According to Homer's work "Neon Katalogοs", the island is included in the "Kalydnas Islands". Furthermore, the Roman writer Pliny in his work "Naturalis Historia" mentions the island as Pserema, while the island is called Psirimos according to an inscription of the 3rd century. AD, and it is assumed that in those years it was dependent on Kos. It is very likely that the island was abandoned and not inhabited during the Byzantine times and the Middle Ages, as no remains of the Byzantine and medieval periods have been found between the early Christian monuments and the almost modern ones. At the beginning of the 16th century it was submitted to the Ottoman Empire, then in 1912 it fell into the hands of the Italians, while in 1948 it was incorporated into the Greek state.