History of Agathonisi

In ancient times, it was referred to as Psetoussa; Thucydides calls it Tragaeae, while Strabon and Stephen of Byzantium call the island and its neighbouring islets Tragaeae and Plutarch, Tragia. Tragaeae is the birthplace of the philosopher Theogitus, a student of Aristotle. After the Karians, the island was successively inhabited by the Dorians and Ionians; the sea battle of Lardi (494 BC), between the Persian and Ionian fleets, took place nearby.

During the Byzantine period, it was probably inhabited by Byzantine exiles; it is said that they were the source of the islanders’ linguistic idiom, a particularly pure Hellenic dialect. The island was settled and abandoned several times by its inhabitants due to unfavourable living conditions; the latest community being that of the Patmians and Fourniots in the early 19th century. In 1294, the island was donated to the Patmos Monastery, and in 1522 it passed into the hands of the Ottomans. On 6 August 1824, the defeated Ottoman-Egyptian fleet sought shelter there – the island was used as a pirate refuge until the 14th century – and 25 days later, the sea battle of Gerontas took place east of the island.

In 1912, Agathonisi came under Italian rule, as did the rest of the Dodecanese islands, and in 1943 it was taken over by the Germans before being finally ceded to Greece on 7 March 1948.

After that, Agathonisi was administratively under the jurisdiction of Patmos Municipality, and in 1954, it officially became a separate Community.