Delos / Sailing
On the second day of out expedition we found ourselves in the center of the Aegean Sea where a small rocky island determined the political-social-economic as well the religious and intellectual life of the world of antiquity. DELOS. The island where Apollo and Artemis were born: Apollo, the ancient Greek god of light, music, sound, arts, spirituality, and moderation; Artemis, the goddess of hunting, the protectress of the wild natural life. Today Delos is a vast archaeological site with its only inhabitants the archaeologists and scholars working here. How different it was in its past!
By being Apollo’s birthplace it started by being developed as an important religious site where festivals were held in honor of Apollo, where pilgrims came from all over the world to participate in the celebrating—to offer their offerings to the god—the way that they expressed their gratitude. Soon this small rock became a prestigious worldly known place of worship and many of the powerful states wanted to impose their superiority over the island. For that reason they started building impressive buildings that were used as temples, treasuries, shrines and their rich offerings embellished every corner of the religious site.
As time passed it became bigger, richer, more prestigious, and more powerful. The sacred island of Apollo experienced on even higher degree of prosperity and wealth when the Roman declared it an independent tax-free port. Businessmen merchants and traders were meeting in Delos promoting and selling their goods. Many were settled permanently in Delos and had beautiful mansions, big and spacious, decorated with exceptional wall paintings and mosaics, evidence of the sophisticated lives they lived—unbelievable but true.
We left Delos taking with us the flavors of the advanced world that once existed, a taste of the ambience in which people lived thousands of years ago, and above all the energy of Apollo’s bright light.
