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Mękonos owns its name from
the son of the King of Delos.
According to mythology, Hercules, in one of his twelve
tasks, was fighting the Giants and, having killed them, he
threw them in the sea where they petrified and turned into
huge rocks, forming the island of Mękonos.
Being in the shadow of the prosperous and spiritual island
of Delos, only a few things are known for Mękonos during
Ancient Times.
In 1207, like the rest of the Cyclades, Mękonos came under
Venetian rule.
The Ghizi dynasty took the authority of the island as well
as the one of the island of Tinos.
A century later, Georgios Ghizi, the last Venetian ruler,
concede the island of Mękonos to Venice.
In 1537 Mękonos, with most of the Cycladic islands, came
under Turkish domination.
Because the inhabitants of the island were great sailors,
they provided an important help to the War of Independence,
offering their 22 ships, their 500 members of the crew and
their 140 canons to the Greek Revolution against the Turkish
yoke.
The heroic revolutionary figure of Mękonos is a woman, Mando
Mavrogenous, who financed the Revolution, helped in the
organization of fights, participate to the Philiki Etairia
(Secret Revolutionary organization) and managed to organize
troupes in order to revolt against the Turks in 1822.
After the independence of Greece in 1830, the economy of the
island was completely destroyed and it has lost all its
ships.
Later on the islanders succeeded to reinforce their
commercial power and rebuilt there economy. |
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