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The largest of the Ionian Islands, along the western coast of Greece (area 2).
Cephalonia owes its name to the mythological hero Cephalus, son of Deion (a son of Æolus, eponym of the Æolians, himself a son of Hellen and grandson of Deucalion) and of Diomede (the daughter of Xouthus, another son of Hellen, and of Creüsa, daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens). After Cephalus had killed his wife Procris (a sister of his grandmother Creüsa), he was exiled from Athens by the Areopagus and joined Amphitryon, then in exile in Thebes, whom he helped in his war against the Taphians, the inhabitants of the nearby island of Taphos. After the war was over, Cephalus settled in the island that was named Cephallenia (now Cephalonia) after him Cephalus is sometimes listed as the father, or grandfather, of Arcisius, the father of Lærtius, who became king of the nearby island of Ithaca and was the father of Ulysses.