Naxos and the Cyclades

Greek mythology treats the Cyclades as passageways for kings and heroes, who roam the islands but do not settle on them. Communities in the Cyclades adopted the Mycenaean lifestyle, cult and burial customs in the Late Bronze Age (LBA), although some Cycladic variations are evident in the architectural design of settlements and defensive systems. A variety of funerary practices can be identified in the Early Iron Age Cyclades. In cultic behavior, the transition from open‐air cults to temples signals a new stage of community organization. Ancestor cult in the Cyclades, and its regional development, is well illustrated by Grotta, as well as by the “Procyclopean” shrine at Xobourgo on Tenos and the find at Minoa on Amorgos. In Naxos town, the transformation of familial ancestor cult into the veneration of the civic founders‐heroes constitutes a sound declaration of an enduring community that continued to hold a central position on Naxos and in the Cyclades.