It is an mid-October weekend at the port of Mykonos. The sky is cloudless and a pleasant breeze is blowing as I have a coffee with a friend in the tourism accommodation rental business.I watch hundreds of tourists disembark for the day from three huge cruise ships and wonder how many of them will visit the small nearby islet of Delos instead of the tourist Mecca’s famous beaches or the picturesque alleys of the main town, Chora, flanked with international designer clothing stores, bars and restaurants.

“The Saudis and Lebanese who have been coming here in large numbers over the past few years send us e-mails asking whether the hotel or villa they’re interested in renting is close to [the upscale beach resort of] Nammos rather than Chora,” my friend said.

“The human geography and the profile of visitors to Mykonos has changed a lot and this explains why there is so little interest in Delos. We beg them to go and they still don’t.”

According to the Ephorate of Classical Antiquities for the Cycladic Islands, an average of just 120,000 tourists visit the stunning archaeological site of Delos each year – less than the 130,000 a month received by Mykonos and extremely low compared with the 600,000 visitors every year at Akrotiri and the other archaeological sites on Santorini.

MYTH & HISTORY

Leto was desperately seeking a place to give birth to Apollo and Artemis after Hera, enraged by Zeus’ infidelities, ordered that she be forbidden entry everywhere she appeared. Leto traveled from Thrace to Kos, until she spotted a small, inconspicuous floating rock in the middle of the Aegean, Delos. Poseidon anchored his newly formed island to the seabed with diamond pillars and Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis on it. The two young deities filled this tiny dot in the Mediterranean with life and light, allowing it to grow into one of the most sacred sites of the Aegean.

The first permanent residents of Delos have been traced to around 2,500 BC, though many centuries elapsed before the island experienced a golden age, which began in 166 BC and lasted about a hundred years. The Romans, the dominant force in the Aegean, decided not to charge levies at the port, making it a tax haven for wealthy merchants and bankers from all around the known world. The new-found wealth and the settlement of rich entrepreneurs soon led to a blossoming of the arts, letters and philosophy.

It is estimated that in its heyday, this island of just 5 kilometers in length and 1.3 in width was home to around 30,000 people, settlers from Athens, Rome, Cyprus, Syria, Egypt, Thrace, Medea and many other places. Their gods also resided on the island in harmony. The island’s attachment to Rome came at a heavy price, however, and in 88 BC, Delos was sacked by Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was at war with the Romans, and looted in 69 BC by the pirates of Athenodoros. While it never managed to make a comeback, there are few examples in the history of mankind of such ethnic diversity, harmonious coexistence and moderation as existed on Delos during its golden age.

IN SITU

The boat ride from Mykonos to Delos takes about 25 minutes. The majority of visitors in October are from Asia, mainly China, who opt for the cooler months to visit and who have a great love for ancient Greek culture.

Delos is a unique site, an enchanting place where even the natural light feels different, otherworldly and mystical, with an indescribable energy that seems to envelop you. However, it is as enthralling in its beauty as it is in its abandonment, especially given that it lies so close to one of Greece’s richest and most glamorous islands.

Among the many problems that dog Delos today is the poor state of itsmuseum. Built in the early 20th century, it is not only small and extremely old-fashioned but also suffers from poor maintenance so visitors are greeted by peeling ceilings and walls and the sight of the glorious Naxian Lions sitting in a small, dimly lit room as though they’re being punished. A rudimentary gift shop located at the museum’s entrance was closed during my Sunday visit and there was not a trash can in sight, meaning that the small bottle of water I paid 2 euros for at the snack bar had to be discarded either on the boat back or on Mykonos.

CHRONIC PROBLEMS

The biggest problem that has remained unsolved for years, however, concerns the people who work there. There are not enough guards and staff, they do not have an on-site doctor and their accommodation and facilities are seriously shoddy, meaning they have to deal with everything from leaky plumbing to being cut off entirely from Mykonos during the winter months for days at a time.

Before the start of this year’s tourism season, it took the private initiative of a contractor on Mykonos to get the site cleaned up and ready for the spring/summer arrivals. He loaded two trucks, a crane and a crew onto a ferry boat and got Delos spruced up in just one day. Given the magnitude of the country’s growing problems and the state’s empty coffers, it is very likely that Delos will again be closed from November this year as the emergency staff sent to the site this season are due to leave at the end of October and it will be left with just two guards.

