ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the sources of information about the cults of the islands and presents brief historical survey, indicating the main periods of change in cult practices. It shows that Lingering influences from the early East, from Minoan Crete and from the Mycenaean presence in the islands. The evidence for the cults of the islands is primarily epigraphical, and from the Hellenistic or Roman periods. Indirect testimony comes also from coins, bearing images or symbols of particular gods. Anatolian influence is seen too in traces of the cult of the empty throne, which is Sumerian in origin, found at Rhodes and Chalke. After Alexander had opened up new areas to communication with the Greek world, a lively traffic of ideas from east to west and from Egypt northwards followed. The presence of Hestia Tamias with Aphrodite Pandemos, Homonoia and Asklepios in another Koan inscription is a further indication of Hestias political importance.
