TILOS TRAVEL GUIDE

TILOS > HISTORY

HISTORY

Tilos has been inhabited ever since the Neolithic Period (8000-7000 B.C.). The excavations on the island provide evidence of Minoan and Mycenaean presence. In the course of time, several Greek tribes dwelled here, including the Dorians and Pelasgians. Herodotus mentions the people of Tilos and Lindos who settled in Sicily and founded the Greek colony of Gelantas.

During medieval times, Tilos was called Episkopi. In 1373 A.D. it was conquered by the Knights of St John who restored the Castle in Megalo Horio.

The island passed to the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1552. It then came under, along with the rest of the Dodecanese, Italian rule and was finally annexed to the Greek state in 1948.

As far as its name is concerned, it is believed to have keptthe same name it has had ever since antiquity. According to mythology, Tilos was named after the younger son of Telhinida Alia and Helios (sun), who had visited the island to collect herbs for his sick wife and later built a temple in which he was the priest himself. Actually, apart from the myth’s charm, truth is that the history of the name of Tilos is lost in the misty depths of the unknown, pre-Greek language.

The ancient Greeks also called the island Agathousa and it was famous for its perfume.