Such issues of day-to-day management have brought the site’s future into question and one of the people trying to find solutions is Dimitris Athanasopoulos, head of the ephorate for the past year-and-a-half. He recently organized an event on Mykonos to raise awareness about the state of the site among the island’s business community and has also reached out to municipal authorities and residents who have shown an interest in contributing to the effort.

Delos and the museums on Mykonos have been unfortunate in several ways. One of these is that cultural policy over the past few years has been almost entirely focused on promoting areas off the usual tourist map. “On a regional level we are seeing serious inequalities in the distribution of funds for cultural infrastructure,” explains Athanasopoulos. “For example, the distribution of funds from the Third Community Support Framework and the ESPA [National Strategic Reference Framework] programs from the Regional Authority of the Southern Aegean between the islands of the Dodecanese and those of the Cyclades for archaeological sites was clearly weighted in favor of the former.”

Things will begin to change with the realization that what will benefit Mykonos even more in the long term is improving its quality profile, something that can be achieved in part by lending a hand to its small neighbor, which needs all the help it can get.

GOOD NEWS

At the event organized by Athanasopoulos earlier this month, French archaeologist Jean-Charles Moretti, director of French excavations at Delos, presented “L’Atlas de Delos,” that was 11 years in the making and which presents a detailed representation of the site. This is not only significant for its contribution to science but is also a valuable digital tool that can be used by archaeologists in studies for the site’s restoration.

Athanasopoulos also spoke about an ambitious program called“Archipelago Plus,” which will include major interventions at six museums in the Cyclades as well as the restoration of the Stoa of Philip V on Delos. What makes this stoa special is that archaeologists have already found around 80 percent of the original building material, which is quite impressive considering that the Stoa of Attalos in Athens was restored with just 40 percent of the original material. The program was first pushed forward by former minister of culture Nikos Xydakis, who launched the drive for private funding, and it is now waiting for approval from the sponsor of the project.

Another positive development is the creation of a festival titled “A-Delos/Delos,” which took place for the first time earlier this month. Privately funded, the plan is for the festival to be held annually and to draw an international audience. One of the highlights of the first festival was the screening of a 25-minute documentary-ode titled “Delos 2015,” directed by Andonis Theocharis Kioukas and featuring actor Georges Corraface. The score is by Platon Andritsakis, with Constantinos Arvanitakis behind the lens and Thaleia Kalafata as production director.

Originally published in Kathimerini newspaper

If you are the type to believe in ghosts, then you’ll agree they must be here. The millennia-old history of Delos is filled with the drama, angst and spirit of the ancient Mediterranean human experience. Delos was once the abode ofpowerful gods, a place of religious reverence and hard political struggle, a playground for the fabulously wealthy, an important port-of-call for Aegean seafarers and the scene of untold human misery, as the region’s central market and clearinghouse for human chattel, bought and sold in iron restraints.

AN ISLAND OF CONTRASTS

The stark contrasts that are characteristic of Delos and its landscape are among the first impressions to strike a visitor approaching the island. In springtime, one is faced with the port’s distinctive, barren scenery with low stone-built foundations stretching up and away on surrounding slopes, yet visible here and there among the bleached walls or in dense patches covering open ground are vibrant, colorful wildflowers in shades of yellow, purple and red. Some roofless, low-lying ruins near the residential Hill Quarter become weedy, seasonal ponds where frogs croak loudly, calling to one another. Verdant, broad-leafed fig trees, also drawn to pockets of moisture, sprout from deep, rain-filled cisterns, courtyard wells, and the narrow, overgrown banks of the Inopos — an ancient stream that still continues to flow stealthily from the prominence of Mt. Kynthos, just beyond the theater, down through the ruined city.

In the summer, Delos (the “Visible” island) radiates with its extraordinary, lauded light, but also with intense heat exacerbated by the lack of available shade. Hardly a single tree can be found anywhere on the archaeological site, a fact that compels visitors to seek shelter beneath their own parasols or, for those less well prepared, in a sliver of shadow beside a house wall. In these conditions, Delos is both a feast and a torture — just as it must have been more than two thousand years ago, when affluent merchants lolled within their breezy, portico-shaded courtyards decorated with finely-laid mosaic floors, while, somewhere below their hillside villas, slaves collected from throughout the Greek East shuffled to the auction block across the baking stones of the open-air markets.

