The myth about\u00a0Sappho’s suicide at Cape Lefkada (named “Dukato”) is related to other myths linking the island to the ancient Greek goddess of love,\u00a0Aphrodite, and to\u00a0Odysseus, the hero of\u00a0Homer’s Odyssey. The\u00a0German\u00a0archaeologist\u00a0Wilhelm D\u00f6rpfeld, having performed excavations at various locations of Lefkada, was able to obtain funding to do work on the island by suggesting that Lefkada wasHomer’s Ithaca, and the\u00a0palace\u00a0of Odysseus was located west of\u00a0Nidri\u00a0on the south coast of Lefkada. There have been suggestions by local tourism officials that several passages in the\u00a0Odyssey\u00a0point to Lefkada as a possible model for Homeric Ithaca. The most notable of these passages pushed by the local tourism board describes Ithaca as an island reachable on foot, which was the case for Lefkada since it is not really an island, that it was connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. According to\u00a0Strabo, the coast of\u00a0Acarnania\u00a0was called Leucas in earlier times. The ancient sources call Leucas a Corinthian colony, perhaps with a\u00a0Corcyraen\u00a0participation. During the\u00a0Peloponnesian War\u00a0Leucas had joined the\u00a0Spartan Confederation.<\/p>\n
Lefkada measures 35 km from north to south, and 15 km from east to west. Its area is 336 km2. Its highest point is the mountain\u00a0Stavrota, 1158 m elevation, situated in the middle of the island.<\/p>\n
Lefkas has a distinctive flavour, partly Ionian, partly Epirot.
\nThe east coast is sheltered, pretty and shingly, with pine and olive trees to the water\u2019s edge. There are good views too, across to the mainland or the four Prince\u2019s Islets in the strait.<\/p>\n
The west coast is very different \u2013 rugged and open, with sheer white cliffs towering above an azure sea and fabulous beaches, some only reached by boat. The mountainous interior is delightfully green with many working villages to explore. Some, such as Karia, are known for their traditional crafts (in this case embroidery). All can be easily reached by car. Lefkas is noted for its wine, and an annual festival of folk dancing, held in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lefkada, is a\u00a0Greek\u00a0island\u00a0in the\u00a0Ionian Sea\u00a0on the west coast of Greece, connected to the mainland by a long\u00a0causeway\u00a0and\u00a0floating bridge. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is\u00a0Lefkada.\u00a0It is situated on the northern part of the island, approximately 20 minutes by automobile away from\u00a0Aktion National Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/krasos.gr\/greecesailndive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}