The need for a substantial cultural promotion of Ithaca is brought back to the forefront by Angela Gerekou with a personal intervention, against the backdrop of the two projects that are already underway, the construction of the Digital Odyssey Center and the restart of archaeological research at the Homeric School, under the scientific guidance of Professor Yiannos Lolos and in collaboration with the University of Ioannina, the Ephorate of Antiquities and the Municipality of Ithaca.
These are ideas that were first formulated in 2019, during a conference of the Greek Network of Small Islands, at the initiative of Mayor Dionysis Stanitsa, as she says in a post. Five years later, however, they are beginning to take shape and bring with them a historic opportunity: to transform Ithaca into a global symbol of culture, identity, and self-awareness.
As Angela Gerekou notes, Ithaca is not just a tourist destination. It is a symbolic place, one of the few in the world where myth can meet science. Odysseus is not just a mythical hero – he is memory, perseverance, and faith in the cause. Ithaca, with its symbolic weight, can speak globally, function as a point of reference for every person seeking the “return”, she explains.
She refers with respect to the work of the late archaeologist Litsa Kontorli-Papadopoulou, who dedicated her life to the scientific documentation of Ithaca as the homeland of Odysseus – a work that was not supported as much as it should have been.
Aiming at a cultural restart, Angela Gerekou puts forward specific proposals such as:
Promoting the archaeological site with gentle interventions and documentation.
Establishment of a Center for Homeric Cultural Identity with an international orientation.
Organization of a conference on the topic: “Odysseus – Myth, Memory and History” in Ithaca.
Creation of a digital documentary with international distribution.
Design of a Corfu-Ithaca cultural route that will unite the myth with the present.
“Let us give Odysseus his home–not only with stones and signs, but with cultural generosity and national consciousness”, she declares. “Because Ithaca does not belong only to us. It belongs to every person who makes–or hopes to make–his own Odyssey”, underlines the president of the Greek National Tourism Organization.