THE HEART OF THE AEGEAN

A primary reason behind Delos’ importance in antiquity was the island’sgeographical position at the center of the Aegean Sea, where it became not only a prosperous, international emporium, but a clash-point between eastern and western powers and, in later times, the desolate haunt of crusaders, pirates, and eventually antiquarians. Since 1873, archaeologists from the French School at Athens, in collaboration with the Greek government, have excavated large areas of the island’s port city. Particularlyintriguing are the maze-like pathways and narrow lanes, onto which opened hundreds, perhaps thousands, of doorways leading to the houses and shops of the city’s former residents.

Delos has so much to see: the remains of numerous temples, altars, colonnaded marketplaces, houses, palaestrae, a gymnasium, a theater and a stadium. For an unforgettable panorama of this magnificent site, you should climb nearby Mt. Kynthos. From the top, you can look down on much of this, while beyond, in the blue expanse of the sea, you can make out theneighboring islands: Rhenea to the west, Tinos to the north, Mykonos to the northeast and Naxos and Paros to the south.

REJOICE, BLESSED LETO…

First and foremost, Delos was home to a religious sanctuary, sacred to Apollo and his sister Artemis, who were reported in myth to have been born here. Their mother, Leto, and several key Delian landmarks are celebrated in the Third Homeric Hymn (early 6th c. BC): “…Rejoice, blessed Leto, for you bore glorious children…as you rested against the great mass of the Cynthian hill hard by a palm tree by the streams of Inopus…” The palm was anunusual tree in ancient Greece and specially revered in Delos — another arrival from afar, conveyed to the island on the sea-going ships that were the life-blood of Delos. In the first century BC, Roman visitors, including the orator and statesman Cicero, could still see “Leto’s” palm tree standing beside the Sacred Lake. Today, a symbolic palm continues to mark the landscape, although the adjacent lake is now long gone, filled in over a century ago as a preventative measure against malaria.

SACRED HEADQUARTERS

Delos’ rise to great economic power and prominence occurred relatively late in its history. Limited evidence of a Mycenaean presence during the Late Bronze Age (latter half of 2nd millennium BC) has been discovered in the port area, but the Delos we know today began to emerge in the early centuries of the Iron Age, especially after 800 BC. The island’s sanctuary quickly became a coveted headquarters of religious authority, second only to Delphi in ancient Greece; control over it was similarly contested by powerful neighbors, which, in this case, were Naxos, Paros and Athens.

The Naxians underscored their particular dominance with the now-iconic row of white marble, dedicatory lions (late 7th c. BC), standing just west of the Sacred Lake. Within the Apollo sanctuary proper, near the port, they erectedfurther monuments, including the colossal statue of Apollo (590-580 BC); an L-shaped stoa (colonnaded walkway) that helped to define the sacred space (ca. 550-500 BC); and the Oikos of the Naxians (ca. 575 BC), which may have served either as the first temple to Apollo, a ceremonial dining hall or a storage space for sacred items and valuable dedicatory offerings.

CATERING TO PILGRIMS

A significant amount of practical infrastructure became necessary on Delos to accommodate the needs of visitors, especially during religious festivals such as the Greater (every four years) and Lesser (annual) Delia. The hymn to Apollo further avows: “…In Delos…the long-robed Ionians gather in your honor with their children and shy wives: with boxing and dancing and song, mindful, they delight you so often as they hold their gathering…” Among Delos’ maze-like ruins, the architectural remains of several palaestrae(primarily for wrestling, boxing), as well as those of the gymnasium (running, other athletics), the stadium and the theater (collectively 3rd or 2nd c. BC) all stand witness to these past activities. Of similar date is the Hypostyle Hall (208 BC), northwest of the sanctuary, which may have served as anenormous dining hall. A forest of forty-four columns supported its roof. Near the theater, a gigantic, roofed cistern with six internal arches was installed to collect precious rainwater.

IMPRESSIVE DEDICATIONS

The Delians’ initial prosperity stemmed mainly from cult-related riches, most clearly discernable in the votive offerings brought in by affluent pilgrims. On religious gatherings, the hymn to Apollo continues: if one “should…come upon the Ionians so met together,…[he] would be pleased in heart gazing at the men and well-girded women with their swift ships and great wealth.” In addition to the impressive Naxian lions and their colossal Apollo, many other statues with inscribed bases as well as other impressive votive objects filled the sanctuary and lined the route approaching its monumental gateway, or propylon. Polykrates, the tyrant of Samos, went so far as to dedicate the entire island of Rhenea to Apollo (ca. 530 BC), then demonstrated the adjacent islands’ inseparable bond by connecting them with a massive iron chain.

