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Skyros
Skyros (Modern Greek: Σκύρος, pronounced [ˈsciros]), in some historical contexts Latinized Scyros (Ancient Greek: Σκῦρος, Attic Greek pronunciation: [skŷːros]), is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost inhabited island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes; later, it was consecutively known as Pelasgia, Dolopia, and finally Skyros. At 209 km2 (81 sq mi), it is the largest island of the Sporades, and had a population of about 3,000 in 2021.
The municipality Skyros is part of the regional unit of Euboea. Apart from the island Skyros, the municipality consists of the small inhabited island of Skyropoula and a few smaller uninhabited islands. The total area of the municipality is 223.10 km2 (86 sq mi).
One account associates the name Skyros with skyron or skiron, meaning "stone debris". The island had a reputation for its decorative stone.
According to Greek mythology, Theseus died on Skyros when the local king, Lycomedes, threw him from a cliff. The island is also famous in the myths as the place from where Achilles set sail for Troy after Odysseus discovered him in the court of Lycomedes. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, was from Skyros (or Scyros, as its name is sometimes transliterated), as told in Book Nineteen of the Iliad (lines 326-327) and in the play by Sophocles, Philoctetes (line 239). A small bay named Achili on the east coast of the island is said to be the place from where Achilles left with the Greeks, or rather where Achilles landed during a squall that befell the Greek fleet following an abortive initial expedition landing astray in Mysia.
In c. 475 BC, according to Thucydides (1.98), Cimon defeated the Dolopians (the original inhabitants) and conquered the entire island. From that date, Athenian settlers colonized it and it became a part of the Athenian Empire. The island lay on the strategic trade route between Attica and the Black Sea (Athens depended on supplies of grain reaching it through the Hellespont). Cimon claimed to have found the remains of Theseus, and returned them to Athens.
In 340 BC, the Macedonians took over the island and dominated it until 192 BC, when King Philip V of Macedon and the Roman Republican forces restored it to Athens.
After the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, the island became part of the domain of Geremia Ghisi. The Byzantines retook it in 1277. After the Fall of Constantinople, Venetians again ruled the island until 1538, when it passed to the Ottoman Empire. It became part of the new Greek state in 1830.
In 1848, Captain Thomas Graves surveyed Skyros for the British Admiralty in the frigate HMS Volage. He travelled around the island, and a record of his observations was published the following year.
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Skyros
Skyros (Modern Greek: Σκύρος, pronounced [ˈsciros]), in some historical contexts Latinized Scyros (Ancient Greek: Σκῦρος, Attic Greek pronunciation: [skŷːros]), is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost inhabited island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes; later, it was consecutively known as Pelasgia, Dolopia, and finally Skyros. At 209 km2 (81 sq mi), it is the largest island of the Sporades, and had a population of about 3,000 in 2021.
The municipality Skyros is part of the regional unit of Euboea. Apart from the island Skyros, the municipality consists of the small inhabited island of Skyropoula and a few smaller uninhabited islands. The total area of the municipality is 223.10 km2 (86 sq mi).
One account associates the name Skyros with skyron or skiron, meaning "stone debris". The island had a reputation for its decorative stone.
According to Greek mythology, Theseus died on Skyros when the local king, Lycomedes, threw him from a cliff. The island is also famous in the myths as the place from where Achilles set sail for Troy after Odysseus discovered him in the court of Lycomedes. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, was from Skyros (or Scyros, as its name is sometimes transliterated), as told in Book Nineteen of the Iliad (lines 326-327) and in the play by Sophocles, Philoctetes (line 239). A small bay named Achili on the east coast of the island is said to be the place from where Achilles left with the Greeks, or rather where Achilles landed during a squall that befell the Greek fleet following an abortive initial expedition landing astray in Mysia.
In c. 475 BC, according to Thucydides (1.98), Cimon defeated the Dolopians (the original inhabitants) and conquered the entire island. From that date, Athenian settlers colonized it and it became a part of the Athenian Empire. The island lay on the strategic trade route between Attica and the Black Sea (Athens depended on supplies of grain reaching it through the Hellespont). Cimon claimed to have found the remains of Theseus, and returned them to Athens.
In 340 BC, the Macedonians took over the island and dominated it until 192 BC, when King Philip V of Macedon and the Roman Republican forces restored it to Athens.
After the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, the island became part of the domain of Geremia Ghisi. The Byzantines retook it in 1277. After the Fall of Constantinople, Venetians again ruled the island until 1538, when it passed to the Ottoman Empire. It became part of the new Greek state in 1830.
In 1848, Captain Thomas Graves surveyed Skyros for the British Admiralty in the frigate HMS Volage. He travelled around the island, and a record of his observations was published the following year.