Project Overview

Homer's Ithaca is a website dedicated to one of the oldest unsolved questions in archaeology: where was the real Ithaca described in the Odyssey? The site presents the case, built over 35 years of collaborative research, that Homeric Ithaca was not the small island we call Ithaca today but the much larger island of Kefalonia, specifically the southeastern region around Poros and the Tzannata valley.

The research is anchored by a monumental Mycenaean tholos tomb discovered in Tzannata in 1991, one of the largest beehive tombs in northwestern Greece, alongside a Mycenaean settlement and megaron found nearby. These physical finds are combined with detailed geographic correspondences between Homer's original text and Kefalonia's actual topography: Mt. Ainos as Homer's "majestic Neriton," Melissani Cave as the Cave of the Nymphs, walking distances in the Odyssey matching the Poros-area terrain.

The site serves researchers, history enthusiasts, and general audiences curious about where Odysseus actually lived. It includes the theory, an interactive Homeric map, detailed pages on each archaeological excavation, and a dedicated section on the tholos tomb itself.

My Work

I designed and built the entire website in Framer as a pro bono project, working directly with Makis Metaxas, the Kefalonian researcher who first located the tholos tomb in 1991 and has spent over three decades coordinating the broader research effort.

I structured the site to make a complex, multi-layered archaeological argument accessible to a general audience. The homepage establishes the thesis. The Homeric Map page lets visitors explore how locations described in the Iliad and Odyssey correspond to real geography across the Ionian islands. A discoveries section documents each excavation site with findings, images, and context. A dedicated page on the tholos tomb covers the discovery, structure, contents, and significance of the most compelling physical evidence.

I handled the content architecture, deciding how to break a decades-long research project into navigable sections that work for both someone arriving from a Facebook share and someone doing serious research. The CMS structure lets Makis and the team add new excavation pages and updates as findings continue through 2026 and beyond.

I set up a donation platform and designed a merchandise line (t-shirts, apparel with the project's branding) to support ongoing hosting and maintenance costs. Both were integrated into the Framer site so the project could sustain itself without external funding. I also wrote the video announcement script for the site's launch, structured for Makis to present on camera using footage from the dig sites and the website itself. The video was designed for YouTube, social media, and embedding on the site.

Outcome

The site gives this research a permanent, accessible home for the first time. Before the website, the theory existed across a Greek-language book, scattered academic papers, a PBS documentary, and Facebook posts. Now there's a single bilingual resource that presents the archaeological evidence, the geographic argument, and the ongoing excavation work in one place.

The site launched ahead of renewed activity at the Tzannata site, with the tholos tomb approved for restoration and public opening, and new research findings expected through 2026. It also coincides with growing public interest in the Odyssey story.

Learnings

This project sat at the intersection of design and editorial judgment. The challenge wasn't visual complexity but information architecture: how do you present a theory that touches on Bronze Age archaeology, Homeric poetry, island geography, political history, and ongoing excavations without it reading like an academic paper or a conspiracy blog? The answer was giving each layer its own space (the map, the tomb, the discoveries) and letting visitors choose their depth.

Working on something I personally care about made the editorial decisions harder, not easier. It's tempting to include everything when the subject matter is close to you. The discipline was in cutting back to what a first-time visitor actually needs to understand and follow the argument, and trusting that the CMS structure means more detail can always be added later.