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A brief history of Delos
Even though it is one of the smallest islands in the Aegean, Delos was the most famous
and sacred of all islands in antiquity, since, according to the legend, it was there that
Apollo-Helios, god of daylight, and Artemis-Selene, goddess of night light, were born – it
was, in short, the birthplace of Light, which the Greeks always regarded as the most
precious good bestowed by the gods.
Delos is situated in the heart of the Aegean, in the centre of the Cyclades islands that
seem to form a dance circle around it - a “hearth of the islands” as Callimachus calls it;
that is the shrine and centre of the islands. Even though Delos is just 3.5 km from
Mykonos, and 1 km from Rheneia, the atmosphere on the island is different, as is its light
as the choices of the ancient Greeks were never random.
What we regard as myth today was considered history in antiquity. None of the ancient
authors ever wondered why this insignificant rock was selected as the birthplace of the
most important god in the Hellenic Pantheon. Contemporary scientific measurements
have shown that Delos is one of the sunniest spots in the world. For those of us who live
on the island, this is a fact, as is the positive charge, the sacredness and the very special
nature of the place.
The same god was worshipped both at Delphi and on Delos. The wild, imposing
landscape of Delphi prepares the visitor to approach the dark, mysterious god with awe;
the god who drove Croesus to disaster and Orestes to matricide. The Delian landscape,
on the contrary, like the human body, has soft curves and no hard lines. The low hills, the
little valleys, the distances, the temples – all are on a human scale, nothing is oppressive
or prohibitive.
All these features give the site an amazing gentleness and serenity; they make it humanly
warm, familiar as an embrace, and it is not at all accidental that the other aspect of the
god is worshiped here: the Apollo of light and colour, the god who represents all those
qualities that make the Hellenic civilization special (light, moderation, harmony, balance),
the god of poetry and music, the Musagetes and life-giver; the
“ever beautiful, ever young, he on whose tender cheeks no down e’er
showed and from whose locks fragrant oil drops upon the ground”.
(Callimachus, 3rd cent. BCE)
Homer relates the charming myth. Leto, pregnant by Zeus, wandered from Thrace to
Imbros, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Cos, Euboea and Attica, all the time desparately
searching for a place of refuge in which to give birth. But no place would receive her; they
all feared the rage of Hera, the wife whom Zeus had betrayed. Only one unimportant and
invisible (adelos) bit of rock that floated around the Aegean, disdained by all, agreed
hesitantly:
“And what if the god
when he is born sees me thus arid, and scorns me?
What if he goes to another land, many-treed, to build his temple and kicks
me to the depths of the sea, to become a nest for black seals and
octopuses?”
The desperate Leto vowed
“by the earth and the broad sky and the waters of the Styx, that the
Sanctuary and the altar of Phoebus will be here forever and he will honour
you above all other places.”
Poseidon or Zeus, it was said, anchored the windswept, barren, floating rock to the sea
floor with diamond columns, and from adelos, the little island thus became “what mortals
call Delos, but what the blessed gods on Olympus,” who see the world from on high, “call
the black earth’s far-seen star” (Pindar).
Although the wanderings of Leto – who by then was about to give birth – stopped on
Delos, her pain did not, because Hera detained Ilithyia (the goddess of childbirth) on
Olympus. After Leto suffered nine days and nights of torment before the other goddesses
intervened and dispatched Iris to Olympus, who by promising Ilithyia a nine-cubit necklace
of gold and amber, convinced her to hasten to Delos.
As soon as Ilithyia arrived on the island of Delos, the exhausted Leto “embraced a palmtree
with her arms, knelt on the soft meadow” and gave birth first to Artemis and then to
Apollo.
As soon as the fair-haired god was born,
“the earth smiled, Delos was inundated with golden light and became a
flower-bedecked meadow, swans began singing and the dazzled
goddesses cheered.”
Themis, Dione, Rhea, Amphitrite and other goddesses wrapped the divine infant in
swaddling clothes and fed him nectar and ambrosia, while Zeus himself watched the birth
of his children from the top of Mt Kynthos.
