Delos & Mykonos

Early this morning the sound of Panorama dropping anchor woke us, and by the time we finished our breakfast there we were. Just between Delos Island and Rhinia Island in the center of the Cyclades. The tender took us ashore to explore Delos and its ruins.

Everybody knows that Kelos is uninhabited today, but the big number of visitors gives us an idea of the island’s heydays. Today we were very lucky. The weather was perfect and the island was empty; we practically had a private tour of the site.

Our stroll through the site started from the Koman agora of competalists, Phillips V stoa – a descendant of Alexander the Great and the temples of Apollo. Mythology has it that Leto, in her effort o escape from Hera’s rage, found shelter on Delos and, by the sacred lake and the protection of the goddess of childbirth, she gave birth to Apollo and twin sister Artemis. Ever since then the old name of Adelos (invisible) island turned in Delos (revealed), and a strong religious center was established here. Many temples were erected to accommodate the needs of the thousands of pilgrims that got here in order to pay their respect to Apollo.

As it became more popular, the wealth, prosperity and the population increased, reaching the number of 30,000 inhabitants. Numerous votive offerings were standing at the sacred area, but the biggest was the Colossus of Kouros of Naxos! We were impressed by the Lions terrace guarding the sanctuary and the sacred lake.

On our way to the museum, our naturalist, Linda, gave us a small lecture about the flora of the island by showing to us how a “spitting cucumber” reacts when it comes into contact with our hands…guess how?

We continued our walk towards the residential area admiring the wealth of the merchants and shopkeepers. Luxury for them was a way of living since they stepped on expensive mosaic floors and the best artists were hired to decorate their walls. The most impressive of all? “Dionysus villa,” a 4th Century private mansion. The hour ended at the theatre district. We recalled all the ancient Greek playwrights such as Aischylus, Sofokles and Euripides as well as the greatest comedian of all ages, Aristophanes, that amuses us still to this day.

Noon found us enjoying lunch and after that we had a refreshing afternoon swim near Rhinia where we had repositioned our boat. An introduction to the Cycladic civilization followed where we tried to squeeze in centuries of history in 30 minutes and make it more comprehensible how the prehistoric people managed to create such memorable civilizations.

Mykonos in the afternoon was a big treat as we got there before the crowds invaded the island, not unlike how the pirates invaded the island in medieval times. To our surprise no matter how busy the island of the wind is there is always enough space for all of us to walk, but it might just have more jewelry than I can afford!

By sunset we returned to our “floating home” to rest after a long but educational day. A very interesting video, “The Sinking Atlantis” prepared us for our upcoming adventure on Santorini.

We fell asleep with our eyes full of images and dreaming of our new destination.