Delos had a position as a holysanctuary for a millennium before OlympianGreek mythology made it the birthplace ofApollo andArtemis. From its Sacred Harbour are visible the three conical mounds that have identified landscapes sacred to a goddess (presumablyAthena). Another site, retaining itsPre-Greek nameMount Cynthus,[1] is crowned with a sanctuary ofZeus.
In 1990,UNESCO added Delos to theWorld Heritage List, citing its exceptional archaeological site which "conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port", its influence on the development of Greek architecture, and its sacred importance throughoutAncient Greece.[2]
Investigation of ancient stone huts found on the island indicate that it has been inhabited since the third millennium BC.Thucydides claims that the original inhabitants werepiraticalCarians who were eventually expelled byKing Minos ofCrete.[3] By the writing of theOdyssey, the island was already famous as the birthplace of the twin godsApollo andArtemis (although some confusion seems to exist of Artemis' birthplace being either Delos or the island ofOrtygia).
Between 900 BC and 100 AD, Delos was a major cult centre, where thegodsDionysus andLeto, mother of the twindeities Apollo and Artemis, were revered. Eventually acquiringPanhellenic religious significance, Delos was initially a religiouspilgrimage for theIonians.
A number of "purifications" were performed by the city-state ofAthens in an attempt to render the island fit for the proper worship of the gods. The first took place in the sixth century BC, directed by the tyrantPisistratus, who ordered that all graves within sight of the temple be dug up and the bodies moved to another nearby island. In the fifth century BC, during the sixth year of thePeloponnesian War and under instruction from theDelphic Oracle, the entire island was purged of all dead bodies. A new decree was eventually issued, so that no one should be allowed to be buried or give birth on the island due to its sacred importance, and to preserve its neutrality in commerce since no one could then claim ownership through inheritance. Immediately after this purification, the firstquinquennial festival of the Delian games were celebrated there.[4] Four years later, all inhabitants of the island were removed toAdramyttium in Asia as a further purification.[5]
After thePersian Wars, the island became the natural meeting ground for theDelian League, founded in 478 BC, thecongresses being held in the temple (a separate quarter was reserved for foreigners and thesanctuaries of foreigndeities). The league's commontreasury was kept here as well until 454 BC, whenPericles removed it to Athens.[6]
During theHellenistic period, a well-establishedPhoenician colony on the island had extensive trade relations.[7] Epigraphic evidence also suggests the presence of aSamaritan community on Delos during this period.[8] Two marblestelae dated on paleographic grounds to c. 250–175 BCE and c. 150–50 BCE, record benefactions by Cretan donors to aproseuche ("house of prayer"). In the inscriptions, the community identified itself as "Israelites on Delos who make offerings to hallowedArgarizein," a clear reference toMount Gerizim, site of theSamaritan sanctuary.[8][9]
Suda writes that the Greeks used the proverb "ᾌδεις ὥσπερ εἰς Δῆλον πλέων", meaning you sing as if sailing into Delos in reference to someone who is happy, light-hearted, and enjoying himself.[10]
Strabo writes that in 166 BC, the Romans converted Delos into a free port, which was partially motivated by seeking to damage the trade ofRhodes, at the time the target of Roman hostility. In 167 or 166 BC, after theRoman victory in theThird Macedonian War, theRoman Republic ceded Delos to theAthenians, who expelled most of the original inhabitants.[13] Roman traders came to purchase tens of thousands of slaves captured by theCilician pirates or captured in the wars following the disintegration of theSeleucid Empire. It became the center of the slave trade, with the largestslave market in the larger region being maintained here.
TheRoman destruction of Corinth in 146 BC allowed Delos to at least partially assume Corinth's role as the premier trading center ofGreece, but Delos' commercial prosperity, construction activity, and population waned significantly after the island was assaulted by the forces ofMithridates VI ofPontus in 88 and 69 BC, during theMithridatic Wars with Rome.[14] Before the end of the first century BC, trade routes had changed; Delos was replaced byPuteoli as the chief focus of Italian trade with the east, and as a cult centre, too, it entered a sharp decline.
Despite its decline, Delos maintained some population in the early Roman Imperial period.Pausanias (8,33,2), writing in the second century AD, states that Delos was uninhabited apart from a few custodians of the sanctuaries. Evidence has been found of Roman baths, coins, an aqueduct, residential and elite houses, multiple churches, basilicas, and a monastery all from the first to sixth centuries AD, which, however, does not suggest that the island was continuously inhabited in the period.[15][16] The pottery found indicates that produce, such as wine and oil, continued to be imported from regional centres. Also, a number of wine presses were found amidst the ruins of the ancient city that date to this period, suggesting that the population at this time was engaged in considerable viticultural endeavour.[17]
Delos was eventually abandoned around the eighth century AD.[18]
The smallsacred lake in its circular bowl, now intentionally left dry by the island's caretakers to suppress the spread of malaria-bearing mosquitoes,[19] is atopographical feature that determined the placement of later features.
