Delos’ iconic Terrace of the Lions
The Greeks love a good legend, and none more than the tale of how their sacred island of Delos came about. A popular version of the story goes back to 3,000 B.C., when the big buzz on Mt. Olympus was that Zeus, the god of gods, was about to become a proud daddy, thanks to his girlfriend Leto. The dad-to-be's delight, however, wasn't shared by Mrs. Zeus – who let it be known that anyone who allowed the shady lady to give birth on his turf would be turned into a frog.
But Zeus wasn't the top god for nothing. He got his brother Poseidon, god of the sea, to simply push a new island out of the waters. And up came Delos, where the Greek superstar Apollo and his twin sister Artemis first saw the light of the bright Aegean sunshine.
Temples had to be built to mark that event, of course, and along with them homes, courtyards, fountains, sports arenas, theaters and even what amounts to shopping malls. Delos soon became the religious hot spot of the Aegean, a distinction it held for a thousand years.
Delos was once home to some 30,000 people.
Fast forward to today, and ferries full of tourists from nearby Mykonos – ironically, the party island of the Aegean – start arriving at Delos around 9 a.m. Visitors are free to explore the island's archaeological wonders until late afternoon (about the time some merry-makers back on Mykonos a few miles away are getting up) when everyone has to leave the island.
Among highlights of the ruins is the much-photographed Terrace of the Lions (dedicated to Apollo around 600 B.C.). Other big draws include temples dedicated to Dionysus (the Greek god of wine and pleasure, also known as Bacchus) including a shrine featuring a giant phallus, and the House of Dionysus (a 2nd century B.C. private home).
Another big crowd grabber is an outdoor theater (now being restored) where 5,500 spectators once applauded actors in popular plays. The marble seats of the theater also looked out on Delos’ harbor and the site of a slave market (near the ferry boat docking area) where captives from wars in places now known as Iraq and Iran were put on the auction block.
Ferries from Mykonos bring a steady stream of visitors to Delos.
Artemis – goddess of the hunt, childbirth, virginity and the moon among a dozen or so other things -- may be best known for her temple in the great Roman city of Ephesus on the Turkish coast. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the temple was said to be 450 feet long and as high as a six-story building. It had nearly 130 columns, of which only one (the only part of the temple still there) is left today.
Photos by Bob Schulman
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