Skopelos Mythology

Legend says that the son of King Aegeus, Theseus, along with seven young boys and seven girls was sent to King Minos of Crete, to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Minotaur was a monster with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull that lived within a maze, known as the Labyrinth, in the palace of Knossos. When Theseus arrived at Knossos he met Ariadne, daughter of Minos. Ariadne fell in love with him and to help him save himself she gave him a ball of thread, so when he would kill the Minotaur to manage to retrace his way out. So it happened, Theseus killed the Minotaur with his sword, came out of the Labyrinth, but before leaving the island of Crete, he kidnapped Ariadne. Theseus however, abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos, where god Dionysos found her and fell in love with her. The two of them settled in Lemnos and had four sons, Thoantas, Inopionas, Staphylos and Peparithos.

Stafylos, son of Dionysus and Ariadne, was the first settler of Skopelos. Staphylos is still considered the first king in the era of the Cretan-Minoan prosperity and the one who gave the island the name Peparithos. The ancient name of the island derives from the name of Stafylos’ brother, Peparithos.