Ionian Islands

:This article is about the group of islands west of Greece. For the ancient region in western Anatolia, see Ionia.

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The Ionian Islands (Greek: Ionia Nisia, Ιόνια Νησιά; Ancient Greek: Ionioi Nisoi, Ιόνιοι Νήσοι) are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Seven Islands (in Greek Heptanisa or Eptanisa, Επτάνησα), but the group includes many smaller islands as well as the seven principal ones. The seven are, from north to south:

Related Topics:
Greek - Ancient Greek - Greece

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• Kerkyra (Κέρκυρα) usually known as Corfu in English
• Paxi (Παξοί) also known as Paxos in English
• Lefkada (Λευκάδα) also known as Lefkas in English
• Ithaki (Ιθάκη) usually known as Ithaca in English
• Kefallonia (Κεφαλλονιά) often known Cephalonia in English
• Zakynthos (Ζάκυνθος) sometimes known as Zante in English
• Kythira (Κύθηρα) sometimes known as Cerigo in English

The six northern islands are off the west coast of Greece, in the Ionian Sea. The seventh island, Kythira, is off the southern tip of the Peloponnisos, the southern part of the Greek mainland.

Related Topics:
Ionian Sea - Kythira - Peloponnisos

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Latin transliteration, as well as modern Greek pronunciation, may suggest that the Ionian Sea and Islands are somehow related to Ionia, an eastern Greek region. Note however that the Ionian Sea and Ionian Islands are spelt with an omicron, whereas Ionia (Ιωνία) has an omega. In modern Greek this is purely an spelling distinction, but the different pronunciations in ancient Greek would have eliminated the risk of confusion between the two areas. Furthermore in both ancient and modern Greek, the Ionian is stressed in the antepenultimate (i-O-nia) whereas Ionia in the penultimate (ion-I-a); also the proper adjective for Ionia is Ionic, not Ionian.

Related Topics:
Modern Greek - Ionia - Omicron - Omega - Ancient Greek - Antepenultimate - Penultimate - Ionic

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The islands themselves are known by a rather confusing variety of names. During the centuries of rule by Venice, they acquired Italian names, by which they some of them are still known in English. Ithaki was known as Val di Conspare, Kerkyra as Corfu, Kythera as Cerigo, Lefkada as Santa Maura and Zakynthos as Zante.

Related Topics:
Venice - Italian - Val di Conspare - Corfu - Cerigo - Santa Maura - Zante

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A variety of spellings is used for the Greek names of the islands, particularly in historical writing. Kefallonia is often spelled as Cephalonia, Ithaki as Ithaca, Kerkyra as Corcyra, Kythera as Cythera, Lefkada as Leucada or Leucas and Zakynthos as Zacinthus or Zacynthus. Older or variant Greek forms are sometimes also used: Kefallinia for Kefallonia and Paxos or Paxoi for Paxi.

Related Topics:
Cephalonia - Ithaca - Corcyra - Cythera - Leucada - Leucas - Zacinthus - Zacynthus - Kefallinia - Paxos

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Throughout this article the islands will be called by their modern Greek names.

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Ionian Islands: History ►