mosaic depicting the
Abduction of Europa in the House of Europa in the Western Archaeological Zone of Kos town. (heavily restored)
Mythological origins In
Homer's
Iliad, a contingent of Koans fought for the Greeks in the
Trojan War. In classical mythology the founder-king of Kos was
Merops, hence "Meropian Kos" is included in the archaic Delian
amphictyony listed in the 7th-century
Homeric hymn to Delian Apollo; the island was visited by
Heracles. Kos was said to be the birthplace of the goddess
Leto; the mother of
Apollo. Supposedly Leto's father
Coeus was the first inhabitant of the island. The island was supposedly colonised by the
Carians, but
Dorians invaded it in the 11th century BC, establishing a Dorian colony with a large contingent of settlers from
Epidaurus, whose
Asclepius cult made their new home famous for its
sanatoria.
Archaic Era Its early history – as part of the religious-political
amphictyonic league that included
Lindos,
Kamiros,
Ialysos,
Knidos and
Halicarnassus, the
Doric Hexapolis ( means 'six cities' in Greek), – is obscure. At the end of the 6th century, Kos fell under
Achaemenid domination but rebelled after the Greek victory at the
Battle of Mycale in 479. Archaeological finds have shown the existence of a small shrine to
Hemera and
Helios; gods of the
day and the
sun respectively.
Classical Era During the
Greco-Persian Wars, before it twice expelled the
Persians, Kos was ruled by Persian-appointed tyrants, but as a rule it seems to have been under oligarchic government. In the 5th century, it joined the
Delian League, and, after the revolt of
Rhodes, it served as the chief
Athenian station in the south-eastern Aegean (411–407 BC). In 366 BC, a democracy was instituted and the capital was transferred from
Astypalaea (at the west end of the island near the modern village of
Kefalos) to the newly built town of
Cos, laid out in a
Hippodamian grid. After helping to weaken Athenian power, in the
Social War (357–355 BC), it fell for a few years to
king Mausolus of Caria. Proximity to the east gave the island first access to imported silk thread.
Aristotle mentions silk weaving conducted by the women of the island. Silk production of garments was conducted in large factories by female slaves.
Coae vestes Older research believed that the island was known in antiquity for the manufacture of transparent light dresses, the . This view goes back to Aristotle, and it has been challenged by modern research. The term
Coae vestes seems to refer to a type of silk garment and not the site of production (the island of Kos). The origin of the term is ultimately unclear.
Hellenistic Era During the course of the
Fourth War of the Diadochi Ptolemy I Soter captured Kos from
Antigonus I Monophthalmus, incorporating it into his
kingdom. In the
Hellenistic period, Kos attained the zenith of its prosperity. Kos was valued by the Ptolemies, who used it as a naval outpost to oversee the Aegean. As a seat of learning, it arose as a provincial branch of the museum of
Alexandria, and became a favourite resort for the education of the princes of the Ptolemaic dynasty. During the Hellenistic age, there was a
medical school; however, the theory that this school was founded by Hippocrates (see below) during the
Classical age is an unwarranted extrapolation. It was the home of the major Hellenistic poet-scholar
Philitas. Despite the incorporation of Kos into the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the island kept its political autonomy (shown in a 3rd-century BC decree found at Kos). The island was ruled autonomously through to its citizens assembly and magistrates (the monarch, the
prostates, the exegetes, etc.). The fact that the city could legislate and apply its own laws shows political independence from the Ptolemaic Kingdom. The city-state remained in control of its political institutions and civil rights. Kos also became a center of production of unrefined silk, oars and
amphorae. Kos economic development during the period can further be exemplified by the 3rd- and 2nd-century BC construction of a theatre, a new market with multiple
stoas, a temple to Apollo at Alisarna, construction and expansion of the Asclepeion, fortification works at Alisarna and multiple richly decorated houses. In 240 BC,
Ziaelas of Bithynia,
Seleucus II Callinicus and
Ptolemy III Euergetes provided guarantees for the transformation of Kos Asclepeion into an
asylum. This decision made Kos a more attractive destination for merchants and pilgrims. Kos had a strong reputation for justice from the late fourth century BC and was called on more frequently than any other city in the Hellenistic period to provide judges for the arbitration of disputes between and within other cities. Between 310 and 300 BC, Kos arbitrated a dispute between
Klazomenai and
Teos, provided a temporary law code for the
synoecism of Teos and
Lebedus, and accepted requests to send judges to resolve internal disputes at
Ilium,
Samos, and
Telos. In the following two centuries, they accepted further requests to send judges to
Naxos,
Thasos,
Erythrae,
Mytilene, and four cities whose names are not preserved. The Koan settlement of the dispute at Telos is recorded in an inscription (
IG XII.4.1 132); one of the most detailed surviving records of foreign judges activities in the Hellenistic period. This judgement, drawing on Koan religious and financial regulations, allowed a group convicted of political crimes to pay off their fines and be reconciled with the wider community by paying for sacrifices and repairs to temples.
