Naxos is and always has been a cross-roads, where archaeologists, historians, scholars of all kinds, artists, and ordinary people with an interest in history, archeology and folklore can meet, drawn by the importance of the culture which has flourished on the island down the centuries.

Among the archaeologists to have worked on Naxos since the beginning of the 20th century are Professors Welter, Doumas, Lambrinoudakis, Drandrakis, Klon Stefanos, Christos Karouzos, N. Kontoleon, N. Zafiropoulos, F. Zafiropoulou and G. Gruben, professor of the history of architecture at the University of Munich and Korres (who is responsible for the restoration of the Athens Acropolis). These scholars have concluded that Naxos was not merely significant but of decisive importance for the history of the Cyclades and of the Greek world in general.

Its size, its central position in the Aegean, the fertility of its soil and the prosperity that these factors created helped to assure Naxos its self-sufficiency down the ages.

Pindar calls Naxos «rich» and Herodotus assures us that Naxos, surpassed the other isles in prosperity. Just as today, the fruit, olive oil and above all wine of Naxos were famous in antiquity: Archilochus of Paros even went to far as to compare Naxiot wine with the nectar drunk by the gods on Olympus!

The island would seem to have had extensive grazing-grounds in ancient times, and Naxiot animals were so highly thought of that when in the 6th century BC Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, was searching for breeding animals with which to improve his stock, he sent to Naxos for goats. The marble and emery of Naxos were soon in use in art and daily life far beyond the bounds of the island. The myths relating to inspired by tradition and the capture of Dionysos by Naxos reflect its god's ultimate triumph, pastoral sea just off Naxos.

It is said, for instance, that Zeus himself was raised there, and was worshipped as Zeus Melosios, protector of the flocks. Apollo, who had a special connection with the island, was also worshipped as the protector of the flocks particularly of the rams and also of flowers.

Ares, god of war, was once forced to take refuge from his pursuers in the depths of the earth of Naxos, where he hid in what the myth calls «the stone that eats iron., an obvious reference to emery.

Above all, though, it was Dionysus who embodied all the bucolic charms and advantages of Naxos. It was here that the god was born and raised, according to the local myth, and all the myths agree that it was on Naxos that he met and married

Ariadne, after she had been abandoned on the island by Theseus. The marriage between Ariadne and Dionysus, her death and the rebirth which that death fore-shadows were the focus of wild celebrations on Naxos in antiquity, where this cult, focusing on the ripening, death and regeneration of nature was most highly developed.

The first inhabitants of Naxos are said by the myths to have been Thracian, under Boutes, son of Boreas (the north wind). In his desire to find wives for his companions, Boutes took the rather extreme step of hunting some Maenads in Thessaly; he captured some, including Coronis and lphimedeia, and brought them back to the island.

The myths relate that the Thracians held Naxos for two hundred years, being succeeded by Carians from Asia Minor, whose king Naxos gave the island its name. Archaeological finds indicate that there was a fairly well-developed society on Naxos as early as the late 4th millennium BC, about the end of the Neolithic age.