Siphnos belongs to the Western Cycladic complex (Kea, Kythnos, Serifos, Melos, Kimolos). It has an area of 74 sq.km. and its coastline is characterized by a series of bays (e.g. Kastro, Kamares, Platys Gialos, Vathy, Cherronisos) with safe anchorages for mooring and marine activities. Its terrain is formed by continuous rocky masses, with the highest point being Prophet Elias (alt. 650m), that form ravines and small valleys, suitable for cultivation.
Three names are attested for the island: Akis, Meropi or Meropia, and Siphnos, which last prevailed. According to myth, it comes from Siphnos, the first settler of the island, son of the Attic hero Sounios and grandson of Apollo and the nymph Roius. His supposed origin may reflect the island’s relations with the Lavreotiki – i.e. Sounion – in southern Attica, which in turn owes its name to the same Sounios. The links between the island and Lavrio are the silver deposits and especially the mines existing in both these areas since the Early Bronze Age; these supplied the Cyclades, Crete and mainland Greece with important metals, such as silver, lead and copper. Etymologically, the island’s name may actually come from Siphnos, meaning empty, reflecting how the island’s subsoil appeared in antiquity, hollowed out by its mining galleries.
There is evidence of activity since the Neolithic Age, while during the Early Bronze Age (late 4th-3rd millennia BC), prehistoric settlements were created at various locations on the island (Akrotiraki, Vathy), as well as on the hills where the two important acropolises of Asteos (Kastro) and Agios Andreas were later founded and developed. At Kastro, an extremely strategic position controlling the sea route and in direct visual contact with the hill of Agios Andreas, habitation is documented until the end of the 18th century BC. During the Late Bronze Age (late 13th/early 12th centuries BC), the acropolis of Agios Andreas was founded and flourished.
During historical times, the island was colonized by the Ionians under the Athenian Alcinor as leader of the campaign in Siphnos. Three cities are attested, the ‘City of the Sifnians’, which is identified with Kastro, Minoa, which may be identified with the acropolis of Agios Andreas, and whose prehistoric heyday is reflected in its imposing cyclopean walls, and Apollonia, which has not yet been located. At the same time, two strong fortresses were built, at Agios Nikitas and at Prophet Elias of Troulaki, while small agricultural settlements developed throughout the countryside. Their wealth persisted, as is shown by the Athenian lists of contributions, which record the amount of annual tax the Athenians imposed upon the member states of the First Athenian League. The Sifnians around 450/449 BC paid a contribution of three talents each year, an amount which 25 years later, in 425/424 BC, had increased to nine. The prosperity for at least a portion of the inhabitants continued until the Roman era, as rich finds from the cemeteries (sarcophagus etc.) make plain.
The antiquities of Siphnos demonstrate that in its long cultural development it contributed substantially, from at least the 3rd millennium BC, to the development of civilization in the Aegean area. In particular, the early mining activity and the development of know-how in this field undoubtedly played a key role in the formation of a new type of society based on the new technology of metals and the possibilities such provided.
The golden age of Siphnos in the 6th century BC
The period of greatest prosperity of Siphnos enjoyed was undoubtedly the Archaic, and in particular the second half of the 6th century BC, when the Sifnians, ‘in a show of prosperity’ (Pausanias, 10.11.2), built at Delphi an imposing Treasury – the best-known Cycladic monument in mainland Greece and the only all-marble one at that time in the Delphic Sanctuary of Apollo. In addition to a great standing, the accomplishment of the Treasury also secured for the Sifnians the right of promanteia ( the right to ‘jump the queue’), which, according to the inscription at the entrance to the Treasury, was renewed in the 4th century BC. Herodotus (III. 57-58) reports that, at the time of the tyrant Polycrates, the Siphnians ‘were the richest of the islanders,’ from the exploitation of the gold and silver metals that existed on their island. The magnificent Treasury was made from a tenth of their income, which they shared among themselves. At the time of the construction of the Treasury, the Siphnians consulted the Delphic oracle whether their prosperity would be long-lasting. The Pythia gave the following oracle, which the Sifnians did not understand either then or later, even when the Samians arrived on the island: ‘When in Siphnos the town hall is white and white is the agora, a shrewd man will need to beware of a wooden host and a red herald’. Herodotus clarifies this by observing that in ancient times the ships were painted with miltos (red ochre), and that the Pythia meant the Samian ships when she referred to the wooden host and the red herald. The Samians in question were fugitives rebelling against Polycrates and who had sailed to Siphnos to obtain financial aid. The Samian messengers initially asked the Sifnians for a loan of 10 talents, and because they refused, the Samians then plundered the countryside of the island. The Sifnians tried to expel them, but the Samians prevented them from returning to their city, and then managed to extract 100 talents from them, i.e. ten times the amount they had initially requested. The fact that the Sifnians were among the first islanders to mint a currency in the Archaic times is perhaps related to the amassing of such an enormous amount of raw metal on the island.
