This morning we sailed to the small island of Delos, situated in the center of the Cycladic Islands. We took the tender over to the island first thing in the morning in order to avoid the big crowds that visit midday!
Delos was the birthplace of Apollo—the god of music, prophesy, harmony, and light, and Artemis—the goddess of hunting.
We walked through the religious center where the temple of Apollo had been built and reached the most sacred area of Delos where the lions stand. They were a votive offering of nearby Naxos Island. One of these was taken by the Venetians and was used like the emblem of the Venetian empire with the adding of the wings!
The Athenian alliance was founded in 478 B.C. on Delos and this is where the common money of the Greeks was collected. In the middle of the 5th century B.C. the treasury was moved to Athens and part of this money was used for the building of the Acropolis monuments.
Delos was not only a very important religious center but it also became the largest and most cosmopolitan trade station. People from all over the Mediterranean lived here, reaching a population of 30,000 people on an island of 6 square km!
We visited the outstanding museum with all the artifacts that were found at the site and then walked towards the residential area where beautiful mosaics were to be seen. Virtually thousands of the marble pieces and stones were used to compose these mosaics. We walked up to the theater that could originally hold about 5,000 people. From here some of us went up to the temple of Isis and some of us even higher, up Mount Kinthos, the highest mountain of Delos. The view of the nearby Cycladic Islands was stunning and we could clearly see the Kiklos—the Circle of Islands that formed around Delos when Apollo was born!
On returning to the Sea Cloud we went for a very refreshing swim after the hot walk of this morning! We later heard a lecture about deep sea exploration and enjoyed wonderful cruising under full sail! Tom, our expedition leader, had thought of everything…he even made arrangements for us to take photos of the ship under full sail: not the easiest thing in the world to organize!