Diodorus Siculus (xv. 76) and
Strabo (xiv. 657) describe it as a well-fortified port. Its position gave it a high importance in Aegean trade; while the island itself was rich in wines of considerable fame. Under
Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies the town developed into one of the great centers in the Aegean;
Josephus quotes Strabo to the effect that
Mithridates I of the Bosporus was sent to Kos to fetch the gold deposited there by
queen Cleopatra of Egypt.
Herod is said to have provided an annual stipend for the benefit of prize-winners in the athletic games, and a statue was erected there to his son
Herod the Tetrarch ("C. I. G." 2502 ).
Paul briefly visited Kos according to .
Roman Era Except for occasional incursions by
corsairs and some severe earthquakes, the island's peace was rarely disturbed. Following the lead of its larger neighbour, Rhodes, Kos generally displayed a friendly attitude toward the Romans; in 53 AD it was made a
free city. The island of Kos also featured a provincial library during the Roman period. The island first became a center for learning during the Ptolemaic dynasty, and
Hippocrates,
Apelles,
Philitas and possibly
Theocritus came from the area. An inscription lists people who made contributions to build the library in the 1st century AD. One of the people responsible for the library's construction was the Koan physician
Gaius Stertinius Xenophon, who lived in Rome and was the personal physician of the Emperors
Tiberius,
Claudius, and
Nero.
Herod, king of
Judaea, ensured the perpetual funding for the
gymnasiarch's annual office on Kos. An inscription from the assembly of the island, dating around 14 BC, honours Gaius Iulius Herodes, affirming Herod's adoption of the Roman
tria nomina; possibly relating to this financial support or another endowment.
Byzantine Era The
bishopric of Kos was a
suffragan of the
metropolitan see of Rhodes. Its bishop Meliphron attended the
First Council of Nicaea in 325. Eddesius was one of the minority Eastern bishops who withdrew from the
Council of Sardica in about 344 and set up a rival council at Philippopolis. Iulianus went to the synod held in Constantinople in 448 in preparation for the
Council of Chalcedon of 451, in which he participated as a legate of
Pope Leo I, and he was a signatory of the joint letter that the bishops of the
Roman province of
Insulae sent in 458 to
Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian with regard to the killing of
Proterius of Alexandria. Dorotheus took part in a synod in 518. Georgius was a participant of the
Third Council of Constantinople in 680–681. Constantinus went to the
Photian Council of Constantinople (879). Under
Byzantine rule, apart from the participation of its bishops in councils, the island's history remains obscure. It was governed by a
droungarios in the 8th–9th centuries, and seems to have acquired some importance in the 11th and 12th centuries:
Nikephoros Melissenos began his uprising here, and in the middle of the 12th century, it was governed by a scion of the ruling
Komnenos dynasty, Nikephoros Komnenos.
Genoese Era Following the 11th century, Kos passed under
Genoese control, although it was a
Byzantine territory and kept for a while by the
Empire of Nicaea. Genoese ruled as protectorate and lasted over four centuries. According to the Ottoman General Census of 1881/82–1893, the
kaza of had a total population of 12,965, consisting of 10,459
Greeks, 2,439 Muslims and 67
Jews. The island was occupied by the Kingdom of Italy on 20 May 1912. The Italians developed the infrastructures of the island, after the ruinous earthquake of 23 April 1933, which destroyed a great part of the old city and damaged many new buildings. Architect Rodolfo Petracco drew up the new city plan, transforming the old quarters into an archaeological park, and dividing the new city into a residential, an administrative, and a commercial area. In
World War II, the island, as an Italian possession, was controlled by the
Axis, until the
Italians surrendered in 1943. British and German forces then clashed for control of the island in the
Battle of Kos as part of the
Dodecanese Campaign, in which the Germans were victorious. Following the battle, 100 Italian officers who had refused to join the Germans were executed in what became known as the
Massacre of Kos. German troops occupied the island until 1945, when it became a protectorate of the United Kingdom, which ceded it to the
Kingdom of Greece in 1947 following the
Paris Peace Treaty.
Contemporary There is a Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC), i.e. a
refugee camp, with a stated capacity of 2,140. It is one of a number on Greek islands. ==Geology==