GREECE,
GREEK ISLANDS - SAMOS
Samos is an island in southeastern Greece in the Aegean
Sea, near the coast of Turkey. It is located between the island
of Chios to the North and the Dodecanese Islands to the South. Products
include tobacco, wine, honey, olive oil, and citrus fruit. The Muscat
grape is a main crop used for wine production. With the neighbouring
islands of Ikaria and Fourni, the island of Samos is administered
as part of Samos prefecture nomos. Its capital and main port is
the city of Vathi, also called Samos; other ports are Karlovassi
and Pythagoreion, formerly called Tigani. The nearest airport is
Samos Airport.
SAMOS HISTORY
In classical times the island was a center of Ionian culture
and luxury, known for its wines and its red pottery called Samian
ware by the Romans. Its most famous building, for a brief time,
was the archaic Ionic Temple of Hera Heraion, built by the architects
Rhoikos and Theodoros c. 540 BC, which stood opposite the cult altar
of Hera in her sanctuary. It was a dipteral temple, that is with
a portico of columns two deep, which surrounded it entirely a peripteral
temple.
It had a deep square roofed pronaos in front of a closed cella.
Cella and pronaos were divided into three equal aisles by two rows
of columns that marched down the pronaos and through the temple.
The result was that Hera was worshipped in a temple fitted within
a stylized grove of columns, eight across and 21 deep. The columns
stood on unusual bases that were horizontally fluted. The Heraion
of Samos was the first of the gigantic Ionic temples. Unfortunately
it stood for only about a decade before it was destroyed, probably
by an earthquake.
One of the giant statues from the Heraion survives in the Samos
Archaeological Museum. In the 6th century BC Samos was ruled by
the famous tyrant Polycrates. During his reign, two working groups
under the lead of the engineer Eupalinos dug a tunnel through Mount
Kastro to build an aqueduct for supplying Tigani the capital of
Samos with water, which was of utmost stragetic importance. It is
not documented, which method Eupalinos employed to make the two
groups meet in the middle of the mountain. With a length of 1036
meters, the tunnel today is known as one of the masterpieces of
ancient engineering.
Even so the island followed the fate of the Ionian cities, being
subjugated to the Persian empire. During the Peloponnesian War 431-404
BC, Samos took the side of Athens against Sparta, providing their
port to the Athenian fleet. Perhaps the most famous persons ever
connected with classical Samos were Pythagoras and a slave who belonged
to Iadmon, whose name was Aesop famous for Aesop's Fables.
In 1955 the town of Tigani was renamed Pythagorio to honour the
famous mathematician. Other notable personalities include the philosopher
Epicurus, who was born on the island. The astronomer Aristarchus,
whom history credits with the first recorded heliocentric model
of the solar system, lived on Samos. As did the great sculptor and
inventor Theodorus. Herodotus known for his book The Histories of
Herodotus lived in Samos for a time. |
Samos
was part of the Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, then Ottoman
Empire until 1832 when it became a semi-independent principality
under a Christian head of state, but still paying tribute to the
Ottomans. In 1913 it was included in Greece as a result of the Balkan
Wars. |
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