This morning we headed off by ferry to see Delos (note that the pronunciation in Greek more closely approximates “THEE-lose”). Coming from Naxos, it appears that the only way to visit Delos is to take an 8:45 AM ferry that stops off in Paros, then heads to Delos where the tourist has a three hour window, then to Mykonos, where there is another three-hour window), then back to Paros for a passenger drop and pick-up, and finally back to Naxos at about 6 PM – a full day of touring. We had a quick breakfast in our apartment, then walked down to the waterfront to catch our ferry.
Our first stop, after a half-hour on the water, was Paros town
where a few passengers got off, appearing to be dressed for a day at the beach, and a goodly number of passengers boarded, apparently bound for Delos
This church on the end of a spit of land looked as if it might be an interesting destination had we been on Paros – with the benefit of a car!
An hour later, we approached the rather barren-looking island of Delos
and we left ashore with the strict warning that we were to be back on board by 1:15 PM – not a second later, because we leave at 1:15 and not at 1:16!
Both the travel agent at Zas travel, who had sold us the ferry tickets, and the trust guidebook that was using as my main guide to ruins beyond Athens and Delphi, Ancient Greece: An Explorers’ Guide, strongly recommended attaching ourselves to an English-speaking guide to help us understand the island better. The site, we were told, was poorly signed. And besides, said the travel agent, the guide can get you into the site without waiting in a long ticket line. But although we had been led by this comment to expect to find a passel of guides trying to hawk their services outside the entrance gate, none appeared as we approach the ticket window, and the ticket line was nice and short. So, we bought our tickets and went in, hoping to find a guide inside. We saw several small groups with guides.
Yet each of the guides we approach told us curtly that she (most of the guides were women) had a pre-existing arrangement with the small group to which she was talking (and with whom, apparently, they had traveled to Delos on either our own ferry or one that had arrived at almost the same time), and no, we could not join them. So, after maybe 15 to 20 minutes of this, we gave up on finding a guide and did a self-guided tour.
And in the end, this was probably a good choice. The map provided with our tickets not only had a fair amount of detail identifying a hundred separate items, but has three separate walking routes suggested , for walks of 90 minutes, 3 hours and five hours, respectively. In addition, the signage along the way was not bad - better than at Knossos, for example. And using the map, and the signs, along with walking guides copies from the Rough Guide, Fodor’s and the Explorers Guide, we felt that we were able to see and understand the place pretty well, and we were able to move at our own pace. My guess is that we saw a good deal more than any of the tourists who were seeing the site with a guide.
One thing that I was intent on finding was a spot called the Cave Shrine of Herakles. The Explorers Guide almost challenged readers to find the place, saying that it is rarely visited and that it is hard to spot the location from anyplace except when you first arrive, we you have to look for a certain feature on the slopes of Mt. Kythnos. Had we found a guide, my first question was going to be whether she would have the shrine on HER tour. In the end, we did not gave a guide, and we could not discern its location from the spot where the Explorers’ Guide said we should look. It was, however, pinpointed on the map we got with our tickets. So, we were going to have to hope to find it on our own!
One thing we noticed soon after entering was a somewhat incongruous human statute looking as it is had been made out of a rusty brown metal. It turned out that in additiom to hosting the ruins, Delos was also hosting a modern art exhibit whose concept was to show humanoid forms scattered about the site, mostly standing, but some sitting or lying down, symbolizing the ancient Greeks and others who would have been visiting this site to worship their various gods.. It struck us, irreligious though both of us are, as a modern desecration of the site. I took no photos of these forms and resented them every time I spied one.
We began by passing through the Agora of the Competialists, a location for Roman merchants who worshiped Lares Competales, the guardian spirits of the crossroads (where business could be done). The rounded and square structures in the photo above, shown more closely below, marked the locations where they would make offerings to Hermes, the guardian of crossroads and protector of merchants
Then we walked along the Sacred Way, which was lined with statutes and monuments placed by rival kings and city-states
The early 3d century Stoa of Philip V (of Macedonia) was on one side
Then on to the propyleia, the monumental gateway to the ancient site
and the 6th century Oikos of the Naxians, which was supposed to “link” the families of Naxos with the family of Apollo
The Colossus of the Naxians (now destroyed) was mounted here
Next were three Temples to Apollo: Delian, Athenian and Porinos
In the background above is the Museum of the site, which we would visit later
This was the base for a statute of Philetaerus, a leader in Alexander the Great’s army and ruler of Pergamom during the third century BC
This Granite Monument was built by merchants from Rome as that empire began to impose itslef on the region
beside it is the Agora of the Italians, where Roman merchants would gather to do their business
Opposite the Granite Monument, and standing in front of the Agora of the Italians, is the Letoon, a temple to Leto, mother of the twins Artemis and Apollo
Next to that is the Sacred Lake, (filled in about 100 years ago to help contain a malaria epidemic)
Inside the lake is a palm tree representing the palm to which Leto clung during her labor pains
We passed by the lake to examine various buildings beyond it, but first we paused to look at the site of the Naxian Lions, placed there near the end of the 7th Century BC by the people of Naxos to demonstrate their potency to all pilgrims arriving at Delos at its northern port
we would later see the originals inside the museum
then we were on to a series of houses and other buildings that were erected near the Sacred Lake, during the Roman era, during the second century BC, as Delos became a center of worship for members of the empire from both Italy and elsewhere in the region
including the Lake House
the House of the Diadoumenos
