Epic obsession of an amateur leads to the home of Odysseus

For centuries, scholars the world over have argued over the whereabouts of the lost kingdom, ruled over by one of the Greek heroes of the Trojan war.

Now thanks to 21st-century computer technology, space photography and the obsession of a management consultant from Surrey, the riddle may have been solved.

Robert Bittlestone, backed up by two classical experts, believes the island described in the epic poem is now part of the Ionian tourist destination of Cephalonia.

Using satellite imagery and 3D global visualisation techniques developed by Nasa to look for clues, Mr Bittlestone, the chairman of the UK management consultancy Metapraxis, came up with his theory after undertaking field trips in western Greece and using his computer to analyse literary, geological and archaeological data.

He enlisted the help of James Diggle, professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Cambridge, and John Underhill, professor of stratigraphy at the University of Edinburgh, who agreed with his findings.

Details of what has been called "one of the most important classical discoveries since the unearthing of Troy in north-western Turkey in the 1870s" have now been revealed in a book.

Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer's Ithaca claims that earthquakes and uplift from the sea have filled in a narrow channel which separated Cephalonia from its western peninsular, Paliki.

Yesterday Professor Diggle explained that there was evidence to suggest that the island of Ithaca was, in the time of Homer, called Doulichion - but Roman poets had started using its present name in the centuries around the birth of Christ.

"In the first century BC there was no longer an island of Ithaca because the channel had filled up but people needed ... a homeland for Odysseus and the only available island was Doulichion," he said.

Various suggestions for the true location of Ithaca have included almost every other Ionian island off the coast of western Greece including Cephalonia. But Mr Bittlestone and his team have reconstructed the former layout of the islands and believe they have at last provided a "compelling" solution to the mystery.

Almost all of the 26 locations that are described in detail in The Odyssey can be identified in northern Paliki, he said. "It has flabbergasted us that if you take the literal interpretation of The Odyssey and compare it with the internal topography of the island you find that The Odyssey fits Paliki like a glove," he said.

He added: "If you walk around this region armed with a copy of The Odyssey and look at the clues... you have to ask yourself, can this be coincidental?"