Ithaca (island) in the context of "Homer's Ithaca"

The Ionian Sea is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania (and western Apulia, Italy) to the north, and the west coast of Greece, including the Peloponnese.

All major islands in the sea, which are located in the east of the sea, belong to Greece. They are collectively named the Ionian Islands, the main ones being Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Lefkada, and Ithaca.

Philoctetes (Ancient Greek: Φιλοκτήτης, Philoktētēs; English pronunciation: /ˌfɪləkˈtiːtiːz/, stressed on the third syllable, -tet-) is a play by Sophocles (Aeschylus and Euripides also each wrote a Philoctetes but theirs have not survived). The play was written during the Peloponnesian War. It is one of the seven extant tragedies by Sophocles. It was first performed at the City Dionysia in 409 BC, where it won first prize. The story takes place during the last year of the Trojan War (after the majority of the events of the Iliad). It describes the attempt by Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, and Odysseus, king of Ithaca, to bring the disabled Philoctetes, the master archer, from the island of Lemnos to Troy in the hopes that he and his bow might help end the Trojan War.

The Ionian Islands were an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from the mid-14th century until the late 18th century. The conquest of the islands took place gradually. The first to be acquired was Cythera and the neighboring islet of Anticythera, indirectly in 1238 and directly after 1363. In 1386 the Council of Corfu, which was the governing body of the island, voted to make Corfu a vassal of Venice. During the Venetian period the Council remained the most powerful institution on the island. A century later, Venice captured Zante in 1485, Cephalonia in 1500 and Ithaca in 1503. These three islands modelled their administration on Corfu's model and formed their own councils. The conquest was completed in 1718 with the capture of Lefkada. Each of the islands remained part of the Venetian Stato da Màr until Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Republic of Venice in 1797. The Ionian Islands are situated in the Ionian Sea, off the west coast of Greece. Cythera, the southernmost, is just off the southern tip of the Peloponnese and Corfu, the northernmost, is located at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea. It is believed that the Venetian period on the Ionian Islands was generally prosperous, especially compared with the coinciding Tourkokratia — Turkish rule over the remainder of present-day Greece.

The governor of the Ionian Islands during the Venetian period was the Provveditore generale da Mar, who resided on Corfu. Additionally, each island's authorities were divided into the Venetian and the domestic authorities. The economy of the islands was based on exporting local goods, primarily raisins, olive oil and wine, whereas Venetian lira, the currency of Venice, was also the currency of the islands. Some features of the culture of Venice were incorporated in the culture of the Ionian Islands, thus influencing to this day local music, cuisine and language.

Ithaca (Greek: Ιθάκη) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of the Ionian Islands. The capital of the regional unit is the town of Vathy. The regional unit consists of the islands of Ithaca, Atokos, Arkoudi, Oxeia, Drakonera and several smaller islands, all in the Ionian Sea. It has one municipality, Ithaca. The municipality includes islets other than Ithaca including two near Cape Melissa, Arkoudi and Atokos to the northeast and the numerous islets in the Echinades Island group (the larger ones being Drakonera, Makri, Oxeia, Petalas, and Vromonas) to the east near the mainland of Aetolia-Acarnania. Its largest towns are Vathy (pop. 1,676 in 2021), Perachori (368), Stavros (327), Platreithias (221), and Kioni (131).

In 2011, as part of the Kallikratis plan, the previous prefecture of Cephalonia was divided into the regional units of Cephalonia and Ithaca.

Vathy (Greek: Βαθύ) or Vathi is the largest settlement on the Greek Ionian island of Ithaca and the seat of the Ithaca regional unit. It is located in the southern part of the island, in a deep natural harbour. According to the 2021 census, it has a population of 1,693.

In the Middle Ages, Ionian islands were subject to frequent pirate raids, which forced inhabitants to build settlements inland. Vathy was only formed in the 16th century, during the late Venetian rule, when the families living uphill in the settlement of Palaiochora ('old town'), began moving down to Vathi. In 1807, the French built a fortress on the Loutsa hill at the port entrance. The dockyard at the port operated throughout the 19th century, and over 200 ships were built during the period. Wealth from shipbuilding, trade and fishing caused expansion of population and house construction. During the British rule in the 19th century, the population rose to about 5,000. However, in the 1920s the naval activity dwindled, and the economy of Vathy stagnated.