The Ionian Islands are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, but the group includes many smaller islands as well as the seven principal ones; as a distinct historic region they date to the centuries-long Venetian rule, which preserved them from becoming part of the Ottoman Empire, created a distinct cultural identity with many Italian influences. The Ionian Islands became part of the modern Greek state in 1864. Administratively today they belong to the Ionian Islands Region except for Kythera, which belongs to the Attica Region; the seven islands are. The seventh island, Kythira, is off the southern tip of the Peloponnese, the southern part of the Greek mainland. Kythira is not part of the region of the Ionian Islands. In Ancient Greek the adjective Ionios was used as an epithet for the sea between Epirus and Italy in which the Ionian Islands are found because Io swam across it. Although they have the same Latin transliteration and Modern Greek pronunciation, the Ionian Sea and Islands are not related to Ionia, an Anatolian region.

The two words are still distinguished by stress: the western "Ionia" is accented on the antepenult, the eastern on the penult. In English, the adjective relating to Ionia is Ionic, not Ionian; the islands themselves are known by a variety of names. During the centuries of rule by Venice, they acquired Venetian names, by which some of them are still known in English. Kerkyra was known as Corfù, Ithaki as Val di Compare, Kythera as Cerigo, Lefkada as Santa Maura and Zakynthos as Zante. A variety of spellings are used for the Greek names of the islands in historical writing. Kefallonia is spelled as Cephallenia or Cephalonia, Ithaki as Ithaca, Kerkyra as Corcyra, Kythera as Cythera, Lefkada as Leucas or Leucada and Zakynthos as Zacynthus or Zante. Older or variant Greek forms are sometimes used: Kefallinia for Kefallonia and Paxos or Paxoi for Paxi; the islands were settled by Greeks at an early date as early as 1200 BC, by the 9th century BC. The early Eretrian settlement at Kerkyra was displaced by colonists from Corinth in 734 BC.

The islands were a backwater during Ancient Greek times and played little part in Greek politics. The one exception was the conflict between Kerkyra and its mother-City Corinth in 434 BC, which brought intervention from Athens and triggered the Peloponnesian War. Ithaca was the name of the island home of Odysseus in the epic Ancient Greek poem the Odyssey by Homer. Attempts have been made to identify Ithaki with ancient Ithaca, but the geography of the real island cannot be made to fit Homer's description. Archeological investigations have revealed findings in both Ithaca. By the 4th century BC, most of the islands were absorbed into the empire of Macedon; some remained under the control of the Macedonian Kingdom until 146 BC, when the Greek peninsula was annexed by Rome. After 400 years of peaceful Roman rule, the islands passed to the Eastern Byzantine Empire. Under Byzantine rule, from the mid-8th century, they formed the theme of Cephallenia; the islands were a frequent target of Saracen raids and from the late 11th century, saw a number of Norman and Italian attacks.

Most of the islands fell to William II of Sicily in 1185. Corfu and Lefkas remained under Byzantine control. Kefallonia and Zakynthos became the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos until 1357, when this entity was merged with Lefkada and Ithaki to become the Duchy of Leucadia under French and Italian dukes. Corfu and Kythera were taken by the Venetians in 1204, after the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire by the Fourth Crusade; these became important overseas colonies of the Republic and were used as way-stations for their maritime trade with the Levant. From 1204, the Republic of Venice controlled Corfu and all the Ionian islands fell under Venetian rule. In the 15th century, the Ottomans conquered most of Greece, but their attempts to conquer the islands were unsuccessful. Zakynthos passed permanently to Venice in 1482, Kefallonia and Ithaki in 1483, Lefkada in 1502. Kythera had been in Venetian hands since 1238; the islands thus became the only part of the Greek-speaking world to escape Ottoman rule.

