Milos
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Milos
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Background
Milos (Μήλος) or Melos is the southwesternmost island of the Cyclades and looks like a larger version of Thíra. It too, is a volcano but extinct, which had a huge eruption that created a large natural harbor in the sunken caldera. The area of the island is 161 km2 with the summit of Profitis Ilias rising 883 m (2897 ft) above sea level. The volcanic nature of the island has endowed it with a very dramatic beauty many-fiord like beaches with strange rock formations and with many colors. Unfortunately, because of its mineral wealth, the island is heavily mined and a lot of its scenery has been raped by the miners.
The volcanic aspect of Milos is intertwined with its history. The island has been populated since the early Neolithic times because it was a rich source of obsidian the hard black volcanic glass with which some of the early tools and weapons were fashioned. The town at Phylakopi was settled by either Phoenicians or Cypriots was one of the centers of the early Cycladic Civilizations trading obsidian all over the Mediterranean. Later Milos under the Minoans from Crete and the Mycenaeans from the mainland continued to be a rich island trading in minerals.
In Classical times, the island's population was predominantly Dorian who were aligned with Sparta. During the Peloponnesian War, in 415 BC, Athens tried to persuade the Milians to change sides but they refused. Angered by this snub the Athenians laid siege on the island, and after several months, Milos surrendered. The Athenians, then, according to Thucydides, massacred all the men of fighting age, sold all the women and children into slavery, and resettled the island. During the 4th century BC the most famous sculpture of Milos, Venus de Milo, one of the most beautiful Greek statues of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was created.
Milos became Christian as early as the 1st century AD. During this time, these early Christians built a complex of catacombs which is unique in Greece. After the fall of the Byzantines, Milos was captured by the Venetian brothers Marco and Angelo Sanudo and was placed under the Crispi dynasty. The Ottomans followed the Venetians in 1580. During this time the island was dominated by pirates who used Milos as their headquarters. One of them, John Kapsis even declared himself king of Milos. He lasted for three years until he was subdued by the Turks. After the Greek War of Independence of 1821, Milos became part of Greece and the Greek Navy got rid of the pirates. In 1836 refugees from Sfakia, Crete landed in Milos and founded the village of Adamas, the present harbor. During the Crimean War the French navy docked at the harbor and so did the British navy during World War I.
The modern story of Venus de Milo goes like this. On April 8, 1820, a farmer named Yiorgos Kentrotas, while plowing, discovered a cave that contained half of the statue. A French officer, Olivier Voutier, who happened to be on the island, urged the farmer to look for the other half. This he did along with a 6th century statue of a Hermes and Hercules. It is believed that these statues were hidden from destruction by the early Christians. At any rate, Voutier made a sketch of the statues and gave it to the French consul Lois Brest. Brest sent the sketches to the French ambassador in Istanbul, the island was still under the Ottomans, who decided to obtain the statue for his king Louis XVIII. Accordingly he sent a boat to get the statue. In the mean time, the farmer Kentrotas had already sold the statue to the Prince of Moldavia. When the French ship arrived at Adamas, the statue had been loaded in a caïque which was ready to sail for Romania. There was scuffle between the Greeks and the French who managed to get the statue. It seems that the missing arm of the statue was lost during this scuffle because Voutier's sketch shows both arms.
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