned aside to avoid injuring the child.
However reluctant he may have been to join the expedition, Odysseus fought heroically in the Trojan War, refusing to leave the field when the Greek troops were being routed by the Trojans, and leading a daring nocturnal raid in company with Diomedes. He was also the originator of the Trojan horse, the stratagem by which the Greeks were finally able to take the city of Troy itself. After the death of Achilles, he and Ajax competed for Achilles' magnificent armor.
When Odysseus' eloquence caused the Greeks to award the prize to him, Ajax went mad and killed himself.
Odysseus' return from Troy, chronicled in the Odyssey, took ten years and was beset by perils and misfortune. He freed his men from the pleasure-giving drugs of the Lotus-Eaters, rescued them from the cannibalism of the Cyclopes and the enchantments of Circe. He braved the terrors of the underworld with them, and while in the land of the dead, Pluto allowed Thiresias, Odysseus' mother, Ajax and others to give him advice on his next journey. They gave him important advice about the cattle of the sun (which Apollo herds), Scylla and Charybdis and the Sirens. From there on the travels were harder for Odysseus, but they would have been much worse of it wasn't for the help of the dead.
With this newly acquired knowledge, he steered them past the perils of the Sirens and of Scylla and Charybdis. He could not save them from their final folly, however, when they violated divine commandments by slaughtering and eating the cattle of the sun god. As a result of this rash act, Odysseus' ship was destroyed by a thunderbolt, and only Odysseus himself survived.
He came ashore on the island of the nymph Calypso, who made him her lover and refused to let him leave for seven years. When Zeus finally intervened, Odysseus sailed away on a small boat, only to be shipwrecked by another storm. He swam ashore on the island of the Phaeacians, where he was magnificently entertained and then, at long last, escorted home to Ithaca.
There were problems in Ithaca as well, however. During Odysseus' ten-year absence, his wife, Penelope, had remained faithful to him, but she was under enormous pressure to re-marry. A whole host of suitors were occupying her palace, drinking and eating and behaving insolently to Penelope and her son, Telemachus. Odysseus arrived at the palace, disguised as a ragged beggar, and observed their behavior and his wife's fidelity. With the help of Telemachus and Laertes, he slaughtered the suitors and cleansed the palace. He then had to fight one final battle, against the outraged relatives of the men he had slain; Athena intervened to settle this battle, however, and peace was restored.
Today Ithaca constitutes the symbol of adventure and longing for homeland but also the symbol of the path to education and self-knowledge. The desperate search of Odysseus for his homeland,
 symbolizes the endurance and stubbornness with which Man pursues his Ideals. And in the final analysis, as the poet implies,
it is not the ideal that really counts but the experience
gained while pursuing it.
 'When you set out on the voyage to Ithaca,
pray that your journey may be long
full of adventures, full of knowledge.
CONSTANTINOS CAVAFIS