This great gathering of otherworldly powers, who cooperated in harmony and contributed
to the birth of Light, charged Delos with positive energy forever. Even today, the followers
of the Hindu religion regard the island of Delos as a site no less sacred than that of
Benares.
The oldest vestiges of human presence on the island date to the 3rd millennium BCE.
Traces of a prehistoric settlement were found on the summit of Kynthos, a naturally
fortified position from which people could easily monitor the small valley and the sea
around it, in those troubled and insecure times. Myths indicate that Minoans settled on the
island, but nothing has yet been found to document their presence.
The Myceneans came to the island in the late 15th century, BCE. By then the Myceneans
had already established their sovereignty over the Aegean and felt safe enough to settle
in the small valley by the sea.
Anios, the mythical Mycenean king of Delos, son of Apollo and great-grandson of
Dionysus, established relations with several neighbouring states. This was in an effort to
preserve neutrality in the conflicts of that age. Anios played host to the ruler of Troy,
Anchises, and to the Achaeans and later to Aeneas, son of Anchises, who had managed
to escape from the burning Troy.
During the Trojan campaign – the first expedition to unite the Greeks in a common
struggle (although ostensibly to avenge the honour of Menelaus and punish the violation
of the precepts of hospitality) – the Achaeans anchored at Delos with their fleet and,
committing the same crime in triplicate as that of which they accused Paris; they seized
their host’s three daughters.
The three princesses of Delos – Spermo, Oeno and Elaïs – (the Oenotropoi), had been
given the gift by their great-grandfather Dionysus of causing the earth to bear fruit without
ploughing. Thus their mere presence was a guarantee that the expeditionary force would
have the necessary supplies (wheat, wine and olive oil).
These three princesses may possibly have been pre-Hellenic divinities, but who were
relegated to a position of secondary importance after the establishment of the patriarchal
society and the coming of Apollo, who, together with Athena, was one of the most fanatic
supporters of male authority.
Anios also had three sons: Thasos, founder of Thasos, Mykonos, founder of Mykonos,
and Andros, founder of Andros.
In the genealogy of Anios there are hints of the origin of the Delians and their interrelationships.
Thus from whichever point of view one looks at history, Delians and their
descendents the Mykonians came down from gods and princes and were children born of
passion and illicit liaisons, not of conventional relationships
Indeed, the “family tree” emerges like this:-.
By as early as the Mycenean period, the history of the island of Delos coincides with the
history of the Sanctuary that gradually developed in the little valley in the middle of the
western shore.
Much later, in the 2nd century BCE, the centre of gravity moved to the bustling port and
cosmopolitan city. That was where the decisions were made that determined the fate of
the island; whereas the Sanctuary had been transformed into a historic landmark for
visitors and a place where Hellenistic rulers flaunted their power and wealth.
The cult of Apollo was established on Delos at least as early as Homeric times.
By about the 9th century BCE, the island was already considered the birthplace of the
God and his sanctuary had been built in the valley. In the “Odyssey”, when the
beleaguered Odysseus saw the willowy Nausicaä, she reminded him of the young palm
tree that he had once seen on Delos, next to Apollo’s altar.
The Homeric “Hymn to Apollo” (circa 700 BCE) describes the glorious festivals of the
Ionians, when they went to Delos with their wives and children in order to worship the god
with hymns, dances and athletic and musical contests.
As early as the Archaic period, the Sanctuary of the twin gods Artemis and Apollo
occupied a large area and was renowned and respected amongst all Ionians.
It included temples, buildings and statues dedicated by the powerful cities of the time in an
effort to take advantage of the god’s prestige. North of the Sanctuary was the shrine to
Leto, mother of the two gods, while in the foothills of Kynthos, some distance away, was
the temple of her rival, Hera, who had become reconciled to these fruits, too, of her
husband’s illicit love.
