I T H 
this difcourfe have not concluded our weaknefs, I have 
one item more of mine; if knowledge can be found, I 
null lofe that which I thought I had, that there is none. 
Glanville. 
ITEMA'LES, an old man who expofed CEdipus on 
mount Cithasron, &c. Hygin. 65. 
ITENG', a fmall iflaxid in the Eaftern Indian Sea. Lat. 
6. 4.2. N. Ion. 132. 15. E. 
To IT'ERATE, v. a. [ itero , Lat.] To repeat; to ut¬ 
ter again; to inculcate by frequent mention.—There be 
two kinds of reflections of founds; the one at diltance, 
which is the echo, wherein the original is heard diftinftly, 
and the reflection alfo diftinCtly ; the other in concur¬ 
rence, when the found returned) immediately upon the 
original, and fo iterateth it not, but amplifieth it. Bacon .— 
To do over again.—Allies burnt, and well reverberated 
by fire, after the fait thereof hath been drawn out by ite¬ 
rated decoctions. Brown. 
Adam took no thought, 
Eating his fill; nor Eve to t^iate 
Her former trefpafs fear’d, the more to footh 
Him with her lov’d fociety. Milton. 
IT'ERANT, adj. Repeating.—Waters being near, 
make a current echo; but being farther off - , they make 
an iterant echo. Bacon. 
ITERATING, f. The aCt of repeating. 
ITERA'TION, f. [Fr. from iteratio, Lat.] Repetition ; 
recital over again.— Iterations are commonly lofs of time ; 
but there is no fuch gain of time, as to iterate often the 
ftate of the queftion ; for it chafeth away many a frivo¬ 
lous fpeech. Bacon. 
My hulband!—Ay, ’twas he that told me firft. 
-My hulband ! 
——What needs this .iteration, woman ? 
; fl.fay, thy hulband. Shakefpeare. 
IT'ERI, a town of the ifland of Sardinia; twelve miles 
fouth-eaft of Saflari. 
ITFU', or Etfu, a town of Egypt. See vol. vi. 
P- 353 - 
ITH'ACA, in ancient geography, an ifland in the Io¬ 
nian Sea, on the coaft of Epirus; the country of Ulyfles, 
near Dulichium, with a town and port lituated at the foot 
of Mount Neius. Homer. According to Pliny, it is about 
twenty-five miles in compafs; according to Artemidorus, 
ten; but it is now found to be only eight miles round. 
Much has been lately written on the fituation of Troy, 
and of the various places mentioned in the Iliad and 
Odyfley. Some have aflerted that, in the comparifon of 
places now exifting with the deferiptions of Homer, we 
ought not to expefl coincidence in minute details; yet it 
feems only by thele that the kingdom of Ulyfles, or any 
other, can be identified ; as, if fuch an idea be admitted, 
every fmall and rocky ifland in the Ionian Sea, containing 
a good port, might, with equal plauilbility, affume the 
appellation of Ithaca. The Venetian geographers have 
in a great degree contributed to raife thofe doubts which 
have exifted on the identity of the modern with the anci¬ 
ent Ithaca, by giving, in their charts, the name of Val di 
Compare to the ifland. That name is however totally 
unknown in the country, where the ifle is invariably called 
Ithaca by the upper ranks, and Theaki by the vulgar. 
The Venetians have equally corrupted the name of almoll 
every place in Greece; yet, as the natives of Epabtos or 
Naapadlos never heard of Lepanto, thofe of Zacynthos of 
Zante, or the Athenians of Settines, it would be as un¬ 
fair to rob Ithaca of its name on fuch authority, as it 
would be to afiert that no fuch ifland exifted, becaufe no 
tolerable reprefentation of its form can be found in the 
Venetian furveys. Some rare medals of the ifland might 
be adduced as a proof that the name of Ithaca was not 
loft during the reigns of the Roman emperors. They 
have the head of Ulyfles, recognifed by the pileurn, or 
pointed cap, while the reverie of one prefents the figure 
Vol. XI. No. 768. 
i T H 409 
of a cock, the emblem of his vigilance, with the legend 
I 0 AKJ 2 N. A few of thefe medals are preferved in the 
cabinets of the curious. Several inferiptions will tend to 
the confirmation of the idea that Ithaca was inhabited 
about the time when the Romans were matters of Greece; 
yet there is every reafon to belie,ve that few, if any, of 
the prefent proprietors of the foil are delcended from an- 
ceftors who had long refided fucceflively in the ifland. 
