Denousa in 218 B.C.

Denousa — Spring 218 BC · A Refuge of the Eastern Sea.

A tiny, rocky islet east of Naxos, in the open Aegean — little more than a remote anchorage and refuge for ships caught by weather on the eastern sea-road, almost without inhabitants. Anciently it was reckoned among the haunts touched by Dionysus, and it lies on the fringe of the independent isles that orbit sacred Delos.

Donousa is a bare rock in the open water east of Naxos, almost without people — a sheltering anchorage more than an island. Ships running the eastern sea-lanes put in here when the weather turns, riding out a gale in its lee before they go on. There is no city and little life on its slopes; the place belongs to the wind, the goats and the fishermen who shelter there. The great fleets of Egypt, Macedon and Rhodes pass by, but find nothing here worth the taking.