MYKONOS
Greece.
Island in the Aegean Sea,
one of the Cyclades, close to and NE of Delos. Mentioned only in passing by ancient authors. The people
were Ionians and had legendary ties with Athens. Datis
stopped there in 490 B.C. on his return from Marathon
(
Hdt. 6.118), and the island is named as a Persian possession in Aeschylus' Persians 885. It was a member of
the Delian League, and paid a tribute of one and a half
talents, later reduced to one talent (
ATL 1.346). It was
also a member of the second Athenian League from 376
B.C. on (
IG II
2 43 A 19) and of the league of the Islanders in the early 3d c. (
IG XI, 4.1040-41). The people “had
a bad name for greed and avarice because they were poverty stricken and lived on a wretched island” (Ath. 1.8).
Baldness was prevalent (
Strab. 10.5.9). There were close
ties with Delos. Many Mykonians are mentioned in inscriptions of Delos, and the Temple of Apollo had lands on the SW promontory of Mykonos.
There were originally two towns (Skylax 58), but they
were merged into one ca. 200 B.C., as we learn from an
important inscription recording a calendar of sacrifices
(
SIG3 1024). The principal town was perhaps on the
site of the present town but there are few remains. A
burial of the 7th c. B.C. in the center of the modern town,
ca. 200 m from the waterfront, suggests that the ancient
town was less extensive, since the burial was probably
outside the town limits. This burial was in a large pithos
with relief decoration, the Wooden Horse on the neck,
scenes from the sack of Troy on the body. It is in the
local museum. The location of the other town is not
known. There are three towers in the SW, which probably
belonged to farms.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AthMitt 50 (1925) 37-44; J. H. Kent,
Hesperia 17 (1948) 286-89; 25 (1956) 145; J. Belmont
& C. Renfrew, “Two Prehistoric Sites on Mykonos,”
AJA
68 (1964) 395-400.
E. VANDERPOOL