Even thofe who lived at the time of Ulyfles in Ithaca, feem 
to have been on the point of emigrating to Argos; and 
no chief remained, after the fecond in defeent from that 
hero, worthy of being recorded in hiftory. It appears 
that the ifle has been twice colonifed from Cephalonia in 
modern times 5 and a grant had been made by the Vene¬ 
tians, entitling each fettler in Ithaca to as much land as 
his circumftances would enable him to cultivate. 
The above remarks are from a publication exprefsly on 
the Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca, publifhed laft 
year (1810) by W. Gell, F. R. S. In the fecond chapter 
of this work, the author deferibes his landing in Ithaca, 
and arrival at the rockKorax, and the fountain Arethufa, 
as he defignates it with fufficient pofitivenefs. This rock, 
now known by the name of Korax, or Koraha-Petra, be 
contends to be the fame with that which Homer mentions 
as contiguous to the habitation of Eumaeus, the faithful 
fwineherd of Ulyfles. “ Ulyfles,” he obferves, “ came t-^ 
the extremity of the ifle to vifit Eumseus ; and that extre¬ 
mity was the molt fouthern; for Teiemachus, coming 
from Pylos, touched at the firft Ibuth-eattern part of 
Ithaca, with the fame intention. It is impoflible to vifit 
this fequeftered fpot without being ftruck with the recol- 
lebtion of the Fount of Arethufa and the Rock Korax 
which the poet mentions in the fame line, adding that 
there the fwine ate the delicious acorns, and drank the 
black water.” Mr. Gell continues: “Having patted fome 
time at the fountain, taken a drawing, and made the n&i 
ceflary obfervations on the fituation of the place, we pro¬ 
ceeded to an examination of the precipice, climbing over 
the terraces above the fource, among Ihady fig-trees, 
which, however, did not prevent us from feeling the pow¬ 
erful effects of the mid-day fun. After a fiiort but*fati- 
guing afcent, we arrived at the rock, which extends in a 
vaft perpendicular femicirele, beautifully fringed with 
trees, facing to the lonth-eaft. Under the crag we found 
two caves of inconfiderable extent; the entrance of one 
of which, not difficult of acccfs, is feen in the view of the 
fount. - They are (till the refort of llieep and goats,and ill 
one of them are fmall natural receptacles for the water, 
covered by a ftalagmitic incruftation. Thefe caves, being 
at the extremity of the curve formed by the precipice, 
open toward the fouth, and prefent us with another ac¬ 
companiment of the Fount of Arethufa, mentioned by the 
poet, who informs us that the fwineherd Eumaeus left 
his guefts in the houfe, whilft he, putting on a thick gar¬ 
ment, went to lleep near the herd, under the hollow of 
the rock, which ffieltered him from the northern blaft. 
Now we know that the herd fed near the fount; for Mi¬ 
nerva tells Ulyfles that he is to go firft to Eumaeus, whom 
he fliould find with the fwine, near the Rock Korax and 
the Fount of Arethula. As the fwine then fed at the 
fountain, fo it is neceflary that a cavern fhould be found 
in its vicinity; and this feems to coincide, in diftance and 
fituation, with that of the poem. Near the fount alfo, 
was the fold or ftathmos of Eumseus, for the goddefs in¬ 
forms Ulyfles that he fliould find his faithful fervant at or 
above the fount. Now.the hero meets the fwineherd clofe 
to the fold, which was conlequentiy very near that fource. 
At the top of the rock, and juft above the fpot where the 
waterfal flioots down the precipice, is at this day a ftagni, 
or paftoral dwelling, which the herdfmen of Ithaca ltill 
inhabit, on account of the water necelfary for their cat¬ 
tle. One of thefe people walked on the verge of the pre¬ 
cipice at the time of our vifit to the place, and feemed lo 
anxious to know how' we had been conveyed to the fpot, 
that his enquiries reminded us of a queftion probably not 
6 D uncommon 
