Thasos
THASOS (Θάσος, sometimes Θάσσος: Eth. Θάσιος: Thaso or Tasso), an island in the N. of the Aegaean sea, off the coast of Thrace, and distant only 3 1/4 miles from the plain of the river Nestus or Kara-Su. It was distant half a day's sail from Amphipolis (Thuc. 4.104), and 32 miles from Abdera. (Plin. Nat. 4.12. s. 23.) It was also called Aeria or Aethra (Plin. l. c.; Steph. B. s. v.) and Chryse, from its gold mines (Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 517), which were the chief source of the prosperity of the island. The earliest known inhabitants of Thasos were the Phoenicians, who were doubtless attracted to the island by its valuable mines, but who are said to have come thither in search of Europa, five generations before the birth of the Grecian Hercules. They were led by Thasos, the son of Agenor, from whom the island derived its name. (Hdt. 2.44, 6.47; Paus. 5.25.12; Scymn. 660; Conon, 100.37; Steph. B. s. v.) Thasos was afterwards colonised in Ol. 15, or 18 (B.C. 720 or 708) by settlers from Paros, led by Telesicles, the father of the poet Archilochus. (Thuc. 4.104; Strab. 9. p. 487; Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. p. 144; Euseb. Praep. Ev. 6.7.) There also existed at that time in the island a Thracian tribe called Saians, with whom the Parian settlers carried on war, but not always successfully; and on one occasion Archilochus was obliged to throw away his shield. (Archiloch. Fragm. 5, ed. Schneidewin; Aristoph. Pac. 1298, with the Schol.) The Greek colony rapidly rose in power, and obtained valuable possessions on the adjoining mainland, which contained even richer mines than those in the island. Shortly before the Persian invasion, the clear surplus revenue of the Thasians was 200, and sometimes even 300 talents yearly (46,000l., 66,000l.), of which Scaptê Hylê produced 80 talents, and the mines in the island rather less. (Hdt. 6.46.) Besides Scaptê Hylê the Thasians also possessed upon the mainland Galepsus and Oesyma (Thuc. iv. 107; Diod. 12.68), Stryme (Hdt. 7.118; Suid. s. v. Στρύμη), Datum, and at a later period Crenides. (Böckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens, p. 312, Engl. tr.) Herodotus, who visited Thasos, says that the most remarkable mines were those worked by the Phoenicians on the eastern side of the island between Aenyra and Coenyra opposite Samothrace, where a large mountain had been overturned in search of the gold. (Hdt. 6.47.) The Thasians appear to have been the only Greeks who worked the valuable mines in Thrace, till Histiaeus, the Milesian, settled upon the Strymon and built the town of Myrcinus, about B.C. 511. (Hdt. 5.11, 23.) After the capture of Miletus (B.C. 494), Histiaeus made an unsuccessful attempt to subdue Thasos (Hdt. 6.28), but the growing power of the Thasians excited the suspicions of Dareius, who commanded them in B.C. 492 to pull down their fortifications and remove their ships of war to Abdera,--an order which they did not venture to disobey. (Hdt. 6.46.) When Xerxes marched through Thrace on his way to Greece, the Thasians, on account of their possessions on the mainland, had to provide for the Persian army as it marched through their territories, the cost of which amounted to 400 talents (92,800l.). (Hdt. 7.118.) After the defeat of the Persians, Thasos became a member of the confederacy of Delos; but disputes having arisen between the Thasians and Athenians respecting the mines upon--the mainland, a war ensued, and the Athenians sent a powerful force against the island under the command of Cimon, B.C. 465. After defeating the Thasians at sea, the Athenians disembarked, and laid siege to the city both by land and sea. The Thasians held out more than two years, and only surrendered in the third year. They were compelled to raze their fortifications; to surrender their ships of war; to give up their continental possessions; and to pay an immediate contribution in money, in addition to their annual tribute. (Thuc. 1.100, 101; Diod. 11.70; Plut. Cim. 14.) In B.C. 411 the democracy in Thasos was overthrown, and an oligarchical government established by Peisander and the Four Hundred at Athens; but as soon as the oligarchy had got possession of the power they revolted from Athens, and received a Lacedaemonian garrison and harmost. (Thuc. 8.64.) Much internal dissension followed, till at length in B.C. 408 a party of the citizens, headed by Ecphantus, expelled the Lacedaemonian harmost Eteonicus with his garrison and admitted Thrasybulus, the Athenian commander. (Xen. Hell. 1.1. 12, 32, 1.4.9; Dem. c. Lept. p. 474.) After the battle of Aegospotamos, Thasos passed into the hands of the Lacedaemonians; but it was subsequently again dependent upon Athens, as we see from the disputes between Philip and the Athenians. (Dem. de Halon. p. 80; Philipp. Epist. p. 159.) In the Roman wars in Greece Thasos submitted to Philip V. (Plb. 15.24), but it received its freedom from the Romans after the battle of Cynoscephalae, B.C. 197 (Plb. 18.27, 31; Liv. 33.30, 35), and continued to be a free (libera) town in the time of Pliny (Plin. Nat. 4.12. s. 23).
