******* WARNING LONG POST FULL OF HISTORY, MYTHOLOGY, AND CAT PHOTOS*******
Bright and early, we awakened to yet another Greek island coast in the view of our porthole; once again, we’d be tendered to shore shortly after sunlight. This meant another alarm clock going off at dawn and another ho-hum, grab-n-go breakfast before trekking the length of the ship to the theater astern. I’m not complaining. I was in Greece for Pete’s sake- a place I may be lucky enough to only get to once in my lifetime.
Both of us, Mikki and myself, were very anxious for this day of excursions, which would ultimately hit, some old, some VERY old, and some new but timeless places. Mom and Dad chose to stay behind and enjoy the ship. Everyone vacations differently and in the end, after the day of touring, I’m glad they did. This was one of our more strenuous days that would have been harder for them. Plus, Mom gets seasick pretty easily so…
Our group was finally called and off we were herded to the little tender boat. A quick ride got us to “The Old Harbor” of Mykonos Town where smaller touring boats and high-end yachts, as well as the Grecian Coast Guard, dock. From there, we boarded onto another larger boat that held maybe 50-70 people. It was… It… It had seen better days. “Stuff” was piled up everywhere. There was an old, dilapidated vending machine with nothing in it in one corner and old paint cans, brushes caked with crusty paint, and tarps were piled in another.
Okay it was frightening.
Nevertheless, we took our seats and said a little prayer.
The crossing to the island of Delos took about 40 minutes on fairly smooth-ish seas and everyone was happy to disembark and begin the tour.
Delos: A mostly uninhabited island with some fabulous (but not Ephesus fabulous) ruins and more cats than crooked politicians. Notice I said “mostly uninhabited”. While the Ancients have long since gone, there is a small contingent of caretakers and archeologists who live on Delos year-round who do some ongoing archeology projects as funding comes in, run the museum, and who apparently breed enough cats to supply the planet. I do wonder if the ongoing archeology projects are secretly funded by the Delos Island Kitty Black Market.
Now, for a brief history, although our AMAZING, and perhaps BEST guide of our entire Greece stay, did a REALLY fantastic job at giving us a ton of history about the island and its long litany of cultures who occupied it. I’m going to copy and paste because I’m both lazy and very busy at the time of this (original) writing. Yes, one can be both simultaneously. (Of note: at the time I wrote this in 2022, I was in the middle of Nurse Practitioner School, and life was on fire.)
The Greek mythological history is incredibly important to this island. Taken from this website, https://greekreporter.com/2022/06/1…ere-greek-myths-cults-and-history-come-alive/ , “The island, referred to as “the sacred island of Delos,” is where, as Greek mythology tells it, Leto gave birth to Zeus’ twins Artemis and Apollo.
Mythology has it that because of Hera’s jealousy of Zeus and Leto, she ordered all lands to shun Leto, making it difficult for her to find a place to give birth.
However, Zeus asked Poseidon to find a secret, safe place for Leto to give birth. She ended up on the island of Delos, and, since the island is not connected to the land, she was able to safely give birth to her twins, Artemis and Apollo.
From that moment onward, the small, rocky island was declared by Callimachus—in the third century BC—to be “the most sacred of all islands” of Ancient Greece and was devoted to Apollo. It was said to be “bathed in the unique light” of Zeus’ son.” But even before this story: “Delos had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. From its Sacred Harbour, the horizon shows the three conical mounds that have identified landscapes sacred to a goddess (it is predicted that the deity’s name is Athena) – in other sites: one, retaining its Pre-Greek name Mount Cynthus, is crowned with a sanctuary of Zeus.” (from Wiki)
For reference, Apollo was the god of practically everything – including but not limited to music, poetry, art, prophecy, truth, archery, plague, healing, sun and light. Artemis was the goddess of chastity, hunting, and the moon, often depicted with her trusty bow and arrow and a short tunic to aid in running through the woods. Her maidenly virtue—for she swore never to marry—was presented in counterpoint to the passionate and fiery Aphrodite. Not surprisingly, both missions to the moon are named after these two.
Historically, Delos has a very tumultuous past with the original occupants being displaced a multitude of times and the “collective” coffers being pilfered by Athenians on numerous occasions. My friends, there is nothing new under the sun. Their reason for removing the treasury? “For its safety and the safety of the residents.” Oddly, I’ve heard that before, even recently. History… seems to repeat itself ad nauseum.
