Theseus went to Crete
to kill the Minotaur (half bull, half man) for whom 7
young boys and 7 young girls from Athens had to be sacrificed
every year.
Because the Minotaur was in a labyrinth inside the palace
of Knossos, Ariadne, King Minos’s daughter, help Theseus
because she fell in love with him.
On the returning trip to Athens, Theseus left Ariadne
on the island of Naxos; the island’s king was Dionysus
who fell in love with the young girl and had four sons
with her; among them was Staphylos and Peparithos from
which the capital of Skopelos took its first name.
On the bay where Staphylos is suppose to have disembark,
precious findings of a tomb (supposed to be Staphylos’
one) containing golden treasures have been excavated in
1936; the golden sceptre found there is now in the Archaeological
Museum of Volos and the sword hilt in the Archaeological
Museum of Athens.
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the
island seafaring, trade and transportation so Skopelos
became quite wealthy and enjoyed a period of prosperity.
In the 5th century started the Persian Wars during which
the island remained neutral. At the end of the wars, Peparithos
(Skopelos) join the Athenian Delian League and implanted
a democratic political system.
The winners of the Peloponnesian war, the Spartians, replaced
the democratic system of the island with an oligarchic
policy.
Then the island was successively conquest by the tyrant
Alexander of Pherres, the Macedonians and the Romans who
re-established a democratic political system.
During Roman times trade re-flourished in Peparithos and
wine export expanded.
In the 2nd century AD Ptolemy the Geographer is the first
one to refer to Peparithos as Skopelos, probably as a
reference to the many reefs surrounding the island.
Since then, the island kept this new name.
Christianity appeared in Skopelos in the 3rd century AD
and spread quickly. |
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In 1538 the Turk pirate Barbarossa attacked the island
and slaughtered its inhabitants; some of them survived
and escaped to Evia and Thessaly; they return to their
homeland much later. In Sedoukia there are Pirate Graves, a reminder of invasions of the past.
Many years
after this massacre, the Turkish occupation began during
which the inhabitants of Skopelos (the few survivor and
new settlers) were self-governed and paid a tax to the
Turks.
During 1750
the spirit of revolution spread and the first Greek partisans
and guerilleros started to seek refuge in Skopelos which
participated in the Revolution and became part of the
liberated New Greek State in 1830. |
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