PURIFICATION, POWER & PATRONAGE

Many objects from Delos have been discovered on nearby Rhenea, due to ritual cleansings of the Apollo sanctuary — during which the contents ofprehistoric graves, discarded votive offerings and other materials were swept up and buried in sacred pits across the channel. The Athenian tyrant Peisistratus conducted the first such purification in about 540 BC. After the Persian Wars, Athens took control of Delos (478 BC), making it theheadquarters of the Delian League, but later revealed its true exploitative intentions in 454 BC when Pericles removed the League’s treasury and installed it on the Athenian Acropolis. In 426 BC, Athens again purified Delos and henceforth banned all births and deaths on the island.

Athenian hegemony in the Aegean waned in the fourth century BC, as Macedonian power waxed. By the mid-third century BC, Delos had come to enjoy a level of independence under the benevolent eye of Hellenistic kings. It was during this period that the approach to the sanctuary was enclosed with two colonnades: the South Stoa, built by King Attalos I of Pergamon (post 250 BC), and the Stoa of Philip V of Macedonia (ca. 210 BC).

CRISIS, REBIRTH, DECLINE

With the rise of Roman power in the region, however, Delos abruptly lost its sovereignty in 167 BC, after backing Rome’s opponent, King Perseus of Macedon, and allowing a pirate commander to use Delian port facilities to launch attacks on Roman shipping. Rome declared Delos a free port, open to all merchants for trade without taxation, setting the stage for the island to reach new heights of affluence. Its new status as the Aegean’s leading emporium for the trans-shipment of goods was confirmed when the Romans destroyed Corinth in 146 BC. Newly rich Roman elites sought a vast range of products from the East, many of which passed through Delos, including not only slaves and grain, but also perfumes, unguents, bronze and marble statuary, metal wares, culinary specialties, ornate textiles and fabrics, and other luxury items.

At the peak of its success, Roman Delos was a sight to behold. In the sanctuary itself stood three temples and other shrines of Apollo; five treasury buildings to safeguard offerings; the unparalleled Monument of the Bullsthat housed a votive trireme; the lengthy Stoa of Antigonos; the Ekklesiasterion for the people’s assembly; and the Artemision, or Temple of Artemis, framed by another L-shaped stoa. Outside the main precinct, there were also shrines dedicated to Leto, Hera, Zeus, Athena, Herakles and Asclepius as well as to the Twelve Olympian Gods collectively. Foreign deities similarly had temples, including those of the Syrian gods and of Egyptian Serapis and Isis — the latter’s elegant facade now partly reconstructed and visible from many vantage points.

Colonnaded stoas, warehouses and marketplaces were a common sight in the port and sanctuary area, where the Roman geographer Strabo (early 1st c. AD) reports that the number of slaves traded every day was as high as 10,000. Delos’ multi-ethnic population of merchants tended to cluster separately in their own club-like market halls and cultural/commercial centers, as attested by the Agora of the Delians (4th cent. BC, early 2nd cent. BC); the Koinon of the Poseidoniasts of Berytos, merchants and ship owners from Beirut (ca. 110 BC); and the Agora of the Italians (ca. 110 BC).

Perhaps most evocative of Delian life in late Hellenistic and early Roman times, however, are the many charming villas and other private houses that offer a sense of the individuals who once resided there, and of their diverse tastes and habits. The Delians’ multilingualism and international character were as worthy of note in antiquity as they are today: “The girls of Delos, hand-maidens of the Far-shooter…sing…of men and women of past days…They can imitate the tongues of all men and their clattering speech: each would say that he himself were singing, so close to truth is their sweet song” (HH3).

Sadly, this newfound prosperity lasted only a century, as the island once again picked the wrong side (this time Rome) in the Mithridatic Wars between Rome and Pontus. Beginning with the massacre, in 88 BC, of 20,000 Delians by the forces of King Mithridates, the island was subjected to two decades of repeated assaults. After a final destructive attack by Cilician pirates in 69 BC, Delos went into decline. By the second century AD, the Greek traveler Pausanias describes the island as virtually abandoned: “…Delos, once the common market of Greece, has no Delian inhabitant, but only the men sent by the Athenians to guard the sanctuary.” He could have been describing the Delos of today – its only permanent residents are the archaeologists, conservators and guards who watch over this invaluable cultural treasure, preserving it for the lucky, awe-struck visitors.

