Delos

Delos

A religious center as early as the third millennium BC, Delos is the legendary birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, children of Zeus. The archaeological pearl of the Aegean and sacred to ancient Greeks, the ruins found here are among the best preserved and most interesting in Greece. They include a town of the Hellenistic period comparable to Pompeii, sacred caves, Panhellenic shrines and the temples of Apollo.

Attractions

The small Sacred Lake in its circular bowl, now dry, is a topographical feature that determined the placement of later features. The Minoan Fountain was a rectangular public well hewn in the rock, with a central column; it formalized the sacred spring in its present 6th century BC form, reconstructed in 166 BC, according to an inscription. Tightly-laid courses of masonry form the walls; water can still be reached by a flight of steps that fill one side. There are several market squares. The Hellenistic Agora of the Competaliasts by the Sacred Harbour retains the postholes for market awnings in its stone paving. Two powerful Italic merchant guilds dedicated statues and columns there. The Temple of the Delians is a classic example of the Doric order; a pen-and-wash reconstruction of the temple is illustrated at Doric order The Terrace of the Lions dedicated to Apollo by the people of Naxos shortly before 600 BC, had originally nine to twelve squatting, snarling marble guardian lions along the Sacred Way; one is inserted over the main gate to the Venetian Arsenal. The lions create a monumental avenue comparable to Egyptian avenues of sphinxes. (There is a Greek sphinx in the Delos Museum.) The meeting hall of the Poseidoniasts of Beirut housed an association of merchant, warehousemen, shipowners and innkeepers during the early years of Roman hegemony, late 2nd century BC. To their protective triad of Baal/Poseidon, Astarte/Aphrodite and Echmoun/Asklepios, they added Roma. The platform of the Stoibadeion dedicated to Dionysus bears a statue of the god of wine and the life-force. On either side of the platform, a pillar supports a colossal phallus, the symbol of Dionysus. The southern pillar, which is decorated with relief scenes from the Dionysiac circle, was erected ca. 300 BC to celebrate a winning theatrical performance. The statue of Dionysus was originally flanked by those of two actors impersonating Paposilenoi (conserved in the Delos Museum). The marble theatre is a rebuilding of an older one, undertaken shortly after 300 BC. The Doric Temple of Isis was built at the beginning of the Roman period to venerate the familiar trinity of Isis, the Alexandrian Serapis and Anubis. The Temple of Hera, ca 500 BC, is a rebuilding of an earlier Heraion on the site. The House of Dionysus is a luxurious 2nd century private house named for the floor mosaic of Dionysus riding a panther. The House of the Dolphins is similarly named from its atrium mosaic, where erotes ride dolphins; its Phoenician owner commissioned a floor mosaic of Tanit in his vestibule.

Currency

The Euro (EUR), the currency of the European Union, is the official currency of Greece.

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