Every year starting on the 7th of the month of Ieros (February-March), “when the sweet
spring begins and the nightingale builds its nest”, the Greek cities used to send formal
deputations and gifts to celebrate the birth of the god.
These festivals included a sacrifice, athletic games, concerts by professional musicians,
the boys’ dance, the dance of the Delian maidens, and various other entertainments, and
were particularly splendid as testified by the proverb “you sing as though you were sailing
to Delos”.
The wealth that had been accumulated on the island and the Delians’ friendly relations
with Rome were the main causes of the island’s destruction.
The island was devastated and sacked twice; in 88 BCE by Mithridates King of Pontos,
who was at war with the Romans, and again in 69 BCE by the pirates of Athenodoros, an
ally of Mithridates.
After Delos was first sacked in 88 BCE, many of its wealthy inhabitants abandoned the
island, and the doors of many houses were found sealed by walls. Before the city even
had time to recover and before the buildings could be repaired, the second, and even
more destructive blow came from Athenodoros’s pirates, who attacked suddenly one
winter’s night in 69 BCE, sacked the sanctuary and the city and set fire to many houses in
the northern quarter.
The pirates landed in the Skardanas harbour and found the inhabitants totally unprepared,
most of whom were taken prisoner and ended up being sold in the slave markets of the
Levant. Evidence of the disaster is visible to this day, particularly in the northern quarter
of the city, which was burnt down.
The ancient city had developed only as an extension of the port; it flourished as long as
the transit trade between east and west was concentrated there; and it ceased to exist
when the port became unsafe and trade moved to the harbours of the West.
Two years after Delos was sacked for the second time, the Roman general Gaius Triarius
tried to repair “the damaged parts of the city” and to protect it with a wall; until then “Delos’
tower was Apollo” (Callimachus).
But it was too late. Neither the class of people that had created this cosmopolitan city
within just a few decades nor commerce establish emotional ties with a place. The
wealthy merchants, shipowners and bankers had abandoned Delos and resettled in more
secure ports in the Mediterranean. The city gradually dwindled, was abandoned and
forgotten. Tertullian, apologist of Christianity, cited the later Sibyllic oracle in a
characteristically spiteful way: “Even Samos shall be sand, the Far-Seen [Delos] unseen”.
Initially Naxos, and later Paros, tried to assert itself by taking advantage of some of the
Sanctuary’s glory. From the mid-7th century to the mid-6th century BCE, most of the
buildings and statues on Delos were dedicated by the Naxians (the Portico, and the Oikos
of the Naxians, the Sacred Way with the Lion Terrace, the colossal kouros etc.); later, the
island of Paros followed a similar policy. However, the city that ultimately prevailed was
distant Athens, justifying her presence there with various myths.
Between 540 and 528 BCE, Peisistratus tyrant of Athens, upon instruction from the
Delphic oracle, conducted the first catharsis or purification of Delos, removing the graves
around the Sanctuary.
Apollo was the god of light and death was darkness – thus the dead were a taint on such
a holy site. During the reign of either Peisistratus or his sons, the Poros Temple of Apollo
was built and housed a larger-than-life statue of the god, a work by Tectaeus and
Angelion.
After Peisistratus’ death, the Athenians seem to have temporarily abandoned their effort to
gain control of this strategic point in the Aegean, and another tyrant, Polycrates of Samos,
appeared on the scene. In about 630 BCE, Polycrates, who gained the upper hand in the
Aegean owing to his strong naval force,
“having prevailed with his navy, exerted his authority over the other
islands, conquered Rheneia and dedicated it to Apollo of Delos, attaching
it to Delos by a chain.” (Thucydides)
Delos emerged unscathed from the turmoil of the Persian Wars because the Persians too
considered the island sacred and did not sack it, as they did the other islands in the
Cyclades. Herodotus narrates that Datis, the admiral of the Persian fleet, did not allow the
ships to approach Delos, but anchored at Rheneia and from there sent a message to the
“holy men”, who had taken refuge on the mountains of Tinos, to return to Delos, because
not only would he not harm them, but his Great King had also ordered him to respect this
island where the two gods had been born, as well as its inhabitants.
