The legendary beginnings of a contemporary myth
Mykonos’ history is long, often turbulent and varied. With its tale of rags to riches( and vice versa), from ancient times to party times, the island of winds has always been at the epicenter of action.
Antiquity
Classical mythology connects Mykonos to Hercules. As the story goes, during the battle of the Titans, the legendary hero, who fights on the side of his father Zeus, succeeds in defeating the local Giants and imprisons them under the Mykonian rocky terrain.
The name of the island in this narrative indicates a“ stone pile” or“ stony place”. Likewise when ancient Strabo recounts the murder of the Giants, he – rather prophetically – writes“ all under a Mykonos”, which loosely translates to“( we are) all in the same boat”. This description seems to fit today’ s multicultural, cosmopolitan Mykonos like a glove.
According to a later tradition, the island is named after the hero Mykonos, son of Delos’ king Anios, who is in turn the son of god Apollo and the nymph Rhoio, a descendant of Dionysos. Mykonos is initially colonized by Egyptians, Icarians, Phoenicians and Minoans, and then by the Ionians. In antiquity the island’ s inhabitants who belong to the Delian League – Delos was the cradle of civilization at the time – extol the Dodecatheon deities, and especially Dionysos and his mother( and Zeus’ s tragic lover) Semeli. To honor them, Mykonians perform ceremonial sacrifices of goats, boars and lambs, while their coins typically depict Dionysos and his head. This dominant worship of Dionysos and the presence of the ancestral gods in their currency is linked to the people’ s mythological lineage.
Middle Ages
Later in history the island is conquered by the Romans and subsequently by the Byzantines. The later fortify Mykonos against the Arab raids of the 7th century and keep it under their dominion until the 12th century. After the fall of Constantinople, at the end of the 4th Crusade in 1204, the island is occupied by Andrea and Jeremia Ghisi – relatives of Dandolo, Doge of Venice. In 1292 it is looted and pillaged by the Catalans, and, subsequently, in 1390, handed over to the Venetians, by the last of the Ghisi dynasty. In 1537, while still under Venetian rule, the island suffers a catastrophic blow by Barbarossa, the infamous pirate and Suleiman the Magnificent’ s admiral.
Eventually, under the rule of Kapudan Pasha, head of the Ottoman fleet, the island becomes in effect self-governed. Its populace increases as immigrants flee from nearby islands and Crete at times of starvation and epidemics which often follow periods of conflict, until the late 18th century.
Mykonians are at the time considered accomplished sailors. They are also successful in trade and shipping, while piracy is another fruitful métier.
Many islanders are instrumental during the“ Orlof Insurrection”( 1770-74). This uprising ends favorably for them as well as for Catherine the Great, as they manage to secure profitable trade treaties between the Ottomans and the Russian Empire.
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