It took Odysseus 20 years to crisscross the wine-dark sea, but it has taken far longer for Makis Metaxas to convince the world of his most earnest beliefs: Not only did Homer’s trickster hero exist, but he was buried on Kefalonia, a Greek island that may have been the “Ithaca” cited in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is a controversial theory. It does not make current-day islanders on nearby Ithaki very happy. But as one might say 3,000 years after the events in question, Mr. Metaxas has the receipts.

“Odysseus Returns” is a very intimate documentary, the small-o odyssey of Mr. Metaxas, an amateur archaeologist who in the early ’90s followed a crumb trail left by Homer himself. The physical descriptions of “Ithaca,” its geology, landscape and landmarks—including a “majestic” mountain, and a cave of nymphs that is “a wonder to see”—find obvious matches in Kefalonia. Look for them on modern-day Ithaki, as Mr. Metaxas does on what has historically been cited as the homeland of Odysseus, and one finds modest parallels. And that is being kind.

On Kefalonia, however, Mount Ainos and the island’s blue grotto certainly seem deserving of Homer’s praise. The gorge of Poros, a port town where Mr. Metaxas was once mayor, mirrors the “harbor of Rheithron” in Homer. Using it as a guide, Mr. Metaxas discovered, buried under brush, the entrance to a tomb.

No archaeological discoveries on Ithaki have ever matched the excavations of ancient Troy and Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s, but Mr. Metaxas’ efforts led to the unearthing of what was evidently a royal burial site of a beehive construction typical of noble mausoleums. It also had a false floor. Despite centuries of graverobbing, some of the relics remained, including gold ornaments and a seal carved out of rock crystal that was identified by Lazaros Kolonas, Greece’s leading archaeologist, as exactly the type used by Mycenaean nobility to prove their identity and which was one of the most important artifacts of the Bronze Age. Additionally, the design on the seal echoed one described by Homer, in denoting a prized possession of Odysseus.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/odysseus-returns-review-unearthing-myths-on-pbs/ar-AA1pxgrU