The city of Thasos was situated in the northern part of the island, and possessed two ports, of which one was closed. (Scylax, p. 27; Ptol. 3.11.14.) It stood on three eminences; and several remains of the ancient walls exist, intermixed with towers built by the Venetians, who obtained possession of the island after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. In the neighbourhood is a large statue of Pan cut in the rocks. No remains have been discovered of Aenyra and Coenyra; and the mines have long ceased to be worked.
Archilochus describes Thasos as an ass's backbone overspread with wild wood( . . . ἥδε δ' ὥστ' ὄνου ῥάχις ἕστηκεν, ὕλης ἀγρίας ἐπιστεφής, Fragm. 17, 18, ed. Schneidewin), a description which is still strikingly applicable to the island after the lapse of 2500 years, as it is composed entirely of naked or woody mountains, with only scanty patches of cultivable soil, nearly all of which are close to the sea-shore. (Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol. 4. p. 34.) The highest mountain, called Mount Ipsarió, is 3428 feet above the sea, and is thickly covered with fir-trees. There is not enough corn grown in the island for its present population, which consists only of 6000 Greek inhabitants, dispersed in twelve small villages. Hence we are surprised to find it called by Dionysius (Perieg. 532) Δημήτερος ἀκτή; but the praises of its fertility cannot have been written from personal observation, and must have arisen simply from the abundance possessed by its inhabitants in consequence of their wealth. Thasos produced marble and wine, both of which enjoyed considerable reputation in antiquity. (Athen. i. pp. 28, 32, 4. p. 129; Xen. Symp. 4 § 41; Virg. Geory. 2.91.) The chief produce of the island at present is oil, maize, honey, and timber; the latter, which is mostly fir, is the principal article of export.
The coins of Thasos are numerous. The one figured below represents on the obverse the head of Dionysus, and on the reverse a figure of Hercules kneeling.
(Prokesch von Osten, Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 3. p. 611, seq.; Cousinery, Voyage dans la Macédoine, vol. 2. p. 85, seq.; Griesbach, Reise, vol. 1. p. 210, seq.; Journoal of Geogr. Society, vol. 7. p. 64.) COIN OF THASOS.
(Θάσος) or Thasus. Now Thaso or Tasso. An island in the north of the Aegaean Sea, off the coast of Thrace, and opposite the mouth of the river Nestus. It was at a very early period taken possession of by the Phoenicians, on account of its valuable gold-mines. According to tradition the Phoenicians were led by Thasus, son of Poseidon or Agenor, who came from the East in search of Europa, and from whom the island derived its name. Thasos was afterwards colonized by the Parians, B.C. 708, and among the colonists was the poet Archilochus. The Thracians once possessed a considerable territory on the coast of Thrace, and were one of the richest and most powerful peoples in the north of the Aegaean. They were subdued by the Persians under Mardonius, and subsequently became part of the Athenian maritime empire. They revolted, however, from Athens in B.C. 465, and, after sustaining a siege of three years, were subdued by Cimon in 463. They again revolted from Athens in 411, and called in the Spartans; but the island was again restored to the Athenians by Thrasybulus in 407. Some remains of the ancient town still exist, among them the Agora and a triumphal arch. See Hasselbach, De Insula Thaso (1838).
An island with a town of the same name, in the N Aegean Sea about 8 km off the Thracian coast. The island is roughly circular in shape and about 25 km in diameter. It is well wooded and well watered and rises to a height of 1203 m in Mt. Hypsarion. It was rich in minerals, and its gold mines were very productive in the 6th and 5th c. B.C. They were seen and described by Herodotos. The island also produced an excellent white marble with large crystals which was widely exported, and its wine was famous all over the ancient world. The climate of Thasos in the late 5th c. B.C. is described by the physician Hippokrates (Epidemics 1.1,4,13). The city-state of Thasos also held territory on the mainland opposite, both along the coast and inland. The most important spot was Skaptesyle on Mt. Pangaion, with its rich gold mines. Some of these were owned by the historian Thucydides, who lived here and wrote his history during his exile from Athens.
