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According to mythology, Tinos was the home of Aeolus, god of the winds. The Ionians came here around 1000 BC. In the 6th century BC it was ruled by Eretria, while in 490 BC it was seized by the Persians, regaining its freedom after the battle of Marathon. Poseidon was the god chiefly worshipped on Tinos, a fact evidenced by the remains of a temple dedicated to hom and Amphitrite at Kionia

The ancient name of Tinos was Ofinoysa due to the many snakes that were on the island.Because of the strong winds people believed, according to mythology, that Tinos was the island of Eolos, God of the Winds. In Tinos you can see the remains of the temple of Poseidonas and Amfitritis at Kionia, which shows that people worshipped Poseidona..  In 1207, the Venetians conquered Tinos. Venetian rule here lasted longer than on any other island of the Cyclades. In 1715, the Turks took Tinos, to be liberated by the Greeks in the War of Independence of 1821. The year 1822 was an important one for Tinos, for it was then that the famous icon of the Blessed Virgin was discovered, after a nun in the Kechrovouni convent saw it in a dream. She is honoured on the island today as St Pelagia of Tinos. The island features in more modern history with the torpedoing of the Greek cruiser "Elli" in Tinos harbour by an Italian submarine on 15 August 1940-the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin

Tinos island is Greek Orthodoxy's most sacred island with the famous monastery of the Madonna of Tinos, honoured on the 15th of August each year by pilgrims from all over Greece hoping for a glimpse of the icon or a token of its miraculous powers for curing the ill and the misfortunate.

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