It was sunny and slightly chilly during out 2-hour tour of the various areas of Delos. We started in the main residential area where there was a mixture of what would have been very small, ordinary homes and elaborate palaces (relatively speaking) for the wealthier islanders. For the most part, all that was left were the walls and some steps, but a few boasted some exquisite mosaic floors. You could see in some of the walls built in “shelves” for lights and other things. Our guide skillfully explained how the homes would have looked while people lived in them with frescoed, plaster decorating the interior walls, the mosaics serving as “carpets” in the centers of the room with the sparse furniture, often stone “couches”, arranged against the walls. Here is an EXCELLENT resource explaining ancient Greek residential architecture in case you’re interested. The coolest part is that when I read through this page, it has a photo of the EXACT same mosaic in Delos that I took!!! Maybe I missed my calling as a travel writer… (HA!!! And here I am!) https://www.oldest.org/ancient/greek-homes/
The best preserved, and possibly most well-known of the residences on Delos, is the House of Dionysus. Its namesake comes from the lavish stone mosaic picturing the god Dionysus riding a panther/leopard. It’s still mostly intact and the shape of the cat can still be made out. (Clearly, cats have been a thing on Delos for thousands and thousands of years.) This is an example of one of the upper class, private homes from the 2nd C. The columns surrounding the mosaic tell us that it was a 2-story home with the columns supporting the upper floor.
After our tour of the residential area, our group made its way to the remains of the stadium which has enough structure intact to offer the visitor a very nice idea of what it looked like during its use. To quote from https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2012/03/19/ancient-theatre-of-delos-to-be-restored/ , “The ancient theatre of Delos was one of a few ancient Greek theatres completely built in marble. It had a capacity of 6.500 people. Its construction started around 314 BC and ended around 70 years later, in 250 BC. It was abandoned in 88 BC, after the Mithridates plundered the island. Here our fabulous tour guide took a few moments to share a bit about the hugely, even today, importance of theater and drama in Greek culture. The most thought provoking thing I remember her saying was, “Greeks used theater and drama to teach morals and ethics to its citizens; it was meant to promote debate and discussion and was often interactive using question and answer format.” In fact, she told us, attendance of the theater was a required activity regularly, and every year there was an entire week dedicated to mandatory theater attendance which was performed by traveling philosophers and teachers. Of note, ALL parts were played ONLY by men, but all citizens came to watch- men, women, and especially children.
She went on to explain that the word “idiot” originally in Greek conferred insult to a person who had the right to vote but did not exercise it. She shared that the theater was used as a tool and gathering place to educate citizens in HOW to be a productive, prepared, PARTICIPATORY person in the democratic process by learning debate and hearing all sides and drawing conclusions. She says the word still means something very close in modern Greek and is still used as an insult as it was then. Something to ponder…. I myself appreciated her bringing some contemporary relevance to this very ancient place.
Next, we were led to the area called The Sacred Way. Here’s the skinny: This vast portico, originally lined with dozens of enormous columns, was the site of a giant statuary pissing war. Each year, during the festival venerating Apollo, whose temple was just beyond this wide, marbled walkway, brought in citizens from all over Greece and especially the nearby Cyclades Islands wanting to make a name for themselves. I found it an incredibly insincere form of worship, if one could even call it that, unless we’re meaning worship of oneself. Let me explain: When they came from across the sea, they came with elaborate marble statues of various gods, but especially Apollo or Artemis. But even more shocking, a fair amount of them were likenesses of themselves! They would adorn the statues with expensive jewelry and make it as ostentatious as possible and then for a week or more straight either the patron or designated family representatives would get all decked out and sit next to their “offering” (which was prominently signed of course) and brag about how big and costly their gift was. Everyone knew it was a competition to see who would bring what each year, and status was assigned accordingly. Is this sounding familiar? I’ll keep saying it, humans have evolved not one iota (hey, look at me using Greek words!); it may be done in different places and have different forms but the basic premise of pride hasn’t gone anywhere. Anyway, the cats have been very busy in this section of the island for millennia knocking all of the statues off their pedestals when the caretakers weren’t looking. With very little “work” left to do, now they just lay in the sun guarding their kitty kibble dishes that are strewn about the island.
