The
island of Kithera located in the Mediterranean Sea 14 nautical
miles off Kavo Maleas on the south-eastern most tip of the Peloponnese
between Crete and Peloponesse, with name Kithera or Cerigo. Ships
dock at Agia Pelagia near a beautiful stretch of coastline and
bathing beach. The capital, Kythera, 30km (19 miles) south, is
easily reached on the main roadway which crosses the island. It
is a neat hamlet, built on a hillside overlooking the sea, which
is crowned by a Venetian castle. Kapsali is the main harbour.
Mostly rocky with many streams, it produces wine, goat cheese,
olives, corn, and flax. On the south shore is Kithira (1971 pop.
349), the chief village, formerly called Kapsali. Ancient Kithira
was a center of the cult of Aphrodite. The island passed to Greece
in 1864.
 A
Voyage to Kithera means to many people a nostalgic wandering in
exotic and dreamt places, just like in Wattaeu's romantic painting
The Embarkment for the Island of Kythera (L' Embarquement pour
l' ile de Kythere). The myth of Kythera, also known as the island
of love, goes far back in the traditions of France and Italy.
Voyage to Kythera, a difficult task, an island to which pilgrims
set out but never succeed in arriving. As long as it stays far,
preserves its distant spark as a land of eternal destination,
impossible dream and ideal beauty. Since ancient times Kithera
is related to the myth of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and
Eros. There it lies in her heavenly haze as a land as much utopic
as well real and within reach.
Reality brings us to a place of myth, not so distant as it is
presented in the tradition of literature, but with its marks strong.
It is enough to walk on the clear beaches and watch the sunset,
for this to be felt. Somewhere there, the sky meets the sea painting
it with its scarlet reflections and perhaps someone could witness
the birth of Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus and Sea. One might
even see a piece of the never ending Sky (Uranus) fall, due to
the mighty slash from Cronos, in the life-giving Sea, who wraps
it with her froth. Perhaps one could also feel the distinct breeze
of Zephyros, who rendered Aphrodite to the world and prepared
her to take her place in the mighty mythological Olympus.
Cretes, Phoenicians, Hellenes, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians,
French, British, they all took part in the creation of the island's
tradition, building a social, economical and cultural originality,
which balances the hellenic tradition with the western influence
in a harmonic wholeness. A totality that contains past and present,
the roughness of nature and the stillness of human structure,
the abandonment of whole villages in a quest for better luck in
the big cities or even abroad, mostly in Australia, and the nostalgia
and the will for homecoming after confronting privation and suffer.
Today still one can hear the air blow through the empty houses
that used to be full of life, being witnesses of a different era.
As the sun brakes out of the mist dissolves the mist - provenza,
as it is called on the island - and clears the sky in modern Kythera,
one can feel the struggle for going on. While the island's economy
progressively heads towards tourism and efforts are made for developing
appropriate infrastructure, it is obvious that a new era lies
in front of us.
Minoans Cretans were the first to settle on the island during
the early Copper Age, building a small settlement near Kastri.
Pottery was inspired by cretan patterns and had the characteristic
use of red colour, made from purple sea shells during the Meso-Minoic
III Period (MMIII). The settlement in Kastri was abandoned during
the mid 15th century. During the early 14th century the abandoned
settlement was used as a base for the construction a of Mycenaic
colony. Through the island must have also come phoenicians, although
there is no archaeological evidence for this.  According
to Herodotos (I,105) they built the renowned, during the ancient
times, sanctuary of Kytherian Aphrodite, whose worship was brought,
as it seems, from the east. This sanctuary is said to be placed
in Paliokastro, where the fortified acropolis was.
The
oldest written reference of Kythera are the verses of Heliad K
261-270 where the kytherian fighter Amfidamas from Skandeia is
mentioned and O 429-440 where there is word about Lykofron. The
island during the 8th and until the 6th century was inhabited
by argeian dorians, who were then forced to leave after a war
against spartans. Two of the administra-tive measures the spartans
took, were the installation of a permanent garrison and the establishment
of the decree of Kythirodikes, commander of the island sent annually
from Sparta.
During
antiquity Kythera was an important station for the sailing between
Greece and Egypt or Libya. Due to that the island was disputed
between spartans and athenians. During the Peloponessian War and
until 300BC the island changed hands between the two of them many
times. Its neighbouring with Sparta gave athenians the opportunity
for raids against their enemies, while on the other hand its occupation
by spartans secured their home city.
During
the first byzantine times, the island was almost deserted and
during the 4th century AD hermits from Peloponess came to it.
Among them was Aghia Elessa, who has been connected with many
legends and in order to honour her, a monastery has been built
and named after her. Pirate raids, especially those made by saracens
from Crete were very often during the 9th century and forced a
lot of the people to refuge to Peloponess. But because of its
important position, the island wasn't totally deserted. The victory
of the byzantine emperor Nikiforos Fokas over the saracens and
the destruction of the Arab State allowed Kythera to meet a new
era of progress, prosperity and commercial relations with Peloponess
and espe-cially with Monemvasia. Finally the island came in the
hands of Eudaimonogiannides (or Daimonogiannides) family from
Monemvasia.
In
1204, during the Fourth Crusade, the island came in possession
by venetians who assigned Marco Venieri with the title of Marchese
as the commander of Kythera. But he had many feuds in Crete, so
he left on his post Daimonogiannides. Venieri family with other
great families revolted against Venice. Their defeat signed the
annexation of Kythera among the other venetian acquisitions and
its rigging from the Duke of Crete until the 17th century. In
1537 Hayredin Barbarossa lead a raid against Kythera capturing
7,000 inhabitants of the island's capital, Aghios Demetrios.
Until
1571, year of the great naval battle in Nafpaktos between the
western allies and turks, Kythera suffered a population decrease
due to the continuing war between Venice and Turkey, because of
the fear for raids. The ending of this war signed the reorganisation
and strengthening of the island by Venice, as it held an important
strategic position. During
the 17th century while a lot of venetian colonies fell in turkish
hands, in the island found shelter many refuges from Peloponess
and Crete. In 1715, during another war between Venice and Turkey,
the fort of Kapsali was surrendered to the turks by the venetian
commander Marceli after a capitulation. In 1718 Venice took Kythera
back with the Passarovic Convention. This was the only period
that Kythera suffered from the turkish occupation. In the 18th
century the island met high development, which was continued even
after the breaking of venetian domination with Campoformio Convention
(1797), which gave the Seven Islands - a complex of islands which
Kythera is a part of - to France, that had just become a republic
and gave hope to the island's people. In 1798 France was forced
to surrender the island to the russian-turkish fleet. Until 1800,
when the State of the Seven Islands was founded, the island suffered
from conflicts and bloody fights. The State and the Constitution
of 1803 became one of the first signs of hellenic regeneration
and independence which didn't come until the hellenic revolution
in 1821. The second french occupation during 1807-1809 contradicted
the people's hopes for freedom, while the Ionian State which was
created by Paris Convention in November 1815, became an english
colony. Kytherians made many efforts to free themselves from the
british and unite with Hellas, something that was finally achieved
in 1864, when the Ionian Islands were given as a "dower"
to George A King of the Hellenes.
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