History of Chios Island

Chios, the island with such a century-old history, is located at the heart of North Aegean Sea.

Tradition has it that the most valid story on the island’s name is the one about Hiona, the daughter of Oenopion, the first king of the island; besides, it is also possible that the island has taken its name after Hios, the son of Poseidon, whereas other plausible origins include the X looking shape of the island (‘Hios is written with an X in Greek’) and the mastic tree that the Phoenicians used to call Hios.

The cultural tradition of our island dates back to being Homer’s birthplace, who was indeed the most important Greek poet of all centuries, not to mention other prestigious writers and poets.

Tradition has been kept alive in the long course of all these centuries, a fact truly proven by all Chios Medieval Castles and Byzantine Churches , by the on-going production of mastic and by the everyday life in Chios today, the ‘island of the Winds’, a unique place which combines hospitality and fun on one hand and a remarkable civilization on the other.

Ionian settlers came to inhabit the island in around 1.000 BC, which was of paramount importance to the development of the island, since they built their cities along the coast of Asia Minor and thus, passed the relay of Greek civilization.

The island continued to flourish in the Middle Ages, during which the Genoese were using the island as a centre of commerce and trade.

Chios during the Ottoman Occupation

Chios still continued to develop after the occupation of the island by the Ottoman Empire in 1566; nevertheless, from that point onwards it was subject to the Sultan. Chios was probably one of the very few places in the Greek territory that enjoyed unique privileges on behalf of the Sultan for a certain period of time and this was mainly due to the mastic growing activity, which would from then onwards be oriented so as to serve the Sultan.

It was during the Ottoman Empire that a famous colloquial phrase was coined; it is usually said among Greeks that “the Chios people always walk by pairs”. Well, in those times, an Ottoman order required from the Chios people to carry the conquerors in their arms. In order to avoid this diminishing duty, the people from Chios used to walk down the street in pairs and when they were to pass by somebody who looked like an Ottoman Turk, one of them would pick the other up in his shoulders and in this way, they could escape from this humiliating duty of carrying the Ottomans Turks.

In the year 1822 the Chios people declared their independence, which put an end to the special treatment until then reserved for the Ottoman Turks. The huge bloodshed that happened then pushed many of the Chios people to flee abroad, where they managed in continuation to built large empires of merchant marine that still play the leading role in the merchant marine business sector of Greece.

The big slaughter of the year 1822 has been depicted – either in painting or in writing – in the work of very important artists and writers, including among others Delacroix and V. Hugo.