There is not much left of the actual Temple of Apollo nor his gigantor statue; that was pilfered in the mid-1800’s by French archeologists whose idea of archeology was rob and dismantle. Our guide said she always gets a chuckle out of the fact that they got a sizable chunk all the way to the harbor only to discover there was zero way they could get it onto a boat or transport it without sinking any vessels they had. So that piece was abandoned there. However, a hand is in the local island museum, of which unfortunately we did not get to see, and a foot is in the British museum of Natural History. Only the pelvis and torso remain in its original place. There is even less remaining of the temple of Artemis. However on a distant hillside far from these, is yet another, and even older temple they believe was dedicated to Athena, erected long before the Romans took control of the little, remote island of Delos.
Lastly, we finally got to see the area that Delos is most famous for: The Terrace of the Lions. “The Terrace of the Lions, also was dedicated to Apollo by the people of Naxos 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 the Venetian Arsenal. The lions create a monumental avenue comparable to Egyptian avenues of sphinxes. (A Greek sphinx is in the Delos Museum.) Today, only seven of the original lions remain.” (Wiki) Obviously, these statues really don’t look like lions, but our guide did speak to that, explaining that art was still quite primitive in 600 BC and that was likely the best they could do with the tools and experience they had at the time. Added to the damage time has inflicted, they are affectionately known locally as the Melting Lions of Delos. Anara and I were able to see the lion that was taken to the Venetian Arsenal much later in our trip, although I’m not sure I actually got a photo of it.
As we headed back to the dock area, our guide stopped briefly to share a couple more interesting facts. This super cool inscribed rock, maybe 5 feet square, featured some not-so-ancient graffiti of some familiar names of visitors. Ever hear of James A. Cook? Here’s his mark left behind. Other explorers from the 18th and 19th centuries also visited leaving an inscription. She left us with the staggering statistic that only 30% of Delos has been excavated and as funding can be secured they will continue to explore what the Ancients left behind. As vast as the island is and to know that so little has been unburied is quite staggering- what treasures there must be yet to be found!
With that it was time to begin our sailing back to the island of Mykonos for the remainder of our tour. Same boat, same prayers. By the time we arrived, many in our party probably wished they’d prayed a little more. The day had grown progressively windier, and the seas were now dancing with whitecaps. While it certainly made for a lovely photo backdrop, it didn’t bode well for our voyage. We cast off and once clear of the little, sheltered harbor things got dicey. At first it was sort of fun. You know… we’re all on an adventure. But our adventure quickly turned into a living, hellish, nightmare.
Old women were literally screaming as we heaved up the 20-foot swells and crested over the tops. It was like riding Velocicoaster, but 1,000 times more terrifying. Within 10 minutes of the hour-long ordeal, you could literally see far too many folks turning green, sweating, and trying to hold in their bio-spills. Frantically people were trying in desperation to locate plastic bags and too late for at least one, the crew came around with some trash bags. Our little ship was now a vomitorium. The lady directly behind Mik and me was having a legit panic attack, hyperventilating, moaning, and half passing out. A lady across from us had some orange-ginger essential oils that she started offering drops of. I can attest that it actually does work. Those who accepted it were incredibly thankful and said they did feel a little better. (We use those in the recovery room fairly often and yes, studies and experience do show that they can work.) Personally, while I didn’t scream, I did note where the life jackets were and had a plan. When you see 20-foot walls of water, taller than the ship coming straight at you, that you cannot see the top of, hit the crest, then see them crashing against the window beside you, feel the freefall straight down on the other side… over and over, over for an hour…. you just want it to be over. It was all I could to keep things from spilling out the other end. You think I exaggerate. It was 100% not safe and I wondered if the crew were regretting that crossing.
Not soon enough to prevent a thorough desecration of the ship, we finally arrived at the Mykonos docks and too many of us stumbled out wondering if we could even do the remainder of the day. One poor Spanish guy could literally hardly walk at all, despite the Scopolamine patch and ginger candies. I felt so bad for him. I think he ended up sitting somewhere in Mykonos Town while the rest of us did the walking tour. I also think we lost a bunch more who chose to simply return to the ship. With that I’ll sign off until next time and your next chapter of Always an Adventure with Liesa.