3/28/07 Wednesday Sacred island of Delos

The small rocky islet of Delos is part of the Cyclades and is located a few miles south-west of Mykonos, Greece. Because the islands around Delos are in the shape of a circle, the whole group of island is called the Cyclades.

According to mythology, Delos is the birthplace of Apollo, god of music, of truth and light, and his twin sister Artemis, goddess of hunting. The children’s mother was Leto who was seduced by Zeus. When Hera, Zeus’ wife, learned about Leto’s pregnancy, she banned Leto from all the places of the earth to prevent her from giving birth. None of the islands would give Leto shelter, fearing the wrath of Hera. The only place for Leto to give birth was the little island of Delos, then called Ortygia (Quail Island), which wasn’t considered as part of the earth and which was revealed by Poseidon, who came to help his brother and his brother’s lover. This gave to the island its name, for Delos means “revealed”. So Leto managed to give birth to her twins Apollo and Artemis, and the island was, from then on, dedicated to the god Apollo.

This is the reason why Delos was considered the most important Pan-Hellenic sanctuary during ancient times, and why the ancient Greeks built a lot of temples, sanctuaries and statues on this island called the “Sacred Island”.

The first inhabitants of the island were Cares or Phoenicians (around 3000 BC). In 1100 BC Delos was inhabited by the Ionians. The Ionian islands formed a confederation, the Ionian League of the Aegean, under the direction of Naxos. Whoever had control of Delos, had a great deal of power because of its central position. It was the Ionians who brought the worship of the god Apollo. The Ionians also managed to develop the island into a powerful commercial and spiritual center (7th c BC).

During the 5th century BC, the Athenians organized what they called a purification of the island, forbidding the burials dead on the Sacred Island. A new purification followed in the 4th century BC, and this time the Athenians forbade not only deaths, but also all the births and burials on the island. They transferred all the existing dead to the neighboring island of Rhenia, which became a necropolis. After this last purification, a great religious ceremony in honor of Apollo was organized every five years.

Later, Delos came under the protection of the Ptolemies of Egypt, successors of Alexander the Great. But, in 88 BC, the Romans attacked and completely destroyed Delos and Mykonos. The history of Delos appeared to have stopped after this period, for no historical information have been kept or discovered. Delos was deserted since that time, but people from neighboring islands would visit it. The excavations of the rich archaeological finds of Delos started in 1873 and continue to be carried out by the French School of Archaeology. The island of Delos became part of the World’s Cultural Heritage and is protected by UNESCO.

Delos was sacred, and all worship was welcome. There are many temples to different gods, even foreign gods. Shrines for Samothracian, Egyptian, and Syrian Gods, and even a Synagogue dating from the 1st c BC, are interspersed amongst the Greek temples.

Pictured at the right is the Temple to the Egyptian god, Isis. In the Temple of Isis there were toilet rooms with 3-4 seats and water running underneath, and portable baths that they could tip to let the water run out.