In island legend Skopelos was founded by Staphylos or Staphylus (Greek
for grape), one of the sons of the god Dionysos and the Princess
Ariadne of Crete. Historically, in the Late Bronze Age Skopelos, then
known as Peparethos or Peparethus, was colonized by Cretans who
introduced viticulture to the island.
Perhaps because of the legend of its founding by the son of the god of
wine, the island was known throughout the ancient Greek cities of the
Mediterranean Sea for its wine. The play Philoctetes (first performed
at the Festival of Dionysus in 409 BC) by Sophocles includes a wine
merchant lost on his way to "Peparethos - rich in grapes and wine".
In 1936, excavations in the area of Staphylos / Velanio uncovered a
royal tomb of the era of Mycenaean Greece. The island was briefly under
the control of the city-state Chalcis, Euboea since at least the 8th
century BC.
In turn the island would come under the political influence or direct domination of:
- Athens.
- The Kingdom of Macedon (338 - 146 BC).
- The Roman Republic (146 - 27 BC).
- The Roman Empire (27 BC - 330 AD).
- The Byzantine Empire (330 - 1204).
- The Republic of Venice (Duchy of the Archipelago) (1204 - 1538).
- The Ottoman Empire (1538 until the Greek War of Independence).
Skopelos became part of the First Hellenic Republic under the London
Protocol confirming its sovereignty (February 3, 1830.[3] During World
War II, Skopelos fell under Axis occupation. At first it was occupied
by the Kingdom of Italy (June, 1941 - September, 1943) and then by Nazi
Germany (September, 1943 - October, 1944). Skopelos and the rest of
Greece returned to democratic style government in 1944.
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