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| The island of Icaria (aka Ikaria) and the surrounding sea took their name from Icarus. Icarus was Daedalus’ son the Athenian who built the Labyrinth in Crete. When Daedalus revealed Labyrinth secret design to Ariadne and her lover Theseus, King Minos imprisoned him and his son. Daedalus conceived to escape by building wings from feathers and wax. Although he warned his son not to fly high, Icarus overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, flew close to the sun whereupon the wax melt and he fell into the sea. Icarus body carried to the island and was buried by Hercules in a rocky promontory. Hercules named the island and the surrounding sea for the fallen first aviator. |
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Ikaria has been inhabited since
at least 7000 BC, by proto-Hellenes called Pelasgians. Around 750 BC, Greeks from Miletus colonized
the island and established a settlement, which later became the capital city of
Oenoe. In the 2nd century the Tauropolion,
a magnificent temple of Atremis was built at Oenoe.
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After the period of classical
antiquity the Byzantines controlled the island and latter the Knights of St. John until 1521, at which
time the Ottomans occupied it. The
Icarians hanged the first Turkish tax collector but managed to escape
punishment, as none would identify the guilty one and the Turks determined that
it was not honorable to punish the entire population. The Ottomans imposed a very loose
administration, and did not send any officials to Icaria for several centuries,
although in later years they would appoint groups of locals in each village of
the island to act as tax collectors for the empire. The best account we have of the island during
the early years of the Ottoman rule is from 1677 when the island had 1,000
hardy, long-lived inhabitants, who were the poorest people in the Aegean. Without a
decent port (the locals destroyed the island's ports in order to protect
themselves from pirate raids), the island depended on itself for its and from
its very limited interaction with the outside world.
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The island is mountainous with
villages nestled near the coast. Many parts of the island, especially the
ravines, are covered fir trees and bushes, making the landscape lush with
green. Small herds of goats graze the
ravines and provide milk, cheese and yogurt for daily consumption and enough
meat for major holidays only.
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Icarians are known for their
longevity something that has been studied and reported in a New York Times
article “the island wherepeople forget to die.” It may be attributed to their diet, lay back life style moderate
wine drinking and also their genes. Their
diet is the Mediterranean diet as they use
locally grown vegetables, olive oil and the catch from the sea.
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The
island was also the birthplace of Dionysius the God of wine and merry making. Icaria has a tradition in the production of strong red wine,
which is not exported but consumed locally. It is kept in terracotta barrels called pithoi
sunk to their rims in earth.
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| Etienne Cabet’s novel Voyage en Icarie, portraits Icaria as “a truly second Promised Land, an Eden, an Elysium, a new Earthly Paradise”. His novel imitates More’s Utopia and reflects Rousseau’s French romanticism i.e. return to a simpler, primitive economy where private property and the selfishness inherent in it never existed. He also subscribed to the golden rule: Love your neighbor as yourself; do not unto others the harm you would not have others do to you; do to others the good that you wish for yourself. |
