Ithaca is a Greek island situated in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Greece. With a permanent population around 3,500 it is the second smallest inhabited island of the Ionian Islands group (Heptanese).
Ithaca's history dates back some 6000 years since when the island has been continuously inhabited.
Ithaca is famed for being the kingdom of the wily King Odysseus, the hero of Trojan Wars who took 20 years to return to Ithaca, and immortalised in Homer's epic 'The Odyssey'.
During the island's long history, a series of conquerors (Roman, Byzantine, Norman, Venetian, French, Russian, Turkish, English) left their mark on the history and culture of Ithaca.
The capital of Ithaca is Vathi and there are fourteen picturesque villages dotted around the island. Today, these villages are sparsely populated with many Ithacans having migrated to the four corners of the globe.
Ithacans have always been a seafaring people and like their famous ancestor, Odysseus, fond of travelling. Since the mid 1800s Australia has been a preferred destination for migrating Ithacans with the earliest Ithacans to arrive here being Georgios Morfesis (in 1840) and Andreas Lekatsas from Exoghi (in 1845). Indeed the latter took part in the Eureka Stockade uprising.
