Odysseus reaches Ithaca in the Homeric text and also in the modern Odyssey. He had really reached there when the new poem begins. Ithaca preserves the symbology which had in the Homeric text, but it acquires a new role. In the island, Odysseus reaffirms his identity: he is the same hero who participated in the Trojan war, fought against adversities and temptation for ten years, without losing the will to return to his land and home. He recognizes his territory, buries his father and accompanies his son in the latter's wedding. Now it is also the point of departure: Odysseus sails from it in a new voyage, perhaps longer than the previous one and with no return. The beloved island remains as such. Loving it, the hero abandons it. In his very long voyage to death on he Antarctic ices he often remembers it.
Castillo Didier, M. (2010). Kazantzakis’ Odyssey. Ithaca, point of arrival and departure. Byzantion Nea Hellás, (29), Pág. 191–208. Retrieved from https://revistasaludpublica.uchile.cl/index.php/RBNH/article/view/18113
