The first Greek colony in Sicily (734 BC), named for the Aegean island of Naxos.
The archaeological site at Giardini Naxos preserves the original settlement. From here,
Greek colonists spread wine culture across eastern Sicily. The museum holds artifacts from
the earliest western Greek wine culture.
What to do there
3 things to do
The Naxos Archaeological Museum holds coins from 734 BC - the year the first Greeks landed in Sicily - featuring Dionysus and Silenus in 'especially beautiful style.'
Naxos was founded in 734 BC by Chalcidians under Theocles - making it the FIRST Greek colony in Sicily. The colonists chose to name the city after Naxos island in the Aegean, where Dionysus was said to have married Ariadne. From day one, the city's coins featured the wine god's head: bearded, ivy-wreathed Dionysus on one side, Silenus (his drunken companion) or grape clusters on the other. At the Museo Archeologico di Naxos (Via Lungomare Schisò, Giardini Naxos), find the numismatic (coin) display. Look for any coin showing the bearded head with ivy wreath - this is Dionysus in his canonical Archaic period depiction. Count the grape cluster motifs on the coin reverses. These colonists chose their patron deity deliberately: they were going to grow wine in this new land, and they wanted the god of wine watching over them.
Backup:The museum also displays 'antifixes' (terracotta roof decorations) from the city's temples showing Silenoi cult imagery - Silenus was Dionysus's companion and the face of Greek wine culture.
Cape Schiso is the specific promontory where the first Greek colonists landed in 734 BC - and immediately planted vines and built temples to Dionysus.
The Chalcidian colonists didn't just land here - they recognized the agricultural potential immediately. The mouth of the Alcantara River provided fresh water. The slopes above Taormina provided well-drained hillside soils perfect for viticulture. They founded Leontini and Catana (later more important cities) from this base. Everything that came after - Taormina, Etna wine, the entire eastern Sicilian wine tradition - radiates from this specific cape. Walk to the southern tip of the Naxos archaeological site at Cape Schisò (Capo Schisò), Giardini Naxos and look north toward the cliff of Taormina visible on the headland above. The Greeks who landed here in 734 BC saw the same cliff, the same sea, the same Etna on the southern horizon. Ask yourself: why here? The answer is visible in every direction - sheltered bay, river mouth, volcanic soil on the slopes above, defensible position. They knew exactly what they were doing.
Backup:The perimeter of the site is walkable even if the internal areas are partially restricted - the coastal views from the site boundary are free.
The terracotta roof decorations (antifixes) from Naxos temples show Silenoi cult imagery - Silenus was Dionysus's drunken satyr companion and a key figure in Greek wine religion.
Greek temples were not plain white marble - the terracotta roof elements were often painted and sculpted. The antifixes (decorative tiles at the roof edge) at Naxos show faces of Silenus: pug-nosed, wide-eyed, with a vine leaf crown. Silenus was Dionysus's teacher and companion, perpetually drunk, perpetually wise - the emblem of the productive excess that wine represented in Greek culture. Finding his face on a rooftile from 650 BC is an intimate connection to the people who first brought wine to Sicily. Inside the Naxos museum, in the architectural and decorative elements display, look for the terracotta tiles with grotesque or comic faces in the architectural fragments section. The Silenus face is immediately recognizable: exaggerated features, wide grin, sometimes with grape leaves or bunches incorporated into the design. These were mass-produced and attached to every temple roof - ordinary objects that carried sacred meaning.
Backup:Even without specifically identifying the Silenus antifixes, the architectural fragment section of any Greek Sicilian museum demonstrates the richness of the decorative tradition that accompanied wine culture here.
