Mykonos and Delos

Mary spent the day in the cabin, mostly sleeping and eating a little.

Lions of Delos

Meanwhile we arrived at Mykonos about 2 PM and took a small boat to the island of Delos. Delos is the mythical birthplace of Apollo and the real capital of the Delosian league during the 5-6th centuries BC. In its peak in the 2nd C BC, this was an international free port, home to Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Persians, and many other nationalities. There were temples to the Gods of all these nationalities, but the site was dominated by 3 large temples to Apollo. In 88 BC, the island was destroyed and 20,000 of the 25,000 people were slaughtered in retaliation against the Romans. The most impressive of the ruins was 5 lions of at least 9 and the mosaics in some of the houses. The House of Bacchus (god of wine) in particular had a beautiful mosaic. Under the streets was a sewer system and many of the houses had marble wells where we could see the rope marks from hauling up the buckets of water. Finally we saw the 3rd C BC Greek theatre which held 6500 people in its 43 marble rows.

House of Bacchus, Delos

We returned to Mykonos about dark and saw the windmills and narrow streets with their white and blue houses, stores, and churches.