as well as two market areas in that vicinity
one called “the Lake Palaestrea”
These four columns were part of a building erected by the “Poseidoniasts” from Beirut
Finally we were ready to take a break from the heat by visiting the museum, where many of the treasures from the site were stored indoors and hence protected from the elements
It was an extensive museum, featuring a number of mosaics and frescoes from the various houses that we had seen (or had yet to see), in various states of disrepair or restoration
There was a special exhibit, labeled exclusively in French, for this mosaic from the House of Dionysus
There was a collection of ceramics and smaller statuary
as well as this striking relief, apparently symbolizing Dionysus
as well as vases
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| Statue of Cybele from the House of Dionysus |
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| Statute of Apollo trampling on a Gaul's shield |
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| Equestrian statue of a Roman general from the Agora of the Italians |
These statues of Artemis and a muse were from the Theatre Quarter (which we had yet to visit)
And busts,
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| Bust of a Roman from House of the Lake |
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| Bust of a Syrian, or elsewhere from the eastern side of the Empire |
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| Bust of an aged woman |
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| Head of a Gaul |
including a berm of Hermes from the Agora of the Competialists
These are the original Naxian Lions
and some funeral steles. I was interested to note that one of these did not have the customary pose of the deceased in sitting position
Finally we were ready for the final part of the walk: noticing the Theatre Quarter to the right,
we headed for Mt. Kythnos hoping to locate the Cave Shrine of Herakles
As we passed by we glanced at a Temple to the Egyptian Gods Anubis, Serapis and Isis
and a Temple to Hera
Using both the map provided at out entry, as well as looking carefully at the steps and path leading up the hill, hoping to suss out the location of the cave shrine
Nancy spotted what looked like a trodden path, and sure enough, it led us to the cave shrine of Herakles
One of those gol-durned rusty sculptures was even inside the shrine (not a human figure, but something more abstract). Like the others, I chose not to photograph them – get thee gone!
Now that we knew what to look for, we could see that the shrine was visible from below
I would have liked to hike up to the top of Mt Kythnos to enjoy a commanding view of the Delos site and, I understand, a view of the ring of the Cyclades encircling the island, but it was getting late, and the boat was going to be leaving in about 45 minutes. We put a priority on getting downhill to the boat and seeing what we could while passing through the Theatre Quarter and the many buildings surrounding it on the way
Two luxurious (and well-excavated) private houses in that area were the House of the Dolphins
and the House of the Masks
where these mosaic floors were lurking in the recesses
This Xenon or hotel
sat beside the theatre itself, whose construction spanned the late fourth century and first half of the third century BC. It held some 6500 spectators
On the way to the boat, we passed other houses such as the House of the Trident,
the House of Cleopatra
with the two headless statues of its owners,
and the House of the Dionysus (from which that mosaic on special exhibit in the museum had been taken).
Finally, we headed to the boat. Given another hour, I felt that we could have lingered over a few placed where we had rushed by, and we could have headed further up to the margins of the left-hand side of the site, seeing the gymnasium quarter and nearby temples (including a synagogue). I would rather have had more time to to that rather than being forced to spend more than three hours on Mykonos. But still, three hours was ALMOST enough time for a full visit to Delos. As I understand it, to get more time you have to be able to take a first-in-the-morning ferry from Mykonos and then the last-in-the-afternoon ferry back to Mykonos. But overall, I was pleased to have chosen Naxos as our base in the Cyclades.
Looking back from aboard the boat, there was the Cave Shrine of Herakles, as plain as day
But so far as we could tell, we were the only ones on our boat who had actually been inside it
A half hour on the water brought us to Mykonos;
our time there was an anticlimax considering what we had seen in Delos. We somewhat panicked about grabbing lunch, pausing at the seafood place Salparo; I should have known that it would be a mistake, despite the friendly review in a guidebook, considering that it was right along the walk from the ferry pier to old town. I had rocket salad and grilled sea bass; they were just OK, not as good as what we had been eating on Naxos, and the prices were 50% more expensive than Naxos.
The travel agent at Zas had suggested that we go to Nikos for good food; the travel book excerpts I was carrying suggested that the place would be jammed and the service slow, but when we saw Nikos wandering in the old town, it was nearly empty: we should have taken that advice!
Some of the museums in Mykonos sounded interesting, but Nancy felt was museumed out, so after eating we spent about two hours wandering the shopping streets rather aimlesslessly; narrow streets comparable to Naxos, but without the thrill of a Kastro at the tip of the hill.
Part of the shopping area is known as “Little Venice” because their ground floors go right down toward the surface of the rising seas
and at the exteriors of some small churches,
as well as inside somewhat bigger ones
Then we were back on the boat, stopping at Paros to pick up the beachgoers whom the boat had left off that morning, and a bit before 7 we were back in Naxos
We met up with the rest of the family for dinner at Meze2, where again we had their delicious fish salad, and other dishes we had been eating around the island: saganaki, Naxian potato salad, stuffed squid,
and rocket salad. The one new dish was something that I had seen on menus but avoided: gouna, or dried mackerel. It was pretty darn good! The after dinner treat was, again as at our lunch there, yoghurt with a carrot marmalade, but there was something extra: raki with honey and cinnamon. and that was truly delicious (I decided to figure out how to make that). We headed home for sleep, knowing that the next day we would be heading back to Athens
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