Delos

Traveling Classroom^™

Apollo's Island

We awaken to a bright blue sky. Apollo-Helios is on the rise and today we visit the place of his birth. Because we must leave to catch the morning boat to Delos, we make a hasty breakfast of coffee and bread rolls. After stuffing the backpack with sandwiches, fruit, bottled water, cameras, books, etc., we lock the hatch and hurry along the quay to town and then around to the jetty. We arrive at the dock just in time. People are already boarding the small ferry, so we buy our tickets at a dockside booth and go to the end of the line. The ferry pulls away before we can find seats.

As the boat enters the bay we realize it is going to be a rough ride. There is a strong northerly wind and plenty of whitecaps on the sea. Not one sailboat is on the open water. The ferry pushes towards the island, crashing through the swells and heaving back and forth. It must have been like this for Leto, fleeing from the goddess Hera and seeking a safe place to give birth to her children. Hera was enraged that her husband, Zeus, had got Leto pregnant, and she vowed to destroy the young woman. The myth recounts that Leto tried to hide from the vengeful goddess, but no one would take her in. She found refuge on a tiny floating island, which Poseidon (the brother of Zeus) then anchored to the sea bottom with pillars of granite. On this island, beneath a palm tree, Artemis and Apollo were born. When this occurred Hera had to give up her plans for revenge, because Apollo was so beautiful and had such great powers that no Olympic god except Zeus could resist him.

As we reach the northern tip of the island and turn south into the narrow channel between Delos and Rinia the wind fades and the sea is calmer. What a relief! We get our first view of the great city as the boat maneuvers between two small islets guarding the main harbors. As far as I can see on a broad plain are white marble foundations and stone walls, with columns and colonnades poking up here and there. Kynthos, the sacred mountain (really not much more than a rocky hill) rises southeast of the city center. As with most archeological sites in Greece, the city was ruined by war and picked apart by scavengers for many centuries. There was no new construction after the fall of Delos, so I can imagine what the city was like during its glory days. And what a city it was! As the reputed birthplace of Apollo, Delos became a famous sanctuary in very ancient times. Most of the kings of the ancient world paid tribute to Delos. Even the great Odysseus once visited the temples here (probably on his way to the Trojan War). Many centuries later, when Athenian power began to spread, Delos became the key port in Aegean trade routes and its population grew to about 25,000 (a large city in those days).

Our ferry docks in the commercial harbor (no one uses the sacred harbor) and passengers disperse in every direction. A few groups are clustered around tour guides, but it does not appear that we will be tripping over each other. One boatload of people in a large, empty city does not make a crowd. After consulting our map we begin exploring at the agora just inland from the sacred harbor. This is where important people and religious pilgrims arrived to visit the temples of Apollo in ancient times. We find a large plaza paved with flat stones. There was once a marketplace here, and many of the paving stones have post-holes for tents used by vendors selling offerings to the pilgrims. Imagine what it must have been like to arrive on a boat and find a bustling market in many large, brightly-colored tents, with the marvelous city beyond. Now there are wild flowers sprouting from every crevice and niche, and quick-footed lizards scampering along the walls of monuments.

We walk to the north side of the square, past the remains of an Ionic temple dedicated to Hermes, the god of commerce, and along the South Portico. This is the Sacred Road, the traditional access to the sanctuary of Apollo. At the other end is a great square filled with the major temples and monuments of the city, all in ruins now. We find the base of the Naxian colossus, a giant marble statue of Apollo which stood across from the three temples dedicated to Apollo. The words carved in the marble read "the Naxians to Apollo" on one side and "I am of the same marble, both statue and base" on the other. When you think about it, this is obviously an advertisement. Many of the great structures and monuments here were also built for advertising purposes. This helps to explain why there are so many commercial buildings on the island.

After the Persian wars, the Athenians wanted to unite all Hellenic people and build a strong defense against another invasion. To establish closer ties with the Ionians and the Aegean islands, they formed the Delian League on the island of Delos, which was the ancient center of Ioanian worship. However, religion had nothing to do with this new confederation. The official goal of the Delian League was to protect the Athenian territories and allies from foreign powers, but the true objective was absolute control over commercial shipping in the Aegean. Athens coveted the wealth of Delos. If you click on the map showing the Delian League territories, you will see why Delos is located in the perfect place to become such an important trade center.

We explore the temples of Apollo and continue across the square to visit the Artemesian, a temple dedicated to Artemis, goddess of the hunt. This was said to be the most beautiful of all the temples on the island, but not much remains of it now. At the northwest corner of the temple we find two large pieces of the Naxian colossus, which give us a good idea of how really big the statue was. It fell and broke into pieces during a huge wind storm, which is not uncommon hereabout.

