Scyros
An Aegean island where Achilles was hidden disguised as a girl, and where Theseus died in exile.
The Story of Scyros
Scyros appears twice in mythology for very different reasons. First, Thetis, knowing her son Achilles was fated to die at Troy, hid him at the court of King Lycomedes on Scyros disguised among the king's daughters. Odysseus and Diomedes, needing Achilles for the war, came to the island and unmasked him — Odysseus laid out gifts including weapons, and Achilles instinctively seized the sword. Second, Theseus, the great king of Athens, fled to Scyros after being deposed, where Lycomedes's treacherous pushed him off a cliff. Cimon of Athens later retrieved what were said to be Theseus's bones from the island and brought them home.
Children
{Achilles (hidden here),Neoptolemus (born here)}
Symbols
Fun Fact
Achilles fathered a son with Lycomedes's daughter Deidamia while hiding on Scyros — that son, Neoptolemus, would later be fetched to fight at Troy after Achilles died.
Explore Further
Apsyrtides
🏛 placegeography
Islands in the Adriatic Sea said to have formed where Medea scattered the dismembered parts of her brother Absyrtus.
Scyrius
🗡 heroEponymous Heroes, Island Foundation
Legendary king who gave his name to the island of Scyros, where Achilles was hidden and where he later died.
Lemnos
🏛 placeIsland of Hephaestus
Lemnos was a volcanic island in the northern Aegean sacred to Hephaestus, where the god of the forge landed after Zeus hurled him from Olympus.
Salamis
🏛 placeGeography
An island in the Saronic Gulf where the Greeks won a decisive naval victory over Persia and where Ajax was king
Ithaca
🏛 placeIsland kingdom of Odysseus
A small, rocky island in the Ionian Sea that was the homeland of Odysseus. His desperate longing to return to Ithaca drove his ten-year journey after the Trojan War.
Taphos
🏛 placeisland, Ionian Sea
A small island in the Ionian Sea associated with the Taphians, a seafaring people who appear in the Odyssey as traders and raiders.
Lesbos
🏛 placegeography
An Aegean island where the severed head of Orpheus floated ashore, still singing, after the Maenads tore him apart.
Naxos
🏛 placeIsland where Ariadne was abandoned
Naxos was the island where Theseus abandoned Ariadne — and where Dionysus found and married her, transforming abandonment into divine love.
Lemnos
🏛 placefire, Hephaestus, metallurgy
Volcanic island sacred to Hephaestus, known for its fire, metalwork, and the Lemnian women.
Gyaros
🏛 placegeography
A small barren Cycladic island associated in mythology with the punishment of those who offended the gods.
Samothrace
🏛 placeIsland of the Kabeiroi Mysteries
Samothrace was a mountainous island in the northern Aegean, home to a mystery cult second only to Eleusis.
Delos
🏛 placeBirthplace of Apollo and Artemis
Delos was a tiny island in the Cyclades, sacred as the birthplace of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis — one of the holiest sites in the ancient Greek world.