Antiquity ; engraving by
Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, 1725 In
Greek mythology,
Athos is the name of one of the
Gigantes that challenged the
Greek gods during the
Gigantomachia. Athos threw a massive rock at
Poseidon which fell in the
Aegean Sea and became Mount Athos. According to another version of the story, Poseidon used the mountain to bury the defeated giant.
Homer mentions the mountain Athos in the
Iliad.
Herodotus writes that during the Persian invasion of
Thrace in 492 BC, 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 round the coast near Mount Athos. Herodotus also states that
Pelasgians from the island of
Lemnos populated the peninsula, then called
Akte, and names five cities thereon,
Sane,
Kleonai (Cleonae),
Thyssos (Thyssus),
Olophyxos (Olophyxus), and
Akrothoon (Acrothoum).
Strabo also mentions the cities of Dion (Dium) and Akrothoon.
Eretria also established colonies on Akte. At least one other city was established in the Classical period:
Akanthos (Acanthus). Some of these cities minted their own coins. The peninsula was on the invasion route of
Xerxes I, who spent three years excavating the
Xerxes Canal across the isthmus to allow the passage of his invasion fleet in 483 BC. After the death of
Alexander the Great, the architect
Dinocrates (Deinokrates) proposed carving the entire mountain into a statue of Alexander.
Pliny the Elder stated in 77 AD that the inhabitants of Mount Athos could "live to their four hundredth year" due to the fact that they ate the skin of vipers. The lack of historical accounts shrouds the history of the peninsula during the later ages. 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's new inhabitants, the monks, started arriving sometime before the ninth century AD.
Early Christianity According to the Athonite tradition, the
Blessed Virgin Mary was sailing accompanied by
John the Evangelist from
Joppa to
Cyprus to visit
Lazarus of Bethany. When the ship was blown off course to then-pagan Athos, it was forced to anchor near the port of Klement, close to the present monastery of Iviron. The Virgin walked ashore and, overwhelmed by the mountain's wonderful and wild natural beauty, she blessed it and asked her son
Jesus for it to be her garden. A voice was heard saying, ("Let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved"). From that moment, the mountain was consecrated as the garden of the Mother of God and was out of bounds to all other women. Historical documents on ancient Mount Athos history are very few. Monks have certainly been there since the fourth century, and possibly since the third. During
Constantine I's reign (324–337) both Christians and followers of traditional Greek religion were living there. , 1885 During the reign of
Julian (361–363), the churches of Mount Athos were destroyed, and Christians hid in the woods and inaccessible places. Later, during
Theodosius I's reign (379–395), the temples of the traditional Greek religion were destroyed. The lexicographer
Hesychius of Alexandria states that in the fifth century, there was still a temple and a statue of "
Zeus Athonite". After the
Islamic conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, many Orthodox monks from the Egyptian desert tried to find another calm place; some of them came to the Athos peninsula. An ancient document states that monks "built huts of wood with roofs of straw [...] and by collecting fruit from the wild trees were providing themselves improvised meals." The biography of Saint Athanasius the Athonite describes the foundation of the first monastic community on Mount Athos.
Byzantine era and onwards Monastic life on Mount Athos expanded significantly during the Byzantine period. In the 9th century the area began to attract hermits and ascetics seeking isolation for religious devotion. By the 10th century organized monastic communities had developed, and the Byzantine emperors granted privileges and protection to the monastic settlements. A major milestone in the institutional organization of the monastic community occurred in 963, when the monk Athanasius the Athonite founded the
Great Lavra monastery with the support of the Byzantine emperor
Nikephoros II Phokas. This foundation marked the transition from scattered hermitages to large cenobitic monasteries and became a model for later monastic institutions on the peninsula. Throughout the Byzantine era, Mount Athos received patronage from emperors and rulers across the Orthodox world, including those of the
Byzantine Empire, the
Kingdom of Georgia, and various Slavic states. Several monasteries representing different Orthodox traditions were established, contributing to the multicultural character of the monastic republic. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the expansion of the
Ottoman Empire, the monasteries of Mount Athos continued to function under Ottoman rule. The monastic community retained a degree of autonomy and preserved its religious institutions, although it faced periods of economic hardship and political instability. Today Mount Athos remains an important center of Eastern Orthodox monasticism and is recognized as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Access Access to Mount Athos is restricted and requires a special permit known as a
diammonitirion. Entry is limited to male visitors and regulated by the monastic authorities in cooperation with the Greek state. Visitors typically arrive by boat from
Ouranoupoli, which serves as the main gateway to the monastic community. == Notes ==