In 478 BCE, after the end of the Persian Wars, the Delian League of Greek cities was
formed in order to deal with future threats. The headquarters of the League was on Delos,
which was where the enormous sums contributed by the city-states were kept and where
their representatives met. 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 in Athens in 454 BCE, ostensibly for reasons of
security; in reality, however, they were intended to finance Pericles’ ambitious building
programme.
During the early years of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians, crowded within their city
walls, were in desperate straits due to the plague that killed off many inhabitants “like
sheep”, as Thucydides writes. In 429 BCE, Pericles died a saddened man, having buried
even the son born to him by Aspasia; political life was then dominated by demagogues,
ruthless professionals who profited from the war. A year later, in 428 BCE, Mytilene
revolted and was punished harshly by the insecure Athenians; there is evidence of
threatening moves on the part of Delos as well. It is estimated that in 427/6 BCE the
victims of the plague numbered 30,000. Thucydides reports that the Athenians had
reached such a state of shamelessness that:
“neither fear of the gods nor the laws of men restrained them any longer,
because they believed that it was one and the same whether they
respected the divine or not, seeing that all were equally doomed; and as
for criminal behaviour, they did not expect to live until they were tried and
punished, believing that the doom which had been meted out to them and
was now hanging over their heads, was greater. Thus, before their doom
befell them, it seemed natural to try and enjoy life as best they could.”
In such an atmosphere of despair and insecurity they committed a heinous crime, the
“purification” of Delos, supposedly for reasons of piety. They opened up all the graves on
the island, even the most recent ones, and moved the bones and funerary offerings to
Rheneia, where everything was buried in a common pit. At the same time, they decided
that no one could be born or die on Delos; and that women close to delivery and the
seriously ill should be transferred to Rheneia. 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
intention of the Athenians, were left without a homeland. So when the Delians later
requested help from the Spartans, this fact enabled the latter, ever reluctant to venture far
from Sparta, to claim that Delos could not be their homeland as they themselves had
neither been born there, nor were their ancestors buried there.
We can imagine the despair and frustration of the Delians during those winter days,
helplessly watching the slaves of the Athenians opening the graves of their loved ones
and throwing the bones and funerary offerings onto boats in order to transport them
across the water and dump them into the common grave.
This pit, the “purification pit”, was discovered and excavated by Dem. Stavropoullos from
1898 to1900. The findings from the purification pit were hundreds of valuable vases of
exceptional quality, but there were no objects of precious metal, except for a few leaves
from gold wreaths. It seems that together with the purification, the graves were looted and
plundered. None of the other cities reacted to this terrible act, which today would cause an
international outcry, and none of the contemporary (Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes,
Xenophon, Plato etc.) or later writers referred to it.
Thucydides alone described the event in two sentences, without further commentary. A
few years later these same people condemned six of the ten victorious generals of the
naval battle of Arginouses to death because they showed disrespect for the dead and
failed to collect the bodies of shipwrecked victims for burial. This time the dead were their
own.
Immediately after the purification, and despite the fact that they were still at war, the
Athenians, out of remorse or fear, began the exceedingly costly task of constructing yet
another temple to Apollo, this time of white Pentelic marble, and established the Delia, or
Delian Games a festival in honour of Apollo.
This third temple, the Temple of the Athenians, was splendidly inaugurated during the
“theoria” or deputation to Delos, that was funded and led by the moderate ruler Nicias, in
417 BCE. This festival, in 417 BCE at Delos, was one of the last joys that Nicias took part
in.
Four years later, in October of 413 BCE, he was slaughtered by the Corinthians in Sicily
during the disastrous expedition on which the Athenians had embarked, led by the
handsome but ruthless Alcibiades and by their own boundless arrogance.
