About Mouse Island

Mouse Island or Pontikonissi, is a small, hilly and densely wooded island that legend says was formed when the ship that had taken Odysseus back to Ithaki returned to its home port. Poseidon, who was angry at being defied by the Phaeceans, turned the ship to stone. The 13th century Monastery of Pantocrator on Mouse Island, has a winding, white staircase that from a distance looks like a mouse's tail, is another explanation for its name. The chapel houses the memorial tablets of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and her husband Rudolfo