イタカ : オデュッセウスの故郷 <論文>

The reader of Homer knows that Ithaca is Odysseus' home island and the capital of his kingdom. Odyssey relates the story of his long homeward journey from Troy to Ithaca, where Penelope waits his return with her extraordinary patience.

But where indeed is ithaca? Is it a mythical realm which exists nowhere in the real world, or can it be located on a map, possibly as one of the Greek islands that retain their Homeric appelation?

Since antiquity, this has been a much-discussed issue, and many Homeric scholars, archaeologists and historians have tried to associate Homer's Ithaca with one or another of the Ionian Islands. In this article, I will reexamine the problem from a philological as well as an archaeological point of view, to see whether it is possible to recognize our Homeric Ithaca in present-day Ithaki, the small, barren island off the Acharnanian coast.

The relevant passages in the Homeric poems seem to coincide in general with the topographical detail of Ithaki. The exact location of the Homeric capital is still in question, but the Mycenaean ruins found at Pelikata have some probability of being the 'asty' rather than those at Aetos, which are occasionally associatedwith the archaic town of Alalkomenal. Moreover, objects of extreme interest have been found --- 4-3cB.C. coins with the image of Odysseus, twelve geometric bronze tripods and a fragment of a 2cB.C. votive clay mask with the inscription "my vow to Odysseus" --- which strongly suggest the identity of the island with that of Homer's.

There have been theories, however, that Homeric Ithaca was situated somewhere else, of which the most outstanding was expressed by the German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld. But as a result of refutations and excavations, his theory that the island of Levkas was Homer's Ithaca proved to be groundless.

Therefore, at this point, I consider that Homeric Ithaca is identifiable with present-day Ithaki, although further excavations areexpected to cast new light on the problem.