Describing the misfortunes that befell the Athenians, in one of the most powerful anti-war
texts in human history, Thucydides momentarily forgetting the strict objectivity of the
historian, comments that “of all contemporary Greeks, Nicias was the one who least
deserved such an end”.
Boreas, king of Thrace, abducts princess Oreithyia, daughter of Erechtheus of
Attica. Left and right two friends of Oreithyia flee in terror. Despite the heavy wear
– the work was exposed to the north winds of the Aegean for at least four
centuries – the youthful bodies of the girls gleam through their diaphanous
garments. The central acroterion on the west side depicts Eos (dawn) who
abducts the handsome Cephalus, another hero of the Athenians, son of Hermes
and Princess Erse, sister of Oreithyia. During a difficult period (425-420 BC), the
Athenians used these compositions to praise their own superiority and to publicise
their divine relatives and the beauty of the young people of Attica, in an effort to
justify and vindicate their overtly imperialist policy in the Aegean.
Three columns are all that have remained of a 2nd century BCE stoa,
marking the site of the temple of Artemis. Under the later temple of Artemis
a depository was found containing gold and ivory objects from the
Mycenean period (13th cent. BC).
The statue of Nicandra is the earliest, large-scale female statue dedicated
to Artemis. With its daring inscription, the statue speaks directly to the
viewer, leaving not the slightest doubt as to who dedicated it:
“Nicandra, distinguished amongst women, daughter of Deinodices of
Naxos, sister of Deinomenes and wife of Phraxus, dedicated me to her
whose arrows fly far.” Artemis, or Nicandra herself, is depicted clad in a
long dress that covers her flat body.
By the end of the 5th century BCE there were already some houses and
farms around the sanctuary. The town as seen today developed rapidly
after 167 BCE, when, as a result of the declaration of Delos as a “free
port”, all the commercial activity of the eastern Mediterranean was
congregated on the isle.
Rich merchants, bankers, and ship-owners from all over the world settled there, attracting
many builders, artists and craftsmen who build for them luxurious houses, richly decorated
with frescoes and mosaic floors. The small island became soon the maximum emporium
totius orbis terrarum - the greatest commercial centre of the whole world.
The Gods of Delos
As early as the 6th century BCE, Xenophanes of Colophon (580-484 BCE) points out that:
In this way it is noted that it is not God who creates mortals but, instead, man who creates
God “in his own image and likeness”. Heraclitus was similarly down-to-earth:
“This world, which is the same for all, no god nor man did create, but
always was and is and will be: ever-living fire, kindling in measures and
being quenched in measures.”
In the early 3rd century BCE, Euhemerus of Messene gave vent to the intense scepticism
that was in vogue in those troubled times, further undermining what little remained of
traditional faith.
In his work Iera Epigraphi (Sacred Inscription), Euhemerus claimed to have seen an
ancient inscription in a temple of Zeus referring to the origins and acts of the gods.
According to this inscription, Zeus was a man who had been a distinguished king and
conqueror, and when he died, his subjects, in gratitude, honoured him as a god.
The same was true for Apollo, Aphrodite and all the other gods: they were mortals who
had died centuries before and had been deified by the people. In reality, they had died as
all mortals do, and existed no more.
The gods who are worshipped in a place are a reflection of its inhabitants, revealing their
needs, concerns and hopes. This is even more manifest in the case of the Greek gods,
who were always very close to human nature. Homer and the tragic poets depict the gods
displaying their passions, while Aristophanes does not hesitate to bring them down onto
the stage, to share a joke and laugh with them. Xenophanes criticises Homer and Hesiod
for ascribing to the gods all human faults such as stealing, promiscuity and deceit.
With the transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society, female deities were
relegated to a position of secondary importance. Hera became the wife of Zeus; and on
Delos, Leto and Artemis simply became the mother and sister of Apollo. Uranus, Cronus
and later Zeus swallowed the children of female deities in an attempt to replace them,
even in reproducing life.
