Melos (ancient world)
Melos is a Greek island located in the Aegean Sea and is part of the Cyclades archipelago. Historically significant, Melos was known for its abundant obsidian resources, which played a crucial role in the Bronze Age, particularly within Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. The island has a rich history of settlement, initially colonized by Dorians from Laconia, and it became a Spartan colony. Throughout its history, Melos maintained a position of neutrality during key conflicts, including the Peloponnesian War, but this stance led to tragic consequences when Athens besieged the island in 416 BC, resulting in severe repercussions for its inhabitants.
Following periods of conflict, Melos experienced changes in governance, coming under Macedonian and then Roman control. The archaeological remnants of Melos reveal a blend of Greco-Roman influence, showcasing structures such as an acropolis, theater, and portico. The island has yielded numerous artifacts, including exquisite marble statues and terracotta reliefs. Among its most famous discoveries is the "Venus de Milo," a renowned Hellenistic statue that exemplifies the island's artistic heritage and is now housed in the Louvre. Melos's complex history reflects both its cultural significance and the challenges faced by its people throughout the ancient world.
Melos (ancient world)
A Greek island, one of the southernmost of the Cyclades archipelago, in the Aegean Sea between Laconia (southern Peloponnese) and Asia Minor
Melos was approximately circular until an early eruption of its volcano created an indentation providing the largest and deepest harbor in the Aegean. From Neolithic times onward, as the site of Phylakopi abundantly illustrates, the island was famous for its monopoly of obsidian (grey to black volcanic glass, found on at least two sites; it was flaked into tools or ground into vessels or statuary), and in consequence played a prominent part in the Bronze Age Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. During the Dorian migrations, Melos was colonized from Laconia, and became a Spartan colony. The Chora plain was densely settled from the eighth to sixth centuries BC. A local coinage, at first depicting a ewer and then a pomegranate (melon), was initiated after 600.
In 480/79 the island sent contingents to help the Greek cause against the Persians at Salamis and Plataea. However, it remained neutral at the outset of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (431)—although its people dispatched gifts to the Spartans. What happened next is the principal tragic event of Melos' ancient history. In 426 the Athenians sent a large force to devastate its territory, and in the following year Athens assessed it for tribute. But the island insisted on maintaining its neutrality. In 416, therefore, a further large army of the Athenians and the allies arrived, accompanied by envoys who announced Athens' refusal to accept this neutral status. The debate that followed is one of the highlights of Thucydides' narrative. The Melians' appeal to natural justice was rejected, and after a long siege their resistance was overcome (415), whereupon, by a decree of the Athenian Assembly, all the male inhabitants of the place were put to the sword, its women and children enslaved, and its territories occupied by five hundred colonists from Athens. (It was at this juncture that Athens launched its overconfident expedition to Sicily).
However, the city was liberated c 400 by the Spartan Lysander, its survivors came back, and its mint became active once again. Subsequently Melos passed into the hands of the Macedonians and then the Romans, whose emperor Commodus (AD 180–92) it portrayed on a local coinage.
Remains of the Greco-Roman city that succeeded the imposing Bronze Age settlements include traces of the acropolis, a theater, and a portico. Archaic Melos has yielded a rich haul of vases, jewels and gems, and excellent marble statues, notably male nudes (kouroi) of the mid-sixth century BC; and more than a hundred `Melian’ reliefs—terracotta wall decorations (or sides of wooden chests) of fifth-century date—have survived. There is a fine fourth-century statue of Asclepius (British Museum) and a third-century Poseidon (National Museum, Athens). But by far the most famous object discovered on the island is a statue of Aphrodite, the `Venus of Milo,’ a Hellenistic masterpiece of second century date that was found (in pieces) at Clima in 1820 and taken to the Louvre.