By Laurie King

Delos is a small, treeless Greek island covered with ruins from the 7th century BC. Not just a few crumbling hard-to-imagine-what-it-might-have-been blocks of limestone; this place has whole city blocks, broad avenues, narrow side streets, stores, houses with walls ten feet high (plus 2- and 3-story versions), beautiful mosaic floors, temples, marble statues, a hotel for travelers, a brothel, wells, cisterns, sewers, and even toilets that had continuously-running water . . . and that's just what's already been excavated. Most of the site remains buried, because excavation is a tedious and time-intensive process. And after excavation there's reconstruction and upkeep -- all expensive. As a matter of fact, most of the archeological work here is done by foreigners, because Greece hasn't got the money to do it.

It'd be a tough place to do archeological work, too. There's no shade, and without the wind, the heat would have been absolutely unbearable. But the buildings were tall and many of the side streets were narrow, so the city would have been well-shaded in its time. I understand the hot wind is incessant (except in winter, when cold, rainy wind is incessant).

Flourishing Slave Trade
Delos' city fathers had the foresight to make it a tax-free port, which encouraged trade and got the place growing. At its height, this was an important center of economics, politics, and religion, with more than 30,000 regular inhabitants, plus a slave trade of more than 10,000/day. (I had forgotten that a lot of the great architecture of the world was built by slave labor.) Delos was a multicultural center, too, with large populations of Italians, Phoenicians, Jews, and Persians.

Birthplace of Apollo and Arches
But wait; Delos has still more "claims to fame." First of all, the actual birthplace of the god Apollo is here, marked by a palm tree. The palm tree isn't original, of course; they've replanted as necessary over the centuries to mark the spot. At least, it's the spot that Homer said was the birthplace of Apollo, and as far as I know no one is disputing Homer.

Also, there are stone arches here, built in the 3rd century BC, according to archaeologists. This is hugely significant, because it's generally thought that arches were invented by the Romans, and much later.

Ancient Eroticism
The streets of Delos often had statues at intersections: a man on each corner facing each of four directions. The weary (male) traveler had only to pause long enough to touch the phallus of the statue and he instantly regained vigor and was able to continue on his way. (Kind of like Viagra at every corner.)

Delos was the home of large cults to Dionysis and Artemis, as well as Apollo. According to our guide, the city was "permeated with an air of eroticism." The Dionysian cult, in particular, resulted in quite a few brothels.

One Big Backfire
Delos was considered so sacred that a law was made that no one was to be born or to die there. (Birth and death were apparently impure events.) The Delos hospital was built near the harbor, and if a patient was about to die, he or she was quickly put onto a boat and taken to a nearby island (or at least offshore). As usual, there was also a political explanation for the "sacred" laws. If no one was born on Delos, then no one could claim natural citizenship. So the people who were in power when the law was made were able to maintain control, and keep Delos from being governed by immigrants. Eventually, however, this scheme backfired, and Delos' power and influence dwindled . . . along with its population.