Gaea reacts by castrating Uranus; her daughters would later do the same. This could be
considered a kind of matriarchal original sin, and ever since then castration (whether real,
psychological or symbolic) has been men’s eternal, unutterable fear, since the
quintessence of masculinity is condensed in the phallus.
It was the primeval god Phobus (Fear), generator and moving force of all, as well as the
need to name things, that recast traumatic human memories into charming myths and
hymns to the omnipotence of the gods. These gods, at least in historic times, were
fashioned in such a way as to be held up as models, protectors and supporters of every
governing authority seeking to prevail over furious revolutionary movements.
The Olympian gods were the omnipotent gods of Order and Civilisation who always
defeated anarchy and challenges to the status quo. Among the violent, uncivilised and
anarchist beings in mythology who sometimes threatened the heavenly or earthly ruling
class were the Cyclops, Hecatoncheires, Titans, Giants, Centaurs, and the surrounding
“barbarian peoples”; there, too, were women such as the Amazons, Danaïds and the
women of Lemnos, up to and including Antigone and Clytemnestra.
By threatening the Order instituted by male rule through similar acts of revolution and
murder, all of these committed hubris and were fiercely punished for it by Nemesis, who,
although a woman, was directed by a man, Zeus.
Apollo, the pre-eminent advocate and supporter of patriarchy, appeared to rule the island
up to the end, promoting the ideals and values that served the city-state and the
aristocracy, but that were especially harsh on the common people.
By counting how often each god is referred to or depicted in Hellenistic Delos, we can see
who were the most popular and thereby gain insight into the preferences, needs, worries,
fears and generally the psychology of the inhabitants of Delos during the late Hellenistic
period.
The most popular of the gods in this table, is loving Aphrodite, goddess of “utmost
sensuality”. Aphrodite, the embodiment of the joy of life, was the most popular divinity on
Hellenistic Delos, much more popular than Apollo or Artemis.
She is the goddess who enjoys disturbing the calm waters of virtue, by illuminating and
revealing the innermost secrets of the human soul, the deepest passions of the body. The
first and only goddess who accepts man as a whole, both body and soul, and who loves
and blesses both equally with her presence.
Up to the Roman period, Pan, the Satyrs and the Centaurs had no females in their
world.
For this reason they would attack mortal woman and boys, maenad nymphs and
goddesses, thus realising the male erotic fantasies.
In this group dedicated by Dionysius son of Zenon of Berytus to his “ancestral gods”
ithyphallic Pan has surprised Aphrodite at her bath.
A flying Eros tries to push him away, the Goddess is ready to hit him with her sandal,
but both are smiling. (Attributed ca.150-125 BCE).
Eros was worshiped by the youths of the Gymnasium, but does not have his own
sanctuary. On the statuettes and seals of Delos he appears in the form in which he
was known in the Hellenistic period: a winged boy equipped with a quiver and
arrows, clever, mischievous and cruel, who torments gods and humans alike.
The activities of Eros (Cupid) are depicted on hundreds of seals found in the House of
Seals. Eros appears with musical instruments or theatrical masks; he sets up
victory monuments, torments Heracles, and battles Anteros.
Most representations show the sufferings of Psyche allegorically, in which she is depicted
either as a young maiden or as a nymph-butterfly.
Eros was worshiped by the youths of the Gymnasium, but does not have had his own
sanctuary. On the statuettes and seals of Delos he appears in the form in which he was
known in the Hellenistic period; a winged boy equipped with a quiver and arrows – clever,
mischievous and cruel, who torments gods and humans alike. The activities of Eros
(Cupid) are depicted on hundreds of seals found in the House of Seals. Eros appears
with musical instruments or theatrical masks; he sets up victory monuments, torments
Heracles, and battles Anteros. Most representations show the sufferings of Psyche
allegorically, in which she is depicted either as a young maiden or as a nymph-butterfly.
Eros follows her, pursues her, tries to tempt her, captures her, embraces her and kisses
her; he guides and masters her, or torments her, blows hot and cold, hits, stabs and
slowly roasts her.
