Homeric Coins May Point to Ithaca (original) (raw)

Much research since ancient times has sought to locate Odysseus’ Ithaca, described by Homer as being west of an island group. Numismatic evidence seems to have been largely neglected, even though it preserves mythology and traditions from the distant past. This paper surveys the coins of the most commonly accepted region of Ithaca, the islands of the Ionian Sea west of Greece. Minting began there in about 500 BC, less than three centuries after Homer’s composition of the Odyssey as we know it. Coins that illustrate gods, characters, and symbols are selected and ranked by the significance of their associations with Ithaca as described in the Odyssey. The results seem to support the location of Ithaca in the area of western Kephalonia.