The most beautiful ancient Greek myth is the creation of the Aegean islands, particularly of Delos and the Cyclades.
The myth is about Zeus, the king of the gods, and Leto’s love affair. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Leto was a daughter of the Titan Coeus and Phoebe, Asteria’s sister, and the mother of god Apollo and Artemis by Zeus.
Homer also mentions Leto in the Iliad as taking the side of the Trojans in the war with the Greeks.
Zeus’ infidelity with Leto infuriated Hera, who ordered that no place should allow Leto to give birth. Leto wandered around Greece, but could not find a place to bring her babies to life. She finally went to the Aegean and saw a big rock floating in the middle of the sea, a place not yet recognized by gods or mortals, and sat there to rest. The tiny island’s name was Adelo, (άδηλο) meaning undeclared in Greek.
The rock spoke to Leto and said, “My Leto, come and give birth on me.” Leto went to a palm tree in the middle of the island, and, grabbing herself by the trunk, gave birth to Apollo.
Suddenly, Aegean was bathed in light upon the newborn’s appearance. A flock of swans circled the tiny island. All the gods came to the rock to witness the newborn god of light. All the islands gathered around in a circle (Greek: κύκλος [Cyclos]) to pray and honor the island for the precious birth at the center of the Aegean, hence their name Cyclades (Κυκλάδες).
Now the tiny island was no longer Adelos, undeclared; it was declared Delos (Δήλος). As the birthplace of Apollo, Delos was a sacred island in antiquity, with the magnificent Temple of the god of the sun and light dominating the landscape.
From then on, Leto became the goddess of motherhood and a protectress of the young.
The myth about the birth of the Aegean is also a touching story. According to Hyginus, Aegeus was a legendary king of Athens, and his wife Aethra gave him a son and heir, the great hero Theseus.
When Minos, the powerful king of Crete, declared war on Athens he set the terms that if Aegeus wanted to maintain peace he had to send seven young men and seven young women in sacrifice to feed the Minotaur, the vicious monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull living in a labyrinth by the Palace of Knossos.
To save the lives of the youth of Athens, Theseus volunteered to fight the monster. He set out for Crete and eventually succeeded in killing the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne. But, celebrating his great success, he forgot one important thing he had promised his father upon his departure.
Aegeus, fearing for his only son’s life, had asked Theseus that if he returned to Athens after killing the Minotaur, he should put up the white sails before approaching Athens on the way back. Aegeus waited anxiously at Cape Sounion, hoping that he would get a glimpse of the homeward-bound white sails from far away.
However, in the middle of the celebration with his friends on board, Theseus forgot to change the black sails to white, which his father would interpret as a signal that his son is returning alive and triumphant.
In the mistaken belief that Theseus had been slain by the monster when he saw the black sails, Aegeus threw himself off the rocks into the deep sea. To honor his heritage, a devastated Theseus renamed the blue Hellenic sea to be named Aegean, after his father Aegeus.
Situated in the middle of the Aegean, the Cycladic islands are the most popular today among Greeks and visitors alike.
The islands that form a geographic circle around Delos are the most beautiful in the Aegean. The Cyclades islands mean “encircling islands” in Greek. In ancient times, sitting at the heart of the Aegean, Delos was the sacred island, birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. It was also a thriving trade hub and a cultural and religious center with the famous Temple of Apollo as its landmark.
Cyclades are comprised of 220 islands and islets, with the major ones being, in alphabetical order, Amorgos, Anafi, Andros, Antiparos, Delos, Ios, Kea, Kimolos, Kythnos, Milos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Folegandros, Serifos, Sifnos, Sikinos, Syros, Thera (Santorini) and Tinos. There are also many minor islands (the Lesser Cyclades), including Donousa, Eschati, Gyaros, Irakleia, Koufonisia, Makronisos, Rineia, and Schoinousa.
The Cyclades were inhabited during the Neolithic period. Excavations have shown that the oldest Neolithic site, which is located on the island of Saliagos, dates to around 5000 BCE. The findings indicate that the earliest Neolithic inhabitants of the Cyclades cultivated barley and wheat and fished from the Aegean.
The Cycladic culture, also known as the Cycladic civilization, developed in the early Bronze Age in the Cyclades. This culture thrived from around 3200 to 1100 BCE, predating two other major Bronze Age cultures in the Aegean, namely the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures. The Cycladic culture’s characteristic feature is its art, particularly its unusual marble figurines, arguably the most sophisticated artifacts from this period.
The Aegean islanders developed sea trade and commerce routes in the Bronze Age, which began around 3200 BCE. During this period, a cohesive culture emerged in the Cyclades. The Cycladic culture became the most advanced of the Aegean islands and lasted until around 1100 BCE, which is divided into three phases: the Early, Middle, and Late Cycladic periods.
The Early Cycladic period lasted from around 3200 to 2000 BCE and is further divided into three distinct phases: The first phase (3200–2800 BCE) is known as Early Cycladic I, or the Grotta-Pelos phase, named after the sites where elements of the culture were first discovered; the second phase (2800–2300 BCE) is known as Early Cycladic II, or the Keros-Syros phase, while the third (2300–2000 BCE) is called Early Cycladic III, or the Phylacopi I phase.
The Middle Cycladic period lasted from around 2000 to 1500 BCE. During this period, the Minoan influence was obvious, as the discovered artifacts were similar to those from the Minoan palaces of Crete. Archaeologists assume that the Minoans colonized the Cyclades and used them as a step to trade with mainland Greece.
The Minoan influence was dominant to the point that the Cyclades fully adopted the Minoan culture during the Late Cycladic period, which lasted from around 1500 to 1100 BC. Some archaeologists consider the Thera volcano eruption to have destroyed the Minoan civilization. The Mycenaeans replaced the Minoans as the dominant power in the Aegean, and the Cyclades also came under their sphere of influence.