Walking northward, we come to the Terrace of the Lions -- another amazing contribution of the Naxians. The marble lions were supposed to be the eternal guardians of the sanctuary. There were sixteen of them, but today only five lions and the pieces of three more remain. They stand in a row facing eastward, towards the Sacred Lake. In the middle of the round, dry lake bed stands a large palm tree. This was planted by French archeologists to mark the spot where Leto gave birth to the twin gods so many thousands of years ago. The palm is a well known symbol of Apollo, and it is mentioned Homeric legends. It appears to be the only tree on Delos.

We climb up a small hillock behind the lions to explore some of the buildings there. Here we find the Koinon of the Poseidoniasts. It was a place where Syrian shippers, merchants, bankers and warehouse owners could get together with countrymen to protect commercial interests and worship their national gods. Built in the last part of the 2nd century BCE, it has a central court surrounded by various rooms and temples dedicated to Poseidon, Hercules and Rome. I can see that it was once a very grand building, probably something like an embassy for the Syrian businessmen. It is just one more indication that the religious significance of Delos was secondary to the business and political interests of those who came here.

We stroll among the ruins and visit several of the buildings here on the knoll. Seeing the marble columns, beautiful mosaic floors and courtyard pools, we imagine that residents of this neighborhood (so near the Sacred Lake) were either very wealthy or somehow connected with the religious community. What is most interesting -- and also quite surprising -- is the abundant supply of water we find on this dry and barren island. Every house appears to have its own well or cistern. Walking along the sidewalks in this part of the city, we notice water channels beneath the pavement to trap rainfall and direct the water into reservoirs and cisterns. The further we search, the more evidence we find of careful water management. It seems the entire city was engineered for the collection, storage and distribution of enough water to serve the needs of the entire population. This suggests more advanced civil engineering than can be found in many cities today. It makes me consider some of the "modern" ideas which originated with ancient civilizations.

Eastward, around the top of the Sacred Lake, we examine the Palaestra of Granite and several large mansions before walking along the great hippodrome towards the museum. Horse races were run at the hippodrome, and human athletes competed at the stadium farther up the hill to the northeast. These were built for the Delian Games, an event founded by Theseus when he visited here on his return from defeating the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete. (I am always amazed at the deeds heros accomplish even when they are only stopping for a short visit.).

Passing the Temple of Anios and the Agora of the Italians, we arrive at the museum and find it closed. The sign tells us there are not enough workers to keep it open. I expect there will be more staff later in the season, when more tourists arrive. We are disappointed but there are other things to see, so we continue. Before long we are at the Minoan Fountain, thinking how nice it would be to jump in for a swim. Our book says this public well was dedicated to Minoan nymphs during the 6th century BCE, and it is one of the oldest places on Delos. There are stone steps down to the water level, so that people could easily fetch water in buckets. It remained a public facility for a very long time, until the late Hellenistic period, when someone converted it into a house. Perhaps they used the pool for swimming. Now the water looks a bit green, and I am surprised to see schools of fishes swimming about. I don't know how they got in there.

Near the Minoan Fountain are more recent monuments, such as the headless and armless statue Gaius Billienus, a general and Roman ruler of this region around the beginning of the first century BCE. That's 500 years after the fountain was constructed, and long after the fall of the Greek empire. Looking at this statue and other monuments built by people from different lands, I am astonished at how long Delos survived. The Delian League was formed more than 2,500 years after people first settled on Delos, and it continued until Delos gained independence from Athens in 314 BCE. Rome ruled here for a time and then declared Delos a free port in 166 BCE. It remained the most important trading center in the Aegean until 88 BCE, when a greedy king sacked the city and massacred its inhabitants. From then on, Delos fell prey to pirates and, in later years, to looters of antiquities.

Southward, walking towards Mt. Kynthos, we pass the Sanctuary of Dionysus, the Altar of Zeus and then a Christian church built about 500 years after the fall of Delos. I find it very interesting to see so many religions from different eras on this small island. It is as if I am in a time machine, moving through the centuries as I walk along this path. Just beyond the church, as we continue up the hill, is a 2,400-year-old temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Farther along the path is a building known as the House of Hermes, built on the slope. It is a large building with three floors (rather unusual around here). It might have been a meeting place for some society, but who knows for sure?

Above the House of Hermes is where some of the foreign businessmen who flocked to this island built temples to their own gods. Syrians worshipped Atargatis and Adados in a large temple. Next to it is the temple of the Egyptian gods Anubis, Serapis and Isis. A statue of Isis is still inside the little temple. She was supposed to give people good health and fortune and to protect sailors (an important concern in the Aegean Sea). Right next door to the Egyptian building is a much older temple of Hera built around 500 BCE. It's rather odd, considering that the raging Hera chased Leto to this island, but I suppose the ancient Greeks were careful to recognize every player in this mythical drama. There are sanctuaries dedicated to other Greek and foreign gods uphill and, of course, the Temple of Zeus at the top.

