Naxos is one of the biggest greek islands in the group of islands called Cyclades and a perfect summer destination!
So let’s find out some more trivia and facts about Naxos!
- Naxos is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades
- It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture
- The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum
- Which until modern time was one of the best abrasives available
- The largest town and capital of the island is Chora or Naxos City
- With 6,533 inhabitants
- The main villages are Filoti, Apiranthos, Vivlos, Agios Arsenios, Koronos and Glynado
- According to Greek mythology, the young Zeus was raised in a cave on Mt. Zas (“Zas” meaning “Zeus”)
- Homer mentions “Dia”, literally the sacred island “of the Goddess”
- One legend has it that in the Heroic Age before the Trojan War, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on this island
- After she helped him kill the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth
- Dionysus (god of wine, festivities, and the primal energy of life) who was the protector of the island, met Ariadne and fell in love with her
- But eventually Ariadne, unable to bear her separation from Theseus, either killed herself (according to the Athenians), or ascended to heaven (as the older versions had it)
- The Naxos portion of the Ariadne myth is also told in the Richard Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos
- The giant brothers Otus and Ephialtes figure in at least two Naxos myths
- In one, Artemis bought the abandonment of a siege they laid against the gods, by offering to live on Naxos as Otus’s lover
- In another, the brothers had actually settled Naxos
- Naxos is a popular tourist destination, with several ruins
- It has a number of beaches
- Such as those at Agia Anna, Agios Prokopios, Alikos, Kastraki, Mikri Vigla, Plaka, and Agios Georgios, most of them near Chora
- As other cycladic islands, Naxos is considered a windy place perfect for windsurfing, as well as kitesurfing
- There are seven sports clubs in the island that offer both of these sports and other water activities
- Naxos is the most fertile island of the Cyclades
- It has a good supply of water in a region where water is usually inadequate
- Mount Zeus (1,004 metres or 3,294 feet) is the highest peak in the Cyclades
- And tends to trap the clouds, permitting greater rainfall
- This has made agriculture an important economic sector with various vegetable and fruit crops as well as cattle breeding
- Making Naxos the most self-sufficient island in the Cyclades
- Naxos is well known within Greece for its cheese, potatoes and Kitron, a local lemon-citrus spirit
- Zas Cave, inhabited during the Neolithic era, contained objects of stone from Melos and copper objects including a dagger and gold sheet.
- The presence of gold and other objects within the cave indicated to researchers the status of the inhabitant
- Emery was exported during that time, to other islands
- During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Naxos dominated commerce in the Cyclades
- Naxos was the first Greek city-state to attempt to leave the Delian League circa 476 BC
- Athens quickly squashed the notion and forcibly removed all military naval vessels from the island’s control
- Athens then demanded all future payments from Naxos in the form of gold rather than military aid
- Herodotus describes Naxos circa 500 BC as the most prosperous Greek island
- In 502 BC, an unsuccessful attack on Naxos by Persian forces led several prominent men in the Greek cities of Ionia to rebel against the Persian Empire in the Ionian Revolt
- And then to the Persian War between Greece and Persia
- Pope Martin I was detained on the island of Naxos for almost a year after he was arrested by Byzantine authorities in Rome
- Due to his holding of a synod that condemned monotheletism
- He was held on the island prior to being taken to Constantinople for trial
- While detained on the island, he wrote to a certain Theodore living in Constantinople
- Under the Byzantine Empire, Naxos was part of the thema of the Aegean Sea
- Which was established in the mid-9th century
- In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, the Venetian Marco Sanudo conquered the island
- Then, there was a Latin Emperor under the influence of the Venetians established at Constantinople
- And soon captured the rest of the islands of the Cyclades
- Of all the islands, only on Naxos was there any opposition to Sanudo
- A group of Genoese pirates had occupied the castle between the end of Byzantine rule and Sanudo’s arrival
- To steel his band’s resolve, Sanudo burnt his galleys “and bade his companions to conquer or die”
- The pirates surrendered the castle after a five weeks’ siege
- Naxos became the seat of Sanudo’s realm
- Which he ruled with the title of Duke of Naxia, or Duke of the Archipelago
- Twenty-one dukes in two dynasties ruled the Archipelago, until 1566
- Venetian rule continued in scattered islands of the Aegean until 1714
- Under Venetian rule, the island was called by its Italian name, Nasso
- The Ottoman administration remained essentially in the hands of the Venetians
- The Porte’s concern was satisfied by the returns of taxes
- Very few Turks ever settled on Naxos
- And Turkish influence on the island is slight
- Under Ottoman rule the island was known as Turkish: Nakşa
- Ottoman sovereignty lasted until 1821
- When the islands revolted
- Naxos finally became a member of the Greek state in 1832.
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