2020-06-19 Fri

As per Greek mythology, Athos is a Gigantes that challenged the Greek gods during the Gigantomachia. Gigantomachy is a divine battle fought between the Giants and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos, as per to Greek and Roman mythology. Athos threw a massive rock against Poseidon which fell in the Aegean Sea and became Mount Athos. Another version of mythology states, Poseidon used the mountain to bury the defeated giant. Homer mentioned in Iliad about Athos Mountain. Historian Herodotus wrote that the fleet of the Persian commander Mardonius was wrecked with losses of 300 ships and 20,000 men, by a strong North wind while attempting to capture the coast near Mount Athos. Herodotus mentioned in his writing that the peninsula called Akte and Pelasgians from Lemon Island populated cities thereon, Sane, Kleonai (Cleonae), Thyssos (Thyssus), Olophyxos (Olophyxus), and Akrothoon (Acrothoum). Due to the lack of historical accounts, Archaeologists have not been able to determine the exact location of the cities reported by Strabo. It is believed that they must have been deserted when Athos' new inhabitants, the monks, started arriving sometime before the ninth century AD. Image Courtesy: Stampsoftheworld.co.uk