Delos. Detailed history

Delos was an island held in high regard by the ancient Greeks as a religious site at the center of the Cyclades, a group of islands in the southern Aegean. It was a crucial island for the religious and political life of Greece. Delos lay to the north of Naxos and Paros and was long regarded as the origin of the Cycladic culture due to it being inhabited early It is a small, infertile island measuring only three miles long and between a mile and a mile and a half wide.

Although composed of granite and possessing little water, it had been inhabited since the third millennium, with remains of stone huts in the mountains and on the plains below. Its highest point is Mount Cynthus, at 350 feet. Mycenaean remains, including buildings and pottery, have been found on Delos, and more pottery has been found here than on the other Cycladic islands.

Since its initial habitation, Delos was a site for religious worship. Its chief deity since the late Bronze Age was Artemis. During the second millennium, Ionian colonists arrived from the mainland and took over the island, including the sacred grotto on Mount Cynthus. It was supposedly at this site that the Titaness Leto gave birth to the twins Artemis and Apollo, the daughter and son of Zeus. The “Hymn of Apollo,” in two sections written sometime after Homer’s Odyssey and occasionally attributed to Homer, describes the dual sacred regions of Delos, in the first part, and Delphi, in the second.

The two parts of the Hymn, however, appear to have been written by different authors, although both were ascribed to Homer, a common phenomenon with these early poems. The section on Delos (lines 1-178) records the birth of Apollo on an infertile island. In this version of Apollo’s birth, Leto, after having labor pains for nine days, leaned against Mount Cynthus and gave birth, even though all were afraid that Apollo would harm the island for impurity (i.e., giving birth). Leto reassured the Delians that Apollo would bring no harm, promising that he would construct his temple there.

The “Hymn” also gives an account of the great Ionian festival to Apollo, held there as early as the seventh century. The festival was one of the most important in antiquity. It featured celebrations such as boxing, dancing, and singing, and the inhabitants were honored alongside the men and women of earlier times. Both Artemis and Apollo were honored, along with their mother, Leto, on the island. Unlike in other Greek towns, women were allowed to come to the festival.

The main sacred site on Delos was on the flat plain below the mountain next to the sea. At this site, the main religious shrine, built on top of the Mycenaean ruins, was dedicated to Artemis, with an adjacent precinct nearby for Leto with a sixth- century temple. Apollo’s sanctuary was adjacent, and although it was originally similar in size to Leto’s and smaller than Artemis’s, his sanctuary soon surpassed theirs.

The shrine rose in stature throughout the Greek world and soon became the most important religious precinct to Apollo. It exceeded all others in beauty and became the center of an Amphictyony (religious) league. Although other sites would rival it, especially Delphi, the island of Delos could claim primacy due to it being the birthplace of Apollo.

As with other Greek religious sites, the temple and its sacred precinct were viewed as the home of the gods, who would periodically visit. The shrine was not only a splendid structure, but near it, to the west, stood the nine-foot-high statue of the young god Apollo, with his golden locks. The avenue from the shrine to the Sacred Lake, now drained, was guarded by nine lions, and the whole avenue and lake formed part of the ancient island’s beauty. Near the sanctuary lay the ancient Sacred Harbor, which had the earliest manmade port structures, a mole or pier extending 300 feet out into the sea for ships to dock.

Delos underwent several periods of control. Not sufficiently able to control its own destiny, the island was usually controlled by other cities. The earliest of these was Naxos, where many of the island’s artistic artifacts and statues came from. It controlled the island during the seventh and early sixth centuries. For a short time, the Athenians under the tyrant Pisistratus controlled the island and its sanctuary. They were then supplanted by Polycrates of Samos, who created a new festival to Apollo on the nearby island of Rheneia. After the fall of these tyrants, Naxos once again exerted control over the island.

During the Classical Age, the island became famous as the center for the Athenian naval league, named the Delian League in its honor. Here, the representatives met annually to conduct business for the league, and its treasury was stored here until 454, when it was moved to Athens due to potential attack by the Persians after a military setback. Since the island could not really support much life, its populations were often transported to other regions, usually by Athens.

The reason for doing this was often described as an attempt at purification, to ensure that the island was fit for Apollo to visit and “live” there. The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus ordered all the graves and bodies moved from near the sanctuary to another nearby island.

During the early part of the Peloponnesian War, all of the graves were moved by order of the Oracle at Delphi, which further ordained that no one should either be born or die on Delos. The island in essence became suitable only for religious rites and commercial activity; no one owned land, and therefore the island remained neutral. The Delian Games, held every five years, were then established before 600 and then ceased during the early Classical Age to be restored in 426.