On May 25, 2023 we left noisy and expensive but beautiful Mykonos behind for a two hour leisurely sail to Rineia island, West of Delos. From there it would be a short dinghy ride to the ancient harbour on the West side of Delos. We didn’t want to bring TWO B to the ancient port since there is very little mooring space as the harbour walls are largely destroyed. Secondly, the Northerly wind can become incredibly strong in the narrow strait between Rineia and Delos, not a good place to leave your boat unattended.
The bay in Rineia is very safe with the prevailing Northerly winds. During the day the bay becomes packed with day-tripper boats from Mykonos because of the fine sandy beach and shallow waters, not visible on this foto. Luckily they all leave at 5pm and peace returns.
Except for a shepherd and some goats and sheep, the island is currently uninhabited.
An old water well to the left where the water is hauled with a bucket and thrown in a trough for the animals. The “walk-inn” well to the right is from a more recent date. The animals can walk to the water table.
The island of Delos is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece, but it is not the most beautiful one. The remains are mainly foundations, and those are not very photogenic. Very little is (yet?) restored and excavation is still ongoing.
Delos was inhabited since ca. 2500 BC. It became a holy pilgrimage island from 900 BC onwards because, according to legend, it was there that the Olympian gods; Apollo, god of daylight, and Artemis, goddess of nightlight, were born. It was, in short, the birthplace of light, which the Greeks regarded as precious.
Neighbouring Naxos island tried to exert its power by taking advantage of the glory of the Sanctuary. The statues of the lions were dedicated by the Naxians to the Sanctuary of Apollo ca. 7th or 6th century BC within the context of a grandiose building programme which was to demonstrate the supremacy of Naxos to the pilgrims. Situated along the road leading from the north port to the Sanctuary, they impressed pilgrims, as most of them had never seen a lion before.
However, the city that ultimately prevailed was distant Athens.
The Poros temple (No.1) was the first temple the Athenians built, in ca. 540 BC, dedicated to Apollo. The building was made from Poros stone, hence the name. It housed a larger than life statue of Apollo.
After the Greek victory over the Persians in the Battle of Plataea in 478 BC the Delian League was formed, under the leadership of Athens. The league was a military alliance of 330 (at its peak) Greek city-states. The League had three goals: 1) to prepare for the risk of future invasions, 2) to get revenge on Persia, 3) as an instrument to divide the spoils of war evenly amongst its members. The headquarters of the League was on Delos, where the enormous sums which had been contributed by the city-states were kept in the treasure buildings marked in an earlier foto with a “T”. The leagues’ congresses where held in the temple. History repeats:
- The Delian Leagues then, can be compared to NATO now.
- The role and behaviour of Athens then, can be compared to the USA now.
- The Delos’ treasury then, can be compared to the central bank (FED and ECB) now.
Construction of the third temple started in 476 BC to commemorate the end of the Persian Wars, and although the statue of Apollo was relocated here, the temple was never completed. Very soon the Delian League evolved into an Athenian hegemony, and the allies became subjects of the Athenians. The funds from the common treasury were moved to the Acropolis of Athens in 454 BC, ostensibly for reasons of security. In reality, they were used to finance the reconstruction of the Acropolis that was sacked by the Persians in the last war. History repeats;
- How many times in recent years have those in power imposed their agenda on their subjects “for safety and security reasons” like capital control and travel restrictions.
The Athenians decided on a number of “purifications” of Delos, supposedly for reasons of piety, to keep the island fit for the proper worship of the gods. They opened all the graves on the island and moved the bones and funerary offerings to Rineia, where everything was buried in a common pit. At the same time, they decided that no one would be allowed to be born, or to die on Delos. Women close to delivery, and the seriously ill, were transferred to Rineia as well. From that time on, no one was born, no one died, and no one was buried on the holy island; and the inhabitants of Delos, as was the real intention of the Athenians, couldn’t claim ownership through inheritance. In 422 BC the Athenians completed the “purification” by exiling all the local population.
In 167 or 166 BC, after the Roman victory over Greece in the Third Macedonian War, the Romans converted Delos into a free port. Roman traders came to purchase tens of thousands of slaves captured by the Cilician (SE Türkiye) pirates or captured in the wars following the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire (roughly the part of the Persian empire that was captured by Alexander the Great). The notorious Agora of the Italians became the largest slave market in the larger region.
The fact that Delos was exempted from tax by the Romans, its favourable geographical location and the destruction in 146 BC of its main competitor Corinth, resulted in Delos becoming the hub of the transit trade between East and West, North and South. On the noisy wharves, ships from all over the Mediterranean, were constantly loading and unloading tons of merchandise and thousands of slaves. The city became ostensively wealthy.
1-Sacred harbour. 2-Commercial port. 3-Square of the competitors, one of several agora’s (markets). 4-Portico of Philip V, West of the sacred way. 7- Agora of Delia. 12-Three temples of Apollo. 45-Agora of the Italians. 47-Lions of Naxos. 46-Sacred lake. 70-Hippodrome. 73-Gymnasium. 86-Sanctuary of the Syrian goods. 95-Theatre.
An inevitable consequence of the island’s growing wealth was the sharp increase in population and intense construction activity. Within a few decades a city spread over the slopes of the hills surrounding the valley of the Sanctuary. The population grew to 25,000. The result of this rapid growth was a haphazardly built city without formal city planning or a regular street layout. This is especially evident in the Theatre Quarter.
The Theatre Quarter was the most expensive neighbourhood in the city which is why all those who succeeded in having a house there tried to take maximum advantage of their land, and as a result, the streets are narrow and irregular. Wealthy and average houses are side by side, with no class distinctions. In many cases, two small houses were joined together to serve the needs of new owners. This is what a certain Cleopatra did, adding a luxurious marble peristyle to a court that was too small for such a structure.
In front of the houses, connected to the main building by a door, there were small shops where slaves would sell their master’s products. When shops were rented to a merchant, the connecting doors were sealed off.
Tall houses did not allow the sun to penetrate through to the narrow irregular streets, which must therefore have been dark, damp and full of mud during winter. With its lack of planning and crooked, sunless lanes, the Theatre Quarter resembled a medieval town.
However, the city had a complete drainage system: each house’s drains were connected to the main network that ran along all the streets. Wastes were dumped into the sea.
None of the shops in the city have a latrine, nor are there any public latrines in the four large markets (Agora’s) or within the Sanctuary. There were few women to be seen in these areas, and the men who frequented them had few inhibitions. Typically, the site on which the first Sarapieion (temple for Greco-Egyptian god Serapis on the access road to Mount Kynthos) was built is described as “a place full of faeces”, while in the financial reports of the Sanctuary, reference is made to sums of money allocated for cleaning and the removal of faeces. It seems that there were no other provisions made for cleaning the city or for dealing with refuse.
The wealth which had been accumulated on the island and the Delians’ friendly relations with Rome were the main causes of the island’s destruction.
Delos was attacked and looted twice: in 88 BC by Mithridates, the King of Pontus, an enemy of the Romans, and later, in 69 BC, by the pirates of Athenodorus, an ally of Mithridates. Since then, the island fell rapidly into decline and was gradually abandoned.
Thank you for reading our stories. Until next time. Regards, Liza and Frits