Corfu was the only Greek island never conquered by the Turks. Under Venetian rule, many of the upper classes spoke Italian and converted to Roman Catholicism, but the majority remained Greek ethnically and religiously. In the 18th century, a Greek national independence movement began to emerge, the free status of the Ionian islands made them the natural base for exiled Greek intellectuals, freedom fighters and foreign sympathisers; the islands became more self-consciously Greek as the 19th century, the century of romantic nationalism, neared. In 17

Rowan Oak known as William Faulkner House, is William Faulkner's former home in Oxford, Mississippi. It is a primitive Greek Revival house built in the 1840s by Robert Sheegog. Faulkner purchased the house when it was in disrepair in the 1930s and did many of the renovations himself. Other renovations were done in the 1950s; the house sits on 4 landscaped and twenty nine acres of wooded property known as Bailey's Woods. One of its more famous features is the outline of Faulkner's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel A Fable, penciled in graphite and red on the plaster wall of his study. Though the "rowan oak" is a mythical tree, the grounds and surrounding woods of Rowan Oak contain hundreds of species of native Mississippi plants, most of which date back to antebellum times; the alley of cedars. The studs of the house are 4 "x4" square cypress. Faulkner drew much inspiration for his treatment of multi-layered Time from Rowan Oak, where past and future seemed to inhabit the present. In 1972, his daughter, Jill Faulkner Summers, sold the house to the University of Mississippi.

The University maintains the home. Tours are available; the home has been visited by such writers as John Updike, Czesław Miłosz, Charles Simic, Richard Ford, James Lee Burke, Bei Dao, Charles Wright, Charles Frazier, Alice Walker, the Coen brothers, Bobbie Ann Mason, Salman Rushdie, others. Writer Mark Richard once repaired a faulty doorknob on the French door to Faulkner's study. Rowan Oak was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968. After its most recent renovations, some of which were funded by part-time Oxford resident and Ole Miss law school alumnus, John Grisham, Rowan Oak was rededicated on May 1, 2005; the current curator of Rowan Oak is William Griffith. Past curators include the novelists Cynthia Shearer; the original curator was Bev Smith, an Ole Miss alum, responsible for finding a great deal of Faulkner's original manuscripts hidden within the home. University of Mississippi Museums Page Inside Rowan Oak: short video about Faulkner and Rowan Oak, with Close-Ups of a Novel Draft that Faulkner Wrote on His Office Wall A Photo Tour of Rowan Oak, With Commentary RowanOak.com - Picture gallery and visitor information William Faulkner on the Web - Includes detailed, interactive map of the grounds "Writings of William Faulkner", broadcast from Rowan Oak from C-SPAN's American Writers

Rodd Point is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 9 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Rodd Point sits on the Parramatta River. Rodd Point is adjacent to the suburbs of Russell Lea. Rodd Island is a small island in Iron Cove, just off Rodd Point; the Rodd Point memorial sits beside the Dobroyd Aquatic Club. Rodd Park is colloquially known as "Point"; the Bay Run passes beside Rodd Park and is popular with joggers and cyclists. Rodd Point is named after the Rodd family who contributed to the area for a century, includes land bought by Brent Clements Rodd from the Five Dock Farm estate in 1836. Rodd had a large family of 12 children and many of the local streets are named after members of the Rodd family: Brent, Burnell, Janet, Rodd and Undine. Barnstaple Road takes its name from Barnstaple Manor, Rodd's family home which in turn took its name from his birthplace in Britain.

The Rodd Point memorial in Rodd Park was the Rodd family mausoleum. The bodies were moved to Rookwood Cemetery in 1903. Rodd Island, close to Rodd Point, is named after Brent Clements Rodd. During the nineteenth century Rodd Island was used by scientists sent by Louis Pasteur to investigate ways of eradicating rabbits. Since it has been used as a recreation reserve and is now part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. Rodd Park is locally known as "Point"; the Dobroyd Aquatic Club was founded in 1937 and commenced sailing activities from a site at Haberfield, near the Haberfield Rowing club. All classes of boats were allowed to compete; the site was resumed by the Department of Main Roads in 1962 and a new clubhouse opened on 8 October 1964. The building, containing all the member's boats, burnt down in 2005; the club was insured and rebuilt. Funds were raised for the club members. Dobroyd Aquatic Club