When the day’s visitors have left Delos, the “residents” remain; men and women who have dedicated their lives to protecting, preserving and showcasing one of the most impressive archaeological sites in Greece. They include day and night guards, archaeologists, conservators of mosaics, wall paintings and ceramics, craftsmen, architects, land surveyors and cleaners, all employees of the Ministry of Culture. In summer, the team is reinforced with seasonal personnel and augmented by Greek and foreign researchers – French, German and American – who together form a small, multinational village.

All of them live an austere life in small dwellings without any amenities or luxuries. Winters are particularly difficult. The team shrinks, the boat connections become less frequent and the opportunities to resupply dwindle. If someone falls ill, he or she must be taken to Mykonos.

The biggest challenge for the “self-exiled”, as they call themselves, isn’t enduring the difficult working conditions under the blazing sun, or even their loneliness and yearning for home; it’s the enormous responsibility they bear for the protection of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A daily battle is waged to ensure that the “open-air museum” of Delos remains standing and safe. The most important work focuses on protecting the monuments against the effects of strong winds, the sea air and the enroachment of vegetation. This may involve removing weeds from themosaic floors or using a laser-scanning drone for 3D surveying of the monuments, so that every detail can be electronically examined.

No matter how carefully and skillfully the work is carried out, time is never kind to the monuments. The most important finds are given a safe haven in the Archaeological Museum of Delos, which houses the original largelion statues and significant mosaics. The Ministry of Culture is now planning to modernize and expand the museum so that it can house a greater number of artifacts, and to give it more facilities for storing, documenting and conserving antiquities. At present, there are many items waiting to be moved into the museum, including sculptures and the most important of the 3,000 inscriptions found to date.

*Special thanks to Zoi Papadopoulou, the Head of the Department of Prehistorical and Classical Antiquities at the Ephorate of the Cyclades.

The ancient theater on Delos island, is preparing to break its two-millennia long silence with a special performance.

Among the symbolic ruins of the atmospheric island, the play “Hecuba, a refugee in Delos” will take to the stage of the theater built by the islanders in the third century BC.

On Friday and Saturday evening, at 18.00, the theater will come alive once more with the sounds and sights of the performance. The show is an effort by the Ephorate of Cycladic Antiquities and the municipality of Mykonos to give a voice to the real-life refugee drama playing out in the Aegean Sea.

The theater of Delos was once the focal point of the biggest festivalscelebrated on the island and a venue for the most famous performers from all corners of Greece. Originally built of marble, it seated 7,000 audience members. Games of independence were also hosted here.

The theatrical event, which is under the auspices of the PresidentProkopis Pavlopoulos, is being put on by the Regional Theater of Agrinio and stars Despina Bebedeli. Nikos Karageorgiou is the director.

Due to the limited capacity of the theater and the lack of facilities, the play will be performed under daylight and in front of a small audience who will be required to strictly follow the instructions of the Ephorate’s staff.

1. Over the centuries, the port of Delos was the landing point for pilgrims, traders and slaves. Today, it welcomes visitors to what is a stunning open-air museum on the site of one of the ancient world’s most sacred spots.

2. The French Archaeological School of Athens has been at work here since 1873 and maintains a small library for visiting antiquity scholars.

3. A number of the statuary lions of Delos, given to the island by the Naxians in the 7th c. BC, are missing, plundered over the years or otherwise lost. Those that remain, however, are perhaps the most recognizable sight on the island.

4. The Sacred Lake is the legendary birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Although it was drained in 1929 to prevent the spread of malaria, there is a circular wall that marks where it used to be.

5. The Agora of the Italians was one of the largest agoras on the island; in ancient times, it was surrounded by shops.

6. The Minoan Fountain, a freshwater well inside an impressive structure, was a public water source.

7. The Stoibadeion, a shrine dedicated to Dionysos, was at the center of many of the island’s theater festivals.

8.The Archaeological Museum of Delos was built in 1903, making it one of the oldest museums in the Cyclades. It holds many of the invaluable treasures discovered here.

9. The three main temples dedicated to Apollo, the remains of which stand at the center of his sanctuary, brought thousands of pilgrims to this spot.

