Editing Lefkada (section)

===Antiquity===
The island is linked to [[Odysseus]], the hero of [[Homer]]'s Odyssey, who ruled it and neighboring islands from Ithaca. The [[Germany|German]] archaeologist [[Wilhelm Dörpfeld]], having performed excavations at various locations of Lefkada, was able to obtain funding to do work on the island by suggesting that Lefkada was [[Homer's Ithaca]], and the [[palace]] of Odysseus was located west of [[Nydri]] on the south coast of Lefkada. There have been suggestions by local tourism officials that several passages in the [[Odyssey]] point 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, being connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. According to [[Strabo]], the coast of [[Acarnania]] was called Leucas in earlier times. 

The ancient sources call Leucas a Corinthian colony, perhaps with a [[Corcyra]]en participation.<ref>Colony and mother city in ancient Greece By A. J. Graham Page 132 {{ISBN|0-7190-0059-9}}</ref> There was a cult to Apollo Leucatos at the south western cape of the island, where  white cliffs stand that may have given its name to the island. This was a site where criminals were thrown (hence "Leucadian trial") in order to judge their guilt or innocence from their injury at the fall.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=William |date=1854 |title=“Leucas” entry from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Grography |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=leucas-geo02 |website=Tufts}}</ref> Furthermore, according to legend, it was the jumping spot of [[Sappho]] when she committed suicide out of frustrated love and also that of [[Artemisia I of Caria|Artemisia of Caria]], and therefore may have some connection to [[Aphrodite]]. 

During the [[Peloponnesian War]], Leucas joined the [[Peloponnesian League]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bagnall |first=Nigel |title=The Peloponnesian War: Athens, Sparta and the Struggle for Greece |date=25 July 2006 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-34215-2 |page=17}}</ref> Later, the town was conquered during the 3rd century BC by [[Agathocles of Syracuse]] and was annexed to the Roman Republic in the next century, during their conquest of Greece. The famous naval [[battle of Actium]] was fought not far away, to the north east.  

In [[Matter of Britain|medieval British legend]], [[Brutus of Troy]] found Lefkada abandoned after pirate attacks, and after offering a sacrifice to a statue of [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]] in the temple of a ruined city there, was granted a vision telling him to go to [[Great Britain|Britain]] and found an empire.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Anthony|last=Adolph|title=Brutus of Troy and the Quest for the Ancestry of the British|isbn=978-1473849181|date=2015|publisher=Pen and Sword }}</ref>

[[File:Expedición de Bruto a Aquitania (recortado).jpg|thumb|[[Brutus of Troy|Brutus]] in the temple on Lefkada (upper left) in a {{circa|1475}} tapestry now in the [[Cathedral of the Savior of Zaragoza]]]]