TheMinoan Fountain was a rectangular public well hewn in the rock, with a central column; it formalized the sacred spring in its present sixth-century BC form, reconstructed in 166 BC, according to an inscription. Tightly laid courses ofmasonry form the walls; water can still be reached by a flight of steps that fill one side.
Several market squares were found. TheHellenisticAgora of the Competaliasts by the Sacred Harbour retains thepostholes for marketawnings in its stone paving. Two powerful Italicmerchant guilds dedicated statues and columns there. The so-called "Agora of the Italians" was probably not a agora, despite its common appellation in modern literature.[20]
TheTemple of the Delians, dedicated to Apollo, is a classic example of theDoric order. Beside the temple, once stood a colossalkouros of Apollo, only parts of which remain. Dating to the sixth century BC, parts of the upper torso and pelvis remainin situ, a hand is kept at the local museum, and a foot is in theBritish Museum.[21]
The Terrace of the Lions
The Terrace of the Lions, also was dedicated to Apollo by the people ofNaxos shortly before 600 BC. It originally had 9–12 squatting, snarling marble guardian lions along the Sacred Way; one was removed and is presently situated over the main gate of theVenetian Arsenal. The lions create a monumental avenue comparable to Egyptianavenues of sphinxes. (A Greek sphinx is in the Delos Museum.) Today, only seven of the original lions remain.
The Oikos of the Naxians (House of the Naxians), first quarter of sixth century BC, has a long hall with one central ionic colonnade, a west porch tristyle in antis, and an east marble prostasis of the middle of the sixth century BC.[22]
The 'house of Dionysus' named after a mosaic of Greek godDionysus riding a panther
TheDoric Temple of Isis was built on a high, overlooking hill at the beginning of the Roman period tovenerate the familiar trinity ofIsis, the AlexandrianSerapis, andAnubis.
The Temple of Hera,circa 500 BC, is a rebuilding of an earlier Heraion on the site.
The House of Dionysus is a luxurious second-century private house named for the floormosaic of Dionysus riding apanther.
TheStoivadeion dedicated toDionysus bears a statue of the god of wine and thelife-force. On either side of the platform, a pillar supports a colossalphallus, the symbol of Dionysus. The southern pillar, which is decorated with relief scenes from the Dionysiac circle, was erected around 300 BC to celebrate a winning theatrical performance. The statue of Dionysus was originally flanked by those of two actors impersonatingPaposilenoi (conserved in theArchaeological Museum of Delos). The marble theatre is a rebuilding of an older one, undertaken shortly after 300 BC.
^Tang, Birgit (2005),Delos, Carthage, Ampurias: the Housing of Three Mediterranean Trading Centres, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider (Accademia di Danimarca), p. 14,ISBN8882653056.
^Tang, Birgit (2005),Delos, Carthage, Ampurias: the Housing of Three Mediterranean Trading Centres, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider (Accademia di Danimarca), pp. 14, 32,ISBN8882653056.
^DODD, EMLYN K. (2020).ROMAN AND LATE ANTIQUE WINE PRODUCTION IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN : a comparative ... archaeological study at antiochia ad cragum. [Place of publication not identified]: ARCHAEOPRESS.ISBN978-1-78969-403-1.OCLC1139263254.
^Le Quéré, Enora (2015).Les Cyclades sous l'Empire romain : histoire d'une renaissance. Impr. Université Rennes 2). Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes.ISBN978-2-7535-4045-3.OCLC919408437.
^DODD, EMLYN K. (2020).ROMAN AND LATE ANTIQUE WINE PRODUCTION IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN : a comparative ... archaeological study at antiochia ad cragum. [Place of publication not identified]: ARCHAEOPRESS.ISBN978-1-78969-403-1.OCLC1139263254.
^DODD, EMLYN K. (2020).ROMAN AND LATE ANTIQUE WINE PRODUCTION IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN : a comparative ... archaeological study at antiochia ad cragum. [Place of publication not identified]: ARCHAEOPRESS.ISBN978-1-78969-403-1.OCLC1139263254.
^Trümper, Monika (2008).Die ‚Agora des Italiens’ in Delos. Baugeschichte, Architektur, Ausstattung und Funktion einer späthellenistischen Porticus-Anlage [The ‘Agora of the Italians’ in Delos. Building history, architecture, decoration and function of a late Hellenistic porticus complex]. Rahden: Leidorf,ISBN978-3-89646-376-0 (English summary in a review).
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