Myths and Mortals (Greek Mythology)

~THE GALAXIDI HISTORY~

The existence of Galaxidi dates since 1393 BC. The various events, the inscriptions,the finds, the graves intermingle with the legends and it is very difficult to disentangle them.

The city was originally built 130 m above the sea, on a hill, near the location of today's church of St.Blasius and it was called Oianthi. This church was destroyed by an earthquake and it was rebuilt from preexisting old walls. All the surrounding area is an archeological site. The city was built two centuries before the Trojan war by Locros, a descendant of Defkalion. After his death a monument was erected to his honour by the Oianthians, called "the Locrion". In one Delphic inscription though it is written that the only sovereign was Armodamos. For a little while the city was also called Katakuzinoupolis, in 1444 A.D., from the name of Constantine Katakouzinos. Oianthi had signed at that time a treaty with the neighboring city of Horakion (Itea-Xeropigado) for peaceful coexistence and resolution of their differences, which proves the degree of civilization of the two cities.

Oianthi was a nautical city and was connected with many cities by sea with which it had commercial and diplomatic relations. The regime was an authoritarian one, under a tyrant.Later on, the city of Galaxidi was founded by the sea and remained the main residence city of the people of Oianthi until today.

In the beginning the people were living of piracy against enemy ships and caves were constructed to hide the ships in the location of Kavos and Potamaki. During the Peloponnesean War, Oianthi was an ally of Aitoloi and Philip,wanting to take revenge of Oianthians, declared war against them and conquered them. In the 3rd century B.C. Galaxidi became a nautical center and made alliances with other cities. Old texts found in Galaxidi talk about the nautical city with the marine history and heritage of the passion for the sea which until today remains a characteristic of all people of Galaxidi. Rigas Fereos' charta (map) in 1797 presents the name of Oianthi and Pentayi for today's Galaxidi. The presence of a small forest of pine trees, which are used in building ships, indicates the growing art of constructing means of marine transportation in Oianthi.

METACHRISTIAN TIMES

The historian Constantine Sathas of Galaxidi,studied and presented a lot of information about the history of Galaxidi from the prechristian times until the 6th century A.D. In a cosmography book of a foreign writer many important cities are mentioned like Athens,Piraeus, Elefsis,Nafpaktos and Oianthi.In the middle of the 6th century A.D. the city was destroyed from an earthquake and from attacks of barbarian troops.It then changed its name and when it was rebuilt, due to the economic development of its inhabitants,it was named Galaxidi.

In the 9th century it is mentioned as Pentayi (five saints=pente ayi) but later on it is mentioned again as Galaxidi,which remains its name until today.

The most probable origins of the name Galaxidi are the following: It may come from a plant (Galaxida) or from a Byzantine local ruler whose name was Galaxidi. But the origin which seems more appropriate is that it comes from the word Galaxavra, daughter of Oceanus-king of the seas- whose name means the place of worship of the seas.

From the 6th to the 9th centuries A.D. Galaxidi grew to become a famous nautical and urban center with a chair of the archibishop as shown in a list of the Byzantine emperor Leon the Wise. The monk Efthymios writes that during the invasion of the Bulgarians in 981-996 A.D. Galaxidi was a growing city. This is also evident from manuscripts which are saved from the monastery of the Saviour Christ built by Michael Komnenos .