Ikaria, also spelled Icaria (; ), is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, 10 nautical miles (19 km) southwest of Samos. Administratively, Ikaria forms a separate municipality within the Ikaria regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean administrative region.
According to tradition, it derives its name from Icarus, the son of Daedalus in Greek mythology, who was believed to have fallen into the sea nearby and to have been buried on the island.
Geography and topography
Ikaria is one of the middle islands of the eastern (and northern) Aegean Sea, in area with of coastline and a population of 8,312 inhabitants (2021). It is bounded by Samos to its east, Fournoi to its southeast, Chios and the Anatolian mainland to the north and the Cyclades islands to its west and far south.
The topography contrasts between verdant slopes and barren steep rocks. The island is mountainous for the most part. The entire island is crossed east-west by the Aitheras (Αιθέρας) mountain range, whose highest summit stands at and splits the island between north and south. The north side tends to be greener and more fertile, predominantly hilly and increasingly mountainous towards the south, with large forests of mainly Aleppo pine and oak, with very few olive trees. The south tends to be rockier, drier and with harsher terrain, with steep cliffs towering several hundred meters above the sea. The central part of the island, called Mesaria by the locals (roughly the same area covered by Evdilos prefecture), is its most fertile area and the ancient centre of the island. To the west of it lies the Raches region and its villages, the island's most popular region amongst visitors for its traditional settlements and cultural events.
Ikaria exhibits a typical Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa), with hot summers, wet winters and occasional accumulation of snow on the island's various peaks. Aside from domestic and domesticated species, most prevalently the free-ranging goats, there are a number of small wild animals to be found, such as martens, European otters, jumping spiders, scorpions and green toads.
Most of Ikaria's population, both of its main towns and several of its larger villages are nestled on or near the coast. The principal town of the island, main port and seat of the municipality is Agios Kirykos. Evdilos follows in importance, the historic main city of the island (and a short distance from the ancient chief town of Oenoe) containing the island's secondary port, servicing the north side. Agios Kirykos and Evdilos are the only two ports serviced by passenger ferries, making them Ikaria's main transport links to the rest of Greece.
Other important settlements include the seaside villages of Armenistis and Karavostamo on the north side and Therma, Magganitis and Karkinagri on the south side. The most important interior settlement is Christos Rachon, seat of the Raches region, followed by Akamatra, Vrakades, Kampos and others.
Etymology In antiquity, the island was called Icaria or Ikaria () by the ancient Greeks, the same as today, as it was believed the mythical Icarus fell into the sea south of the island on his flight from Crete. The name, however, may have instead come from the Phoenician word for fish (ikor)P. 44, Peter Green (2004). From Ikaria to the stars. Austin. or for sheep (kara), in either case implying an abundance of natural life. Other historical (and now unused) names in Greek are Dolichi (Δολίχη) or Dolychi (Δολύχη), Makri (Μάκρη), Ichthyoessa (Ιχθυόεσσα) and Anemoessa (Ανεμόεσσα), the first two pertaining to the island's elongated shape and the latter two to its abundance of fish and harsh winds, respectively.
History Prehistory and antiquity Ikaria has been inhabited, according to archaeological findings in the central and eastern parts of the island, since at least 7000 BC, when it was populated by the Neolithic Pelasgians, a blanket term used by the ancient Greeks to refer to all pre-Hellenic peoples inhabiting the Greek region. Greeks from Miletus, a major Greek polis and naval power of Asia Minor, colonized Ikaria around 750 BC, establishing their settlement in the area of present-day Kampos, the fertile, comparatively low-lying region in the north-central part of the island, which later became the ancient capital city of Oenoe. Later tradition names four major cities to have sprung on the island, Oenoe, Thermae, Drakanon (now Faros) and Tauropolion (now Nas).
Ikaria became part of the sea empire of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, during the 6th century BC. By the 5th century BC, the Ikarian cities of Oenoe and Thermae had become members of the Athenian-dominated Delian League. The island was again colonized by Samos in the 2nd century BC,Graham Shipley, A History of Samos, c 800–188 B.C. (Oxford) 1987:205. around when the Tauropolion,Strabo (xiv.1.19) gives the temple name Tauropolion the temple of Artemis, was built at Oenoe. Coins of the city represented Artemis and a bull.Barclay V. Head, Historia numorum: a manual of Greek numismatics vol. 2, no. 602, with legend ΟΙ or ΟΙΝΑΙ[ΩΝ], noted by Croon 1961:note 4. There was another, smaller temenos that was sacred to Artemis Tauropolos,for the aspect of Artemis that was associated with the Tauri, a people living near the Black Sea in the Crimean peninsula, see the article Brauron; that connection underlies the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides at Nas, on the northwest coast of the island.Two sites are distinguished in J. H. Croon, "Hot Springs and Healing: A Preliminary Answer" Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, 14.2 (1961:140–141).