10. The Temple of Artemis, dedicated to the twin sister of Apollo, was another important place of worship on Delos.

11. Many different regional powers erected structures on Delos in exhibitions of wealth and power. Near the Propylaea, built by the Athenians, visitors can also see the Portico of Philip V of Macedon and the Portico of Attalos I, King of Pergamon.

12. The Marketplace of the Competaliasts, a 1st c. BC square used by the island’s trade unions, is further evidence that society on Delos was made up of a number of merchant associations.

13. The House of Cleopatra, the wife of Dioskouridis, a man of high standing in Delos around 137 BC; statues of the two of them (replicas) stand at the building’s entrance, still welcoming modern-day visitors. The originals are to be seen in the Museum of Delos.

14. The House of Dionysos bears this name because of a stunning mosaic discovered here (there is a replica in place now, but the original is nearby in the museum) that depicts the god of wine and theater.

15. Theater was an important part of the cultural life of the island. The ancient theater could hold up to 5,000 people.

16. The House of the Masks has been partly restored and offers visitors a more complete look into what life here was like in the distant past.

17. In the House of the Dolphins, a mosaic depicting the Phoenician goddess Tanit indicates that Delos also functioned as a meeting-place of cultures and beliefs.

18. From the Sanctuary of the Egyptian and Syrian Gods, the view is magnificent, and impresses on the viewer the scale of the ancient settlement. At its height, Delos’ permanent population was far greater than that of present-day Mykonos.

Ancient Delos seems never to have escaped its geographical destiny as a cultural and commercial crossroads frequently caught up in regional or imperial conflicts. Centrally located amid the Cycladic Islands of theAegean Sea, Delos (the “Visible” island) was long a place ofworship, unity, contention and bloodshed.

Birth and death were major issues for Delian residents, as the island was believed to be the birthplace of the god Apollo and his siblingArtemis. Yet mortal childbirth was prohibited on its sacred soil. Pregnant women had to depart to the neighboring island of Rineiabefore their time of delivery.

Ancient life on Delos was vital some two to three thousand years ago – characterized by rituals, festivals, theatrical productions,athletic games and high living in affluent, mosaic-paved houseswith colonnaded courtyards. It was also marked, however, by hard labor for the lesser citizens and imported slaves, who performed myriad menial tasks in shops, temples and workshops, loaded and unloaded goods in the busy ports and generally made the wheels of daily Delian existence turn.

Over its history, Delos witnessed power struggles, repeated invasions and notoriously bloody attacks, as the vulnerable island’s widespread religious, political and commercial reputation often attracted to its shores covetous would-be possessors or marauding pirates from every cardinal point.

ISLAND GHOST TOWN

Nowadays, the ruin-strewn islet of Delos is still something of a crossroads, occupied for a few hours each day by multi-national hosts of adventure-seeking tourists. Its sprawling urban landscape represents an extraordinary outdoor museum and one of Greece’s most important archaeological sites.

No more the regional power base, Delos now has an enchanting, sometimes eerie tranquility that starkly contrasts with boisterous, all-night Mykonos. Researchers can stay longer on the island, but even their inquisitive presence does little to alter the sense of quietude and abandonment that long ago descended on this seaborne ghost town.

EXTENSIVE OVERVIEW

Since 1873, the French School at Athens, in collaboration with the Greek government, has excavated large areas of the island’s port city.

Amid the maze-like pattern of deserted dwellings and shops, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of doorways offer glimpses into a past way of life illuminated through the efforts of philologists, historians andarchaeologists. These specialists continue to sift through diverse literary testimony, unearth further architectural and artifactualdetails and even probe the depths of the surrounding sea.

For a more complete view of the site, visitors can ascend to the nearby summit of Mt Kynthos. Distinguishable from there are virtually all the various precincts and monuments of the island’s once-thriving community. Beyond, set in the blue expanse of the Mediterranean Sea, are neighboring islands both large and small: Rineia to the west,Tinos to the north, Mykonos to the northeast, and Naxos and Paros to the south.

In springtime, Delos is awash in yellow, red and purple wildflowers.Low-lying ruins near the residential Hill Quarter become weedy, seasonal ponds where frogs can be heard strangely croaking.

Broad-leafed fig trees sprout from rain-filled cisterns, courtyard wells, and the narrow, overgrown banks of the Inopos – an ancient stream that still flows stealthily down from Kynthos.