Heracles, as can be seen from the above table, comes second although with a significant
“gap” between Aphrodite and Heracles – indeed the difference represents a popularity of
only 10.5%. By always obeying the wishes of Zeus, Heracles lived a difficult life full of toil
and troubles, but gained immortality. The qualities that Heracles personified in part paved
the way for some of the concepts of the Christian religion, especially the idea of a reward
in heaven.
Dionysus and his merry band show the Delians’ love for entertainment, while the
strong presence of Isis reveals the need for solace and hope. Apollo, “the far shooter,
the silver-bowed, long-tressed, goldenhaired” had already fallen to ninth place
(with a percentage of only 2.1%) as he was somehow too perfect, cold and cerebral and
could no longer reassure people or assuage their fears.
The fact that the majority of gods were female (59.3%) and that Artemis was in fourth
place shows that the social position of women had improved. This is further borne out by
dedicatory inscription.
The ancient Greeks were never imbued with the fanaticism or intolerance towards other
religions that came with the later and monotheistic religions. They were always willing to
accept that the neighbour’s god was also a god, perhaps even one of their own under a
different name, “just as the sun and the moon and the heavens and the earth and the sea
are common to all, but are called by different names by different peoples.”
Apollo, after some initial misgivings, was forced to share his native land with Sarapis, Isis,
Harpocrates and Anubis, with the God of Israel and the gods of the Arab nations, with
Atargatis and Hadad, with the gods of Ascalon and Iamnia and all the other gods who
accompanied the new inhabitants.
The temple of Isis
The temple of Isis was built in the 2nd century BCE and was repaired in about 135 BCE by
the Athenians. At the foot of the cult statue, at a votive offering by the Athenians in 128/7
BCE, people still leave flowers and other offerings. In front of the temple, the high altar of
the goddess can still be seen in good condition.
Plutarch and Diodorus attribute Hellenic origin to Isis, regarding her as the daughter of
Cronus and Rhea and this statue depicts her as altogether Hellenised. The Egyptian
goddess Isis was introduced into the Hellenic pantheon as early as the 4th century BCE,
but her cult was disseminated mainly after Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great
and the Kingdom of the Ptolemies was established. Alexander himself, when planning
Alexandria, designated the site on which the temples of the Hellenic gods were to be built
as well as that of the Egyptian goddess Isis, who by about the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE had
been Hellenised and was depicted in the type of the other Greek goddesses.
Her multicoloured garments symbolised light and darkness, fire and water, life and death,
beginning and end. In one hand she held the sistrum with which she regulated the ebb
and flood tides of the Nile, and in the other a cornucopia, symbol of fertility. After the
Alexandrine years, Isis was worshiped as a maritime deity, inventor of the sail, patron
divinity of seafarers, “Mistress of the Winds”, “Mistress of Navigation”, according to hymns
from Kyme and Andros. Her cult lasted until the 6th century AD, and even today, as one
can see on the Internet, the goddess still has a priestess and thousands of devotees.
Isis was particularly popular in the Hellenistic period because she was a compassionate
goddess, affectionate as a mother, the “refuge of the grief-stricken”, in whom everybody
found comfort for their earthly tribulations and hope for life after death:
Athena, patron goddess of Athens, despite the efforts of the Athenians, was never
particularly popular on Delos.
Apollo’s dominion, undisputed in archaic and classical times, was visibly shaken in the
Hellenistic period when, following the conquests of Alexander the Great, the narrow but secure
boundaries of cities were abolished, long voyages became possible for many more people, human
horizons were broadened, and standards, values and ideals were subject to change.
The impersonal superego of the city that demanded uniform behaviour from everybody and
fanatically persecuted anyone who stood out, whether for good or bad, began to give way to the
ideals of individual success and happiness and people felt freer to follow the desires of their
hearts and their passions.
The gods who corresponded most to the demands of those times were Aphrodite, Dionysus, Heracles
and the Eastern gods who came to Delos with the new inhabitants and soon acquired splendid
sanctuaries.
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