Echinades

Six of the islands, including Oxeia, one of the largest, are owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, who purchased them for a reported £7.3 million sterling.

10); and Thucydides expected that this would be the case with all of them before long, since they lay so close together as to be easily connected by the alluvium brought down by the Achelous River (ii.

§ 11) to the Achelous bringing down less alluvium in consequence of the uncultivated condition of Aetolia; but there can be little doubt that it is owing to the increasing depth of the sea, which prevents any perceptible progress being made.

[citation needed] The Echinades are mentioned by Homer, who, in the Iliad, says that Meges, son of Phyleus, led 40 ships to Troy from Dulichium and the sacred islands Echinae, which are situated beyond the sea, opposite Elis.

[2] Phyleus was the son of Augeas, king of the Epeians in Elis, who emigrated to Dulichium because he had incurred his father's anger.

Pliny the Elder gives us the names of nine of these islands — Aegialia, Cotonis, Thyatira, Geoaris, Dionysia, Cyrnus, Chalcis, Pinara, Mystus.

The northern cluster is commonly called the Drakoneres, from Drakonera, the principal island; and the southern, the Ouniades or Oxeiae.