© Petros Gkizis
The island (history, nature, food…)
How the island got its name
Elafonisos, Lafonisi, Isola di Cervi: the island of deer, and the doe that swam here.
All the island’s names, in every language, say the same thing: the island of deer.
The old names
In antiquity, when it was still a peninsula, it was called “Onou gnathos”, the donkey’s jaw, after its shape; Strabo, Pausanias and Ptolemy all use this name. An Arabic manuscript mentions the castle of “Ashab al baqar”, translated as “of the island of deer”. On 16th-century sea charts the island appears as Isola di Cervi, and the Venetians called it Tsevri or Servi, from their word for deer.
Over time it became Elafonisi, Alafonisi, as Kolokotronis writes in his memoirs, and Lafonisi, as locals still say. Its official name today is Elafonisos.
The doe
Old people tell of a ship carrying deer that passed this way, when a pregnant doe fell into the sea, swam to the island and gave birth there. Near the island there is also the village of Viglafia, a name said to come from “vigla” and “lafia”: the watchtower with the deer.
Today two deer statues on the harbour moles welcome everyone who arrives by ferry.