In high summer, Delos radiates with light and heat, intensified by a lack of shade, as hardly a single tree can be found anywhere on the site. Visitors are compelled to seek shelter in slivers of shadow beside house walls or, for the better prepared, beneath umbrellas.

THE POWER OF LIONS

Excavators have found some evidence of a Bronze-Age Mycenaean presence (ca. 1,600-1,100 BC) in the main harbor area, but the Delos that is best known today began to emerge largely after 800 BC. The island’s sanctuary soon became a widely recognized headquarters of religious authority, second only to the sanctuary ofApollo at Delphi.

As Delos’ powerful neighbors – in particular Naxos, Paros and Athens – sought to exert their authority, various monuments or structures were erected as dedications. The Naxians proclaimed their dominance with a now-iconic row of white marble lions (late 7th c. BC) that stand just west of the Sacred Lake.

Within the Apollo sanctuary itself, they also installed a colossal statue of Apollo (590-580 BC); an L-shaped colonnade (stoa) that served to define the sacred space (ca. 550-500 BC); and the Oikos of the Naxians (ca. 575 BC), which may constitute either the first temple to Apollo, a ceremonial dining hall or a storage space for cult equipment and votive offerings.

“YOU BORE GLORIOUS CHILDREN”

Mythical Leto, mother to Apollo and Artemis, is celebrated in the Third Homeric Hymn (HH3; early 6th c. BC) that also references several key Delian landmarks: “…Rejoice, blessed Leto, for you bore glorious children…as you rested against the great mass of the Cynthian hill hard by a palm tree by the streams of Inopus….”

The palm tree was especially revered in Delos – brought in on the sea-going ships that connected the island to the outside world. Roman visitors, including the orator/statesman Cicero (1st c. BC), could still see “Leto’s palm” standing beside the Sacred Lake.

Nowadays, a symbolic palm tree continues to mark the divine twins’ birth-spot, although the adjacent lake was filled in over a century ago as a preventative measure against malaria.

LONG-ROBED PILGRIMS

A complex infrastructure developed on Delos to accommodate the needs of its many visitors, especially during the Greater (every four years) and Lesser (annual) Delia festivals. The hymn to Apollo states: “…In Delos…the long-robed Ionians gather in your honor with their children and shy wives: with boxing and dancing and song, mindful, they delight you so often as they hold their gathering…”

Indicative of these past activities among Delos’ ruins are the foundations of several palaestrae (for wrestling, boxing), agymnasium (running, other training), a stadium and a theater, all from the 3rd or 2nd c. BC. Of similar date is the Hypostyle Hall (208 BC), northwest of the sanctuary, which may have served as an enormous dining room. A forest of forty-four columns supported the roof over this vast interior space. Near the theater, a gigantic cistern with six internal arches was installed for collection of precious drinking water.

SWIFT SHIPS AND GREAT WEALTH

Delos’ rise to exceptional economic power and prominence occurred relatively late in its history, sparked by its designation as a free port by the Romans in 167 BC. Prior to this event, Delian prosperity stemmed mainly from cult-related offerings, such as those bestowed by the affluent attendees of festivals.

The hymn to Apollo further records: If one “should…come upon the Ionians so met together,…[he] would be pleased in heart gazing at the men and well-girded women with their swift ships and great wealth.”

In addition to the Naxians’ lions and colossal Apollo, many other statues on inscribed bases and various votive gifts filled the main sanctuary and lined the approaching Via Sacra. Polykrates, the Samian tyrant, dedicated the entire island of Rineia to Apollo (ca. 530 BC), then confirmed the adjacent islands’ eternal bond by connecting them with a massive iron chain.

PURIFICATION, POWER AND PATRONAGE

Many objects from Delos have been unearthed on adjacent Rineia. During ritual cleansings of the Apollo sanctuary, the contents ofprehistoric graves, discarded offerings and other materials were collected and redeposited in sacred pits across the channel.

The Athenian tyrant Peisistratus conducted the first such purification ca. 540 BC. After the Persian Wars, Athens took over Delos (478 BC), making it the headquarters of the Delian League, then later, under Pericles, controversially removing the League’s treasury and locking it away on the Athenian Acropolis (454 BC). In 426 BC, Athenian authority was again demonstrated when Delos was further ritually purified and all births and deaths on the island were henceforth prohibited.

