On Screen · Late Bronze Age (legendary setting) · Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
Ithaca hopes Nolan's The Odyssey brings tourists, though no scenes were filmed there
The Greek island traditionally identified as Odysseus' home asked to be included in the production, and its mayor now expects the film's effect on visitor numbers in 2027.
News reports
Ithaca, Greece The Greek island of Ithaca, traditionally identified as the home of Homer's Odysseus, hopes Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey will bring more visitors. Not a single scene of the film was shot on the island.
The film was released worldwide on 16 July. The production used several locations in Greece, but Ithaca was not among them. Khaleej Times reports that this disappointed some of the island's roughly 3,000 residents.
Mayor Dionysis Stanitsas said the island had asked to be included. Neos Kosmos reports that he told news.com.au:
We had reached out to the production team and asked that some scenes be filmed here on the island. Unfortunately, that wasn't feasible.
Dionysis Stanitsas, Mayor of Ithaca
Stanitsas still called the publicity "tremendous". Ithaca was already fully booked for this summer by the time the film came out. He expects the effect to show during the 2027 tourism season.
As more people see it, they will begin planning trips to visit the island.
Dionysis Stanitsas, Mayor of Ithaca
A small island away from the crowds
Ithaca lies in the Ionian Sea off the west coast of mainland Greece. It is far from the country's main tourist hubs. Both reports describe clear waters, quiet bays and hills of olive and cypress trees. Even so, the island has largely avoided the mass tourism seen elsewhere in Greece.
Xhimi Xoxha runs a restaurant in Vathi, the island's capital. He said the film was already "generating publicity for the island" and expects the benefits to continue. Some visitors already come for the epic itself.
One of them is Giorgia Ongarato, a 50-year-old Italian lawyer. Khaleej Times quotes her as saying she studied Greek and the Odyssey as a child. She called Nolan's film "wonderful".
Odysseus on statues and souvenirs, but no palace
Visitors will not find a grand palace of Odysseus. Nor is there a major archaeological site confirming that the hero existed. Instead, the poem runs through everyday island life. Statues of Odysseus and Homer stand in village squares and near the town hall.
Boats in the small ports carry the names Telemachus, after Odysseus' son, and Calypso, after the nymph who held him captive. Souvenir shops sell busts of Homer and Penelope, Odysseus' wife. They also sell T-shirts showing the Cyclops Polyphemus and plates decorated with the Trojan Horse.
Dexia beach lies a short distance from Vathi. According to legend, this is where Odysseus finally came ashore after years of wandering.
The Odyssey is an epic poem that grew out of the Greek oral tradition. Most scholars date it to around the 8th or 7th century BC. It tells of a hero returning from the Trojan War, which Greek tradition placed centuries earlier, in the Late Bronze Age. Scholars have long debated whether the modern island is the Ithaca Homer had in mind.
Archaeologist Spyros Couvaras expects a significant rise in visitors. He said more travellers now look beyond beaches for history and mythology. In his view, Nolan's adaptation is clearly driving the renewed interest.
But behind Nolan's film stands Homer.
Spyros Couvaras, archaeologist
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