Editing Santorini (section)

=== Ancient period ===
[[File:Cultural Centre Megaro Gyzi 04.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Picture of a young girl of Santorini, Cultural Center Megaro Gyzi, [[Fira]]]]
[[File:Skaros Rock.jpg|thumb|left|[[Skaros Rock]], originally the location of medieval fortifications]]
[[File:Episkopi Gonias (2797558143).jpg|thumb|The Byzantine [[Panagia Episkopi|Church of Panagia Episkopi]]]]
[[File:GR-santorini-pyrgos.jpg|thumb|[[Pyrgos Kallistis]] village]]
[[File:Santorini pyrgos kastellkirche 160707.jpg|thumb|''Presentation of the Theotokos'' church, [[Pyrgos Kallistis|Pyrgos]] village]]

Santorini remained unoccupied throughout the rest of the Bronze Age, during which time the Greeks took over [[Crete]]. At [[Knossos]], in a LMIIIA context (14th century BC), seven [[Linear B]] texts while calling upon "all the deities" make sure to grant primacy to an elsewhere-unattested entity called ''qe-ra-si-ja'' and, once, ''qe-ra-si-jo''. If the endings ''{{not a typo|-ia[s]}}'' and ''-ios'' represent an ethnic suffix, then this means "The One From {{not a typo|Qeras[os]}}". If the initial consonant were aspirated, then *Qhera- would have become "Thera-" in later Greek. "Therasia" and its ethnikon "Therasios" are both attested in later Greek; and, since ''-sos'' was itself a genitive suffix in the Aegean [[Sprachbund]], *Qeras[os] could also shrink to *Qera. If ''qe-ra-si-ja'' was an ethnikon first, then in following the entity the Cretans also feared whence it came.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/religionmyths/minoanqerasijathereligiousimpactofthetheravolcanoonminoancrete |title=Minoan Qe-Ra-Si-Ja. The Religious Impact of the Thera Volcano on Minoan Crete|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614205738/http://www.therafoundation.org/articles/religionmyths/minoanqerasijathereligiousimpactofthetheravolcanoonminoancrete|archive-date=14 June 2006}}</ref>

Probably after what is called the [[Bronze Age collapse]], [[Phoenicians]] founded a site on Thera. [[Herodotus]] reports that they called the island Callista and lived on it for eight generations.<ref>[[Histories (Herodotus)|Hist.]] IV. 147.</ref> In the ninth century BC, [[Dorians]] founded the main Hellenic city on Mesa Vouno, {{cvt|396|m|0}} [[Above mean sea level|above sea level]]. This group later claimed that they had named the city and the island after their leader, [[Theras]]. Today, that city is referred to as [[Ancient Thera]].

In his ''[[Argonautica]]'', written in Hellenistic Egypt in the third century BC, [[Apollonius Rhodius]] includes an origin and sovereignty myth of Thera being given by [[Triton (mythology)|Triton]] in Libya to the Greek [[Argonauts|Argonaut]] [[Euphemus]], son of [[Poseidon]], in the form of a clod of dirt. After carrying the dirt next to his heart for several days, Euphemus dreamt that he nursed the dirt with milk from his breast, and that the dirt turned into a beautiful woman with whom he had sex. The woman then told him that she was a daughter of Triton named [[Calliste (mythology)|Calliste]], and that when he threw the dirt into the sea it would grow into an island for his descendants to live on. The poem goes on to claim that the island was named Thera after Euphemus' descendant [[Theras]], son of [[Autesion]], the leader of a group of refugee settlers from [[Lemnos]].

The Dorians have left a number of inscriptions incised in stone, in the vicinity of the temple of [[Apollo]], attesting to [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|pederastic relations]] between the authors and their lovers ([[eromenos|eromenoi]]). These inscriptions, found by [[:de:Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen (Epigraphiker)|Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen]], have been thought by some archaeologists to be of a ritual, celebratory nature, because of their large size, careful construction and&nbsp;– in some cases&nbsp;– execution by craftsmen other than the authors. According to [[Herodotus]],<ref>[[Histories (Herodotus)|Hist.]] IV.149–165</ref> following a drought of seven years, Thera sent out colonists who founded a number of cities in northern Africa, including [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]]. In the fifth century BC, Dorian Thera did not join the [[Delian League]] with [[Athens]]; and during the [[Peloponnesian War]], Thera sided with Dorian Sparta, against Athens. The Athenians took the island during the war, but lost it again after the [[Battle of Aegospotami]]. During the Hellenistic period, the island was a major naval base for [[Ptolemaic Egypt]].