Ancient Greece – Delos island – The Sanctuary of Apollo

The visitor takes just half an hour by boat from Mykonos to arrive at the same harbor that visitors used in ancient times, and on disembarking he immediately crosses the Agora of the Competaliasts and Poros Greece Hotels, which is located directly in front of him. This is a large square, which housed one of the island’s markets. An association of Italians who worshiped Hermes (Hermaists) founded it in 166, but approximately 60 years later, circa 100, the Competaliasts, an association of Italian slaves and freedmen who celebrated annually the festivals of the Lares Compitales (Roman gods of the crossroads), appeared and used the same square for their activities. On its east and south sides there were a variety of shops, while most commercial trade took place out in the open. The holes in the flagstones are remaining evidence of the wooden pegs driven into the ground to support the awnings for those merchants without a permanent pitch. In the center of the square there are two monuments, a rectangular one that faces south that was dedicated to Hermes and his mother Maia, and a circular one with a conical marble roof, which faces north. On the north side of the square are the ruins of a small Ionic shrine to Hermes, in front of which there is a marble offertory box for the offerings of the devotees. Relief snakes guarded the treasure and traces of a bronze caduceus, the symbol of the god, can be seen on it. There were also several statues in the square, altars decorated with garlands and bullheads and a beautiful marble bench.

On turning left at the northeast side of the square, we follow an impressive paved wide road, which leads to the Propylaea of the sanctuary. On its west side, to the left of the visitor, once stood the Stoa of Philip (3), made of gray-blue marble with sixteen Doric columns, built around the year 210. On its architrave, which today can be seen lying on the ground, we can read the votive inscription of Philip V of Macedon: “KING OF THE MACEDONIANS, PHILIP, SON OF KING DEMETRIOS, TO APOLLO”. Later, roundabout the year 180, directly behind the Stoa of Philip and on the side facing the harbor, another stoa was added and both buildings acquired a common roof. This new stoa housed the port authorities, perhaps also the customs office, and certainly warehouses for the storage of timber and charcoal according to an inscription found there. On the east side of the street, and to the right of the visitor, there used to be another stoa conventionally known as the South Stoa, dating from the middle of the third century, probably founded by Attalus I, King of Pergamon. This stoa housed a number of shops, while a passage with steps through its center led to the Agora of the Delians. This agora (“market place”) was also called “Square Market” owing to its trapezoidal shape. There were two additional entrances on the south side and porticos on its south, east and north sides. The portico on the northeast side had a upper floor, which housed the Agoranomoi (“market inspectors”). Halfway along the north side there is a fine gray-blue marble bench with a dedication by the People of Delos. In the Imperial period Roman baths were installed in the middle of the agora, of which only the foundations remain today.

The large central walkway which led up to the sanctuary was lined with a great number of votive statues and also provided handsome marble benches for the pilgrims, of which the best preserved is to be found at the end of the way to the right. The Doric PropyIaea was the main entrance to the sanctuary of Apollo, and was built by the Athenians in the middle of the 2nd century, over an earlier propylon (“entrance gate”) of the fifth century. The gray-blue marble steps have been well worn by the innumerable feet which passed this way in the distant past. In front of the propylaea there is a replica of a Herm. This kind of monument, with a head of Hermes and a phallus below it found in abundance on Delos, was to protect against evil powers.

The building found after passing through the once imposing Propylaea immediately on the right is the oikos of the Naxians, a very interesting building of Naxian marble. It went through three different phases of construction and each time its entrance faced a different direction. What we see today is the third phase and must have been completed around the year 550, when an entrance porch of four Ionic columns was added in front of the east entrance. Inside there was a row of eight slender marble columns supporting the roof; they stood on cylindrical bases, which in turn rested on marble discs of approximately one meter in diameter. They must have reached a height of 4,5 meters. The thresholds, lintels and pilasters, floor, and roof were all of marble. It is the first building in the history of architecture with a roof built entirely of marble, a major achievement for that period which proves the talent of Naxian craftsmen. On its west entrance it had two columns in antis, while about halfway along the north side can be seen the marble threshold of the entrance of its first phase of construction (7th century). This was probably the first temple of Apollo, the one mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, but later, possibly in the fourth century, it was relegated to an oikos, in other words to a building which constituted part of the sanctuary, without being in itself a place of worship. In such places were stored the votive offerings to the deity and devotional assemblies and meals took place during religious rituals.