Ikaria
owes its name to Ikaros who drowned in its deep waters. When Daedalus tried
to escape from the Labyrinth, where he was imprisoned by Minos, the King
of Crete, he made wax wings for himself and his son Ikaros, because the
only way to save themselves was to fly away. Ikaros, entranced by the flight,
flew too close to the sun. His father, in vain, was shouting at him to
come back. His wax wings melted and he fell in the waters of the sea that
were later named after him.
In
antiquity, Ikaria was called Dolichni and Oenoe because of the abundance
of its wines, and it is also believed that Dionysus was born here. Stravonas,
the great geographer, expresses the view that the first inhabitants of
Ikaria were the Miletians, from Ionia, who were subjected by the Persians
during the Persian wars. The island was a member of the Athenian League,
but from that point on there is no more historical evidence until the Byzantine
period. The Byzantine buildings that have been saved prove that the island
had been used as a place for exile for the members of the royal Byzantine
family. The population was renewed by the inhabitants of Asia Minor, who
fled there for various reasons. Continuous pirate invasions struck Ikaria
and Arabian pirates were used it as the base for their operations. After
the capture of Byzantium by the Franks, in 1204, Ikaria became part of
the Latin state in Constantinople. It came under the Byzantine rule for
a short period of time and then - until 1484 - under the rule of the Arangios
family who later granted it to the knights of Rhodes. In 1521, Ikaria was
conquered by the Turks. Due to the very small distance between the island
and Asia Minor, the centre of the "Filiki Etairia" (a secret
society just before the Greek Revolution) could not act on the island,
like it did on the nearby islands, on the eve of the Revolution in 1821.
300 Ikarians participated in the expedition of Chios, and under the command
of Michael Kastanas, they fought together with Lykourgos Logothetis. In
the Protocol of London, in 1830, it was stated that the eastern Aegean
islands should remain in the Othoman empire. In 1835, Ikaria along with
Leros, Kalymnos and Patmos formed a province, which was called Tetranesos,
under the rule of four elders of the community, until 1869, when Turkey
put Turkish officials in command. On 17 July 1912, Ikaria rebels and the
Turkish officials were obliged to leave. On October 28, the assembly of
the people that gathered at Evdilos, declared the union of the island to
Greece and appointed Evdilos as the capital. On 4 November 1912, Ikaria
was liberated by the Greek Army.