In ancient times it was a busy shipping lane, and one of the major routes for crossing from the northeast Mediterranean to the west. The cape was notorious for its bad weather at the time as well, most famously as recounted in the Odyssey. Homer describes how Odysseus on his return home to Ithaca rounds Cape Maleas only to be blown off course, resulting in his being lost for up to 10 years by some people's reckoning.