We are not keen to scale the peak of Mt. Kynthos because we are hungry (it is long past noon), so we start downhill and begin looking for a good spot to have a picnic lunch. When we see the House of Dolphins, we stop to explore. It got its name from a beautiful mosaic floor with pictures of gods riding on the backs of dolphins. There are symbols here and there which (according to our book) indicate this was the home of a Phoenician. It is a large and elegant building, so it probably belonged to a very wealthy businessman or perhaps a member of Phoenician royalty. Not far away we find a large complex which includes several shops and a place called the House of Masks, another home with beautiful mosaic floors and marvelous architecture. The doors and windows are barred to prevent people from walking on the floors or touching the wall paintings, but we have a good view from outside. I snap one photograph and the camera flash goes off. Oops! Flash cameras are against the rules, because the bright light can fade the colors of the paintings. I quickly tuck the camera into my pocket and slip away.

A short distance beyond the House of Masks, near the Delos theater, we find another large complex with many rooms and a huge cistern filled with water. My book says that this may have been an inn, and that makes a lot of sense to me. Many people visited Delos during the festivals, and they probably attended musical performances and plays at the theater. A nearby hotel would be very much in demand. Thinking about that, I would guess some of the shops we passed probably sold snacks and drinks to the audience. We walk quickly to theater and find ourselves looking down at the round orchestra from the topmost row of marble seats. This is a wonderful place for a picnic lunch. We find seats at a middle-level row and begin to eat. I can imagine what it must have been like. At the back of the orchestra are the remains of a huge stage-building, where the performers played their roles. Down in the front are the "good" seats for rich and famous people. But the stage can be seen from anywhere and sound travels well in this theater, so all 5,500 spectators could enjoy the show.

We finish our lunch and walk down to the orchestra area. Looking up into the seating, I remember how it was like when I sang in musical comedies and saw the audience out beyond the footlights. What a thrill! Walking around the back of the stage-building, we find a gigantic cistern used to collect water which drained from the theater into the orchestra (I guess they didn't give performance when it rained). Large arches once supported a roof that kept out blowing dust and careless people. Even now there is probably enough water in the cistern to serve most of the homes in the theater district below.

Looking at our map and considering the time remaining before the ferry returns to Mykonos, we decide to go in different directions and meet back at the dock. Duane and I want to explore the theater district, which sprawls northwest of here. We leave the theater and enter a maze of twisting alleys in this district where most Delians once lived. I am quickly aware that this part of the city is built just like Mykonos Town, but without electricity and a few other modern conveniences. The more I see, the more I am convinced that the basic homes of Aegean people have not changed much in the last 3,000 years. These stone houses were plastered, like the ones on Mykonos, and some were decorated with fine fresco paintings inside and out.

I explore several houses and find some conveniences I had not expected. The homes here are rather small, but not much different from those I have seen on other islands. I get the strong impression that people did not spend a lot of time in their homes. They ate and slept here, but many of their activities were outside in the company of friends and neighbors during the warm months (which is most of the year). In this respect, the modern Greek people are very much like their Delian ancestors.

In every Greek town we visit, I see people socializing in the squares and streets and along the waterfront. I expect it was like this in Delos thousands of years ago. After dinner at home, everyone in the household would go outside to stroll along the avenues and chat with neighbors while the children played in the cool evening breeze until bedtime.

Not everyone strolled about the town. The wealthy folk entertained friends in great style in some of the larger homes in the theater district. There were courtyards and tiled pools and servants to bring food to the guests, who lounged on special dining couches and listened to musicians. Near the harbor we find the House of Cleopatra and Dioscourides, a beautiful home with many marble columns and statues of the people for whom it was named. Of course, we don't know if the queen of the Nile actually owned a house on Delos. Even if she did, Dioscourides didn't share it with her. He was a Greek physician who was born about a hundred years after Cleopatra ruled in Egypt. It's rather odd to see the two statues side by side. Practically everyone knows about Cleopatra from books and films. She has remained famous into modern times, even though she had little real influence on the world. Few people remember Dioscourides, but he wrote a book on medicines that influenced development of the healing arts for more than 16 centuries. Who is more deserving of fame?

After leaving this home, we visit the House of Dionysos, with its marvelous mosaic artwork, and stop at several anonymous houses on our way to the waterfront. We find our companions back at the harbor, and Duane decides to take a nap on the beach until the ferry is ready to depart for Mykonos. It has been a long and exciting day, with lots of hiking and exploring. I think I shall spend the evening aboard Zoe Zoe and consider all the sights I have seen today, and probably fall asleep early.

Special thanks to G. Asemilas and others for the use of photos.