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Naxos

According to tradition Naxos took its name from the King of the Karians who were its first inhabitants, and were succeeded by the Cretans and Ionians.

In ancient records it shows other names, such as Tragia, Dia, Strogili, Dionyssas, Mikra Sikilia and Heraklia. However, it was perhaps best known as the island where Theseus callously abandoned the sleeping Ariadne on his way home from Crete, where she had helped him to kill the Minotaur.

The capital of the island has always been in roughly the same place, although it was originally known as Kaliopolis.

From the seventh century B.C. onwards the island became known for the high quality of the sculptures produced in its marble workshops including such masterpieces as the famous Lions of Delos and the huge statues of youths generally known as "Kouros".

In the sixth century B.C. Naxos reached the peak of its glory, under the leadership of the tyrant Lygdamis, whose eventual downfall, however, led to the abandoning of several ambitious building projects, such as the uncompleted "Portara temple".

After the Persian war in the fifth century B.C. Naxos came under Athenian rule and later passed to the Macedonian Empire in the fourth century B.C. Later the island was controlled by the Egyptian Ptolemies, and after them received its orders from Rhodes as part of the Roman Empire.

Christianity came to the island early, brought by the apostle John from Patrnos in the first century A.D. while the Romans were still in power. Their successors, the Byzantines lost control of the island to the Venetians during the Fourth Crusade.

In the 1204 Marco Sanudo took over Naxos and organized most of the archipelago into a Duchy of Naxos with himself, naturally, as the first Duke. He and his successors, although ruling with a heavy hand, continued in power until the Turkish take-over in 1566, when the infamous Barbarossa conquered and plundered the island. Turkish rule was briefly interrupted by the Russians in 1770-1774 and was finally ended in 1821, by the war of Independence in which Naxians played a notable role. In 1832 the island was finally united with the rest of Greece.

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