The seas around Ikaria, and especially to its north, had a fearsome reputation among the ancients. Homer likened its changeability to a crowd stirred by demagogy: "the gathering was stirred like the long sea-waves of the Ikarian main, which the East Wind or the South Wind has raised, rushing upon them from the clouds of father Zeus" (Iliad II, 145), and Horace, too, in the opening of his Odes associates "the African winds as they fight the Ikarian waves" with shattered ships (Odes I.i.15–6).
In the later Fabulae ("stories") of Roman writer Gaius Julius Hyginus, the Greek versions of the myth associated with Melanippe (otherwise Arne) and her sons Boeotus and Aeolus by Poseidon are amended to relate the story of Theano (otherwise Autolyte), wife of Metapontus, a king of Ikaria. Metapontus demanded that she bear him children, or leave the kingdom. She presented the exposed twin sons of Melanippe by Neptune to her husband, as if they were her own. Later Theano bore him two sons of her own and, wishing to leave the kingdom to her own children, sent them to kill Melanippe's children while out hunting. In the fight that ensued, her two sons were killed, and she committed suicide upon hearing the news.Hyginus, Fabulae 186 Metapontus later married Melanippe and her two sons founded towns in Propontis called by their names — Boeotia and Aeolia.
In The Anabasis of Alexander, the 2nd century AD Greek historian Arrian recorded the historian Aristobulus as saying that Alexander the Great had ordered that Failaka Island in the Persian Gulf be named Icarus, after Ikaria itself.
Temple of Artemis (Nas)
The cove of Nas on the northwestern edge of the island had been a sacred spot to the pre-Hellenic inhabitants of the Aegean and an important port in antiquity, the last stop before testing the dangerous seas around Ikaria. A temple to the goddess of the hunt and the wilderness, Artemis Tauropolos, a patron of seafarers, was built on higher ground inside the cove around the 6th century BC.
The temple stood in good condition until the mid-19th century, when the marble was pillaged by local villagers to procure building materials for their local church. This church was excavated by Greek archaeologist Leon Politis in 1939. During the Axis occupation of Greece, many of the artifacts unearthed by Politis disappeared, with local tales claiming that the occupiers looted them. According to local legend, marble artefacts from the temple still lie under the sand of the Nas beach where the temple stood.
Medieval Era
By the early Middle Ages, with Icaria owned by the Byzantine Empire, the trend of inland habitation was starting to take shape due to the proliferation of piracy. Koskinas castle (also known as Nikaria castle or Mesaria castle) was constructed in the 10th century AD on a formidable hilltop near the village of Kossoikia, meant to hold a small garrison to guard Oenoe, by this point called Dolichi (Δολίχη, meaning 'long, slender'). The island was a common place of exile for members of the various imperial dynasties, which led to Ikarians of the time to avoid mingling with non-Ikarians, considering themselves "of noble/purple blood" (the color purple was associated with nobility in the Byzantine era). Ikaria was later taken over by the Genoese Republic in 1362, but strategically withdrew from it in 1481 in view of the Ottoman threat. It would be taken over by the Knights Hospitaller, based in Rhodes, the same year.
According to local historians, the Ikarians had built seven watchtowers along the coastlines based on their own designs. Once an unknown or enemy vessel appeared, the observers would at once light a fire at the top and head to a tank which was always filled with water. A wooden plug located at the base was pulled, and water would flow. The guards of the other watchtowers were alerted by the fire and repeated the process. In the inner side of each tower's tank were marks identical to the ones measuring volumes in flasks. Each one of these marks was labelled with a different message on it, such as "pirate attack" or "unknown ship approaching". Once the water level reached the mark signifying the appropriate message, the messengers would place the plug back on the tank and put out the fire, so that each of the other towers could decode the size and gravity of the incoming danger.
Traditional Ikarian architecture also surfaces around this period. Each house had a low height, a single room, a roof of stone slabs, and was distant from neighbouring ones. It had a single low door and the sea-facing side was protected with tall walls, while there was an opening on the roof (locally called the Anefantis). Because a chimney with smoke could betray the house's location, it was often sealed; fire smoke would pour through the roof slabs without being visible, while simultaneously clearing the wooden roof supports of insects. Rooms featured the bare necessities, such as a grinding stone and a cauldron. Traditionally, people would sleep on the floor and hide their belongings in the walls.
Men and women wore almost the same clothing: sewn woollen skirts for women, a type of fustanella for the men. Later on the vest came to be worn by men and women alike.
This frugal way of living contributed to the famed Ikarian longevity and the absence of distinct social classes. Despite the existence of villages, every house was its own self-sufficient entity, using the living space around it for the cultivation of all necessary things. Women contributed freely in work and social life. Villages were slowly created by descendants of an original family which gradually spread. Despite the sparse population, societal cohesion was high. There were the panigyria (traditional festivals, common across Greece, featuring dances, music and consumption of local products), team labour and elder councils who were in charge of taking important decisions. This unique way of life and architecture was preserved until the end of the 19th century, with many elements surviving until today; most famously the panigyria, which are still some of the largest of all the Aegean islands.
Ottoman Era
Century of Invisibility (1521–1601)