Mykonos Folklore Museum

About

There are two prevailing theories as to the origin of the name "Mykonos". The first, from Hesychius of Alexandria, surmises that the name comes from the ancient Greek "Mykon", which roughly translates to "pile of stones" or "rocky place". The second, from Stephanus of Byzantium, ties it to the mythological hero Mykonos, son of Anius.

Herodotus mentions Carians as the original inhabitants of the island. Ionians from Athens seem to have followed next in the early 11th century BC. There were many people living on the neighboring island of Delos, the meeting ground for the Delian League, only 2 km (1.2 miles) away, which meant that Mykonos became an important place for supplies and transit. It was, however, during ancient times a rather poor island with limited agricultural resources. Its inhabitants were polytheists and worshiped many gods.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Mykonos was member of the League of the Islanders during the Hellenistic period. It came under the control of the Romans and then was part of the Byzantine Empire until the 12th century. In 1204, with the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, Mykonos was occupied by Andrea Ghisi. The island was ravaged by the Catalans at the end of the 13th century and finally given over to direct Venetian rule in 1390.

In 1537, while the Venetians still reigned, Mykonos was attacked by Hayreddin Barbarossa, the admiral of Suleiman the Magnificent and an Ottoman fleet established itself on the island. The Ottomans, under the leadership of Kapudan Pasha, imposed a system of self-governance comprising a governor and an appointed council of syndics. When the castle of Tinos fell to the Ottomans in 1718, the last of the Venetians withdrew from the region.

Up until the end of the 18th century, Mykonos prospered as a trading center, attracting many immigrants from nearby islands, in addition to regular pirate raids. In June 1794 the Battle of Mykonos was fought between British and French ships in the island's main harbor.

The Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire broke out in 1821 and Mykonos played an important role, led by the national heroine, Manto Mavrogenous. Mavrogenous, a well-educated aristocrat guided by the ideas of the Enlightenment, sacrificed her family's fortune for the Greek cause. Greece became an independent state in 1830. A statue of her sits in the middle of Manto Mavrogenous square in the main town.

At the end of February 1884, the British travellers Theodore and Mabel Bent visited the island, ostensibly to witness the traditional funeral lamentations (‘mœrologia’).

As a result of sailing and merchant activity, the island's economy quickly picked up but declined again during the late 19th century and especially after the opening of the Corinth Canal in 1904 and the First World War at the beginning of the 20th century. Many Mykonians left the island to find work in mainland Greece and many foreign countries, especially the United States.

Tourism soon came to dominate the local economy, owing a lot to the important excavations carried out by the French School of Archaeology, which began work in Delos in 1873. Mykonos became popular with international " jet set " tourists in the 1960s. In the 1970s, it was popular spot for Americans to treat as a nude beach, which Americans imagined to be a feature of those natural "far out" Greeks, and then flourished further to become a popular gay tourist destination in the 1980s. By the 2000s, Mykonos had become one of Greece's most expensive islands. Mykonos is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Greece, widely known for its beaches, nightlife, and traditional Cycladic architecture.

In Greek mythology, Mykonos was named after its first ruler, Mykonos (Μύκονος), the son of the hero Anius and grandson of the god Apollo. The island is also said to have been the location of the Gigantomachy, the great battle between Zeus and Giants and where Heracles killed the invincible giants having lured them from the protection of Mount Olympus. According to myth, the large rocks all over the island are said to be the petrified corpses of the giants.

In Greek mythology, Mykonos was named after its first ruler, Mykonos (Μύκονος), the son of the hero Anius and grandson of the god Apollo. The island is also said to have been the location of the Gigantomachy, the great battle between Zeus and Giants and where Heracles killed the invincible giants having lured them from the protection of Mount Olympus. According to myth, the large rocks all over the island are said to be the petrified corpses of the giants.

The island has an area of 85.5 square kilometres (33.0 sq mi) and rises to an elevation of 341 metres (1,119 feet) at its highest point. It is situated 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Athens in the Aegean Sea. The island features no rivers but has numerous seasonal streams, two of which have been converted into reservoirs.

The island is composed mostly of granite and the terrain is very rocky with many areas eroded by the strong winds. High quality clay and baryte, which is a mineral used as a lubricant in oil drilling, were mined on the eastern side of Mykonos until the late 1900s.

It produces 4,500 cubic metres (160,000 cu ft) of water daily, by reverse osmosis of sea water in order to help meet the needs of its population and visitors.

The island has a population of nearly 12,500, most of whom live in the main town of Chora.

According to the National Observatory of Athens, Mykonos has a hot semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification : BSh ) because of the low overall precipitation, although it has lots of Mediterranean climate ( Csa) characteristics and is highly influenced by the Aegean Sea. The rainy season lasts from October until March. Vegetation follows the typical pattern for the region and grows around mid-autumn and ends in the beginning of the summer. The average daily temperature in the winter is around 15 °C (59 °F), while it is around 27.0 °C (80.6 °F) in the summer. The average nighttime temperature is 11 °C (52 °F) in the winter and 24 °C (75 °F) in the summer.

Because of the seasonal cool " meltemi " wind (similar to the other Cyclades islands) and the moderating sea, summer days are relatively cool, dry, sunny and pleasant. The reason for the low overall rainfall is the rain shadow of the Pindus mountain range, which dry out the westerly winds. Winters in general are mild and wet, with many sunny days even in mid-winter. Snow is infrequent and doesn't stay long on the ground when it falls.

According to the National Observatory of Athens, Mykonos has a hot semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification : BSh ) because of the low overall precipitation, although it has lots of Mediterranean climate ( Csa) characteristics and is highly influenced by the Aegean Sea. The rainy season lasts from October until March. Vegetation follows the typical pattern for the region and grows around mid-autumn and ends in the beginning of the summer. The average daily temperature in the winter is around 15 °C (59 °F), while it is around 27.0 °C (80.6 °F) in the summer. The average nighttime temperature is 11 °C (52 °F) in the winter and 24 °C (75 °F) in the summer.

Because of the seasonal cool " meltemi " wind (similar to the other Cyclades islands) and the moderating sea, summer days are relatively cool, dry, sunny and pleasant. The reason for the low overall rainfall is the rain shadow of the Pindus mountain range, which dry out the westerly winds. Winters in general are mild and wet, with many sunny days even in mid-winter. Snow is infrequent and doesn't stay long on the ground when it falls.

- Louza (similar to the Cypriot lountza )