Before the arrival of the Greeks, the island had been called Odonis and was occupied by the Sintes, a Thracian tribe. Nothing had been known archaeologically about prehistoric Thasos until two sites were discovered in the S part of the island, a cave on the W coast near Maries with Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sherds, and an inland site at Kastri with a settlement that has Neolithic and perhaps later sherds and an extensive cemetery of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. At the dawn of history the Phoenicians were exploiting the mines under their leader Thasos, who gave his name to the island.
The history of Thasos really begins ca. 680 B.C. with the coming of Ionian Greek settlers from the island of Paros under the leadership of Telesikles, the father of the poet Archilochos. The poet himself was active there ca. 650 B.C. and his poems give us tantalizing glimpses of the place and the times. The funeral monument of Glaukos, son of Leptines, a companion of Archilochos, has been found in the Agora, identified by a contemporary inscription. Pottery of the 7th c. B.C. in Cycladic orientalizing style has been found in votive deposits, and house remains of the same period have been discovered. The 6th and early 5th c. B.C. were the time of Thasos' greatest prosperity. The mines, both on the island and on the mainland, were producing 200 talents a year on the average, and 300 m good years, and the city had built a circuit wall over 4 km long which had gates decorated with large sculptured reliefs. In 491 B.C., however, the Thasians yielded to Persian demands, demolished their walls, and surrendered their fleet. Again in 480 they offered no resistance to Xerxes. In 477 B.C. they joined the Delian League and contributed a force of 30 ships. In 465 they wanted to withdraw, but Athens resisted and laid siege to the town, which capitulated in the third year, leaving Thasos a dependency of Athens. In 411 B.C. they again tried to break away, calling in Spartan help, but the pro-Athenian party resisted and ten years of civil strife followed. In 377 B.C. Thasos joined the second Athenian Confederacy. In Macedonian and Roman times Thasos was politically subsidiary to the great powers, but her commercial prosperity was considerable. Polygnotos, the 5th c. painter, was a native of Thasos.
The town of Thasos lay on the N coast of the island, looking across the strait to the mainland. It had two harbors, one enclosed within the fortifications, the other next to it, unfortified but protected by a breakwater. The Agora lay near the closed harbor. It was a quadrangular area, ca. 100 m on a side, with colonnades on three of its sides and administrative and religious buildings on the fourth. Sanctuaries, altars, and monuments occupied some of the open spaces. Elsewhere in the lower town sanctuaries of Poseidon, Dionysos, Artemis, and Herakles have been found. Herakles was the principal god of the Thasians, and his image appears on their coins and the stamps on their wine jars. His worship had been introduced by the Phoenicians before the coming of the Greeks. On the acropolis, which rose steeply behind the town to a height of 150 m, were sanctuaries of Pythian Apollo, Athena Poliouchos, and Pan. A theater lay on the slopes.
Thasos was visited, described, and excavated by a number of persons in the 19th c., and antiquities were removed to museums abroad, particularly to Constantinople and Paris. The museum on the site contains more recent finds of sculpture, inscriptions, and pottery.
BIBLIOGRAPHYEcole française d'Athènes, Guide de Thasos (1968) MPI(authoritative guide with bibl.); id., Etudes Thasiennes, I-VIII (1944-62, continuing) MPI; D. Lazarides, Thasos and its Peraia (1971) MP(Vol. V of Ancient Greek Cities); J. Pouilloux, “Archiloque et Thasos: Histoire et Poésie,” Entretiens X (1963); ArchEph (1970) Chronika 16-22 (cemetery).
E. VANDERPOOL- said to have given the island its name: Hdt. 6.47
- conquered by Herakles, who settles the sons of Androgeus in it: Apollod. 2.5.9
- off Thrace, Phoenician temple of Herakles there: Hdt. 2.44
- on Mardonius' route to Euboea: Hdt. 6.44
- Thasians' revenues from mines: Hdt. 6.46
- their expenditure on feeding Xerxes' army: Hdt. 7.118
- Paus. 5.25.12
- orgies of Demeter brought to: Paus. 10.28.3
- Thasian stone: Paus. 1.18.6
- Thasians are Phoenicians by descent: Paus. 5.25.12
- they dedicate image of Herakles at Olympia: Paus. 5.25.12
- how they rid their land of a dearth: Paus. 6.11.7ff.
- they sacrifice to boxer Theagenes: Paus. 6.11.8