How Did the Greeks Settle the Island of Chios Anyway?

The island of Chios has been a Greek island for thousands of years. Even today, it is still a popular destination within the Greek world. That being so, one might wonder how the Greeks settled Chios in the first place. What do we know from historical records and archaeological evidence about how this beautiful Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea just a stone’s throw away from Turkey was settled?

The legend of the founding king of Chios

Fortunately, there is an ancient legend about this exact issue. This legend is found, in part, in the writings of Ion of Chios. He lived in the fifth century BCE. According to this ancient source, the founder of the island of Chios was Oenopion.

Oenopion appears in various sources, not just the writings of Ion of Chios. For example, Diodorus Siculus mentioned him in the first century BCE. According to that Greek historian, the god-king of Crete named Rhadamanthys gave Chios to Oenopion to rule over.

In this same source, along with various others, we find the claim that Oenopion was the son of Ariande of Crete. His father was more controversial. Some sources claim that it was Theseus, while others claim that it was Dionysus.

In any case, Oenopion was the brother of two of the Argonauts. They were supposedly princes of Crete. While Oenopion was not the first Greek to ever set foot on Chios, he had a very important part to play in its founding as a proper Greek settlement.

How Oenopion led the Greeks to Chios

It is from Pausanias that we get a convenient summary of the record told by Ion of Chios. Pausanias tells us that, according to Ion, Oenopion led a migration of Greeks from Crete to Chios. Oenopion’s sons Talus, Euanthes, Melas, Salagus and Athamas also accompanied him on this journey.

For some time thereafter, Chios was ruled by Oenopion and his sons. At some point during the reign of Oenopion, Carians migrated to the island. The Carians were the inhabitants of Caria in southwest Anatolia.

Furthermore, the Abantes from Euboea (a large Greek island just next to the mainland) also travelled to Chios at this time.

Thus, in the time of Oenopion, Chios came to be settled by Greeks from Crete, Greeks from Euboea, and also the non-Greek Carians from Anatolia. Since Oenopion was the brother of two of the Argonauts, this places this account just prior to the Trojan War.

The early history of the Greek settlement on Chios

The dynasty founded by Oenopion did not last long, according to Ion of Chios. As we read in Pausanias, the next king after the sons of Oenopion was a man by the name of Amphiclus. He was one of the settlers from Euboea, having come from the town of Histiaea in particular.

However, the dynasty of Amphiclus did not last very long either. After just three generations, a new king emerged. The name of this king was Hector. Pausanias does not explain the lineage of this Hector in his summary of Ion of Chios’ account.

All Pausanias says is that Hector made himself king three generations after Amphiclus. He was evidently not a descendant of this Amphiclus, since the account says that Hector waged war against the Abantes and Carians. This would include the descendants of Amphiclus.

The fact that he is not recorded as slaying the Greek settlers from Crete suggests that he may have been from that line. In any case, Hector was victorious in his warfare. He slew many of the Abantes and Carians and forced those remaining to surrender and leave the island.

Given the chronology and the rarity of ‘Hector’ as a name in Greek legend, it is very tempting to suggest that this Hector of Chios was actually the famous Hector of Troy. Since the Abantes participated in the war against Troy, perhaps Priam sent his son Hector to attack them on Chios at some point during the ten-year war.

The archaeology of the Greek settlement on Chios

Now that we have seen what Greek legend claims about Chios, what does archaeology have to say about this issue? Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Chios has been inhabited for many thousands of years.

It was also inhabited throughout the Mycenaean Era, but it suffered catastrophe at the end of that era like many other settlements.

According to the Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, in the eighth century BCE, we find that “Chios shows evidence of increased activity, including the refoundation of a settlement at Emporio, the existence of a religious sanctuary at nearby Kato Phana, and clear indications of active overseas trade.”

The same source then goes on to mention that the following century shows signs of even greater development on the island. Therefore, it is clear that the eighth century BCE was the era in which the Greek resettled Chios in a meaningful way after the Bronze Age Collapse and the Greek Dark Ages.

Interestingly, this archaeological conclusion matches the legend of Oenopion. A number of modern sources point out that a fifth-century BCE genealogical record suggests that Hector of Chios probably lived in the eighth century BCE or a little later.