Today, the Delos Museum displays an array of ancient offerings and everyday objects recovered from Delos and Rineia: elegant statuary; finely painted vases; figurines of male and female deities; wallpaintings; colorfully tessellated mosaics; and a range of household items, including marble tables and simple cooking equipment.

Athenian hegemony over the Aegean waned in the 4th c. BC, as Macedonian power expanded. By the mid-3rd c. BC, Delos came to enjoy a certain independence under the benevolent eye of Hellenistic kings. During this period, the approach to the sanctuary was enclosed with two colonnades: the South Stoa, built by King Attalos I of Pergamon (post-250 BC), and the Stoa of Philip V of Macedonia(ca. 210 BC).

Delos’ pre-Roman population has been estimated at less than 10,000, among which numbered many religious and diplomatic functionaries. Maritime traders would already have been familiar with the island, butcommerce was perhaps of lesser importance than its role as a Pan-Hellenic sanctuary and central gathering place, especially for the Ionian peoples of the Aegean islands and western Anatolia.

FLUCTUATING FORTUNES

Delian sovereignty abruptly ended in 167 BC, however, with the rise of Roman imperial power in the region. After backing Rome’s opponent,King Perseus of Macedon, and allowing pirates to use Delian ports for attacks on Roman shipping, Delos was seized by Rome and declared a free port, open to all merchants without concern for taxation.

With the Romans striving to quell the maritime power of Rhodes and, not unrelatedly, having destroyed the port city of Corinth in 146 BC, the stage was set for Delos to reach new heights of affluence as a majortransshipment center. A new class of wealthy Roman elites sought a vast range of products from the East, many of which passed through Delos, including slaves, grain, perfumes, unguents, bronze and marble statuary, metal wares, culinary specialties, ornate textiles and fabrics and other luxury items.

At its peak, Delos would have been truly a splendid sight to behold. In the sanctuary stood three temples and other shrines of Apollo; five treasury buildings to accommodate offerings; the singular Monument of the Bulls that housed a votive trireme; the extensive Stoa of Antigonos; the Ekklesiasterion for the popular assembly; and theArtemision (Temple of Artemis), framed by another L-shaped stoa.

Outside the main precinct were shrines dedicated to Leto, Hera, Zeus, Athena, Herakles, Asclepius and the Twelve Olympian Gods. Foreign deities were also given temples, including those of the Syrian gods and of Egyptian Serapis and Isis – the latter’s elegant facade is now partly reconstructed and has become a prominent landmark distinctly visible from a distance.

Colonnaded stoas, warehouses and marketplaces were common features of the port area, where the Roman geographer Strabo (early 1st c. AD) claimed the number of slaves traded every day reached as high as 10,000.

The multi-ethnic merchants of Delos tended to frequent separate, club-like market halls and cultural/commercial centers, as attested by the Agora of the Delians (4th c. BC, early 2nd c. BC); the Koinon of the Poseidoniasts of Berytos, for merchants and ship owners from Beirut (ca. 110 BC); and the Agora of the Italians (ca. 110 BC).

Perhaps most evocative of Delian life in late Hellenistic and Roman times are the well-to-do villas and other private houses that offer a sense of the diverse tastes and habits of the people who once resided there.

The Delians’ cosmopolitan character and facility with foreign languages were subjects of ancient literary note: “The girls of Delos, hand-maidens of the Far-shooter…sing… of men and women of past days…They can imitate the tongues of all men…; each would say that he himself were singing, so close to truth is their sweet song” (HH3).

Delos’ newfound prosperity ended up being short-lived, however, as the island once again picked the wrong side in a conflict (this time Rome), when the Mithridatic Wars broke out between Rome and Pontus. Beginning with a massacre of 20,000 inhabitants by King Mithridates’ forces in 88 BC, the island was subjected to two decades of repeated assaults.

After a final destructive attack by Cilician pirates (69 BC), life on Delos began to wither away. By the 2nd c. AD, the Greek traveler Pausanias described the island as virtually abandoned: “…Delos, once the common market of Greece, has no Delian inhabitant, but only the men sent by the Athenians to guard the sanctuary.” He later laments in his guidebook that once-great Orchomenos “…was fated to fall almost as low as…Delos.”

From the heights of its former vital role in ancient Greco-Roman life and thinking, Delos became in medieval and early modern times thedesolate haunt of crusaders, pirates, and eventually antiquarians.

Today, its lanes and squares once more echo with the multi-lingual parlance of visitors hailing from near and far.