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April 2000

Delos

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 21:27:45

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distance. The white spots are not snow, they are villages.

The most famous of all the mosaics on Delos is that of Dionysus riding a panther (7). This is found in the completely intact House of the Masks (named for another mosaic featuring theater masks). Several rooms in this building contain large sections of the original wall decoration as well as mosaics covering the entire floor. It is difficult to tell from the distance you're forced to remain from it, but this mosaic is so incredibly detailed that there are over 100 stones in the eye of the panther alone. The building itself was probably a hostel for actors.

This the House of the Masks from above (8). The mosaics are under the roofed area in what were likely the public rooms. The columns define the courtyard which was fairly standard on Delos and the uncovered network of rooms around the outside were likely the rooms that actors stayed in. This picture is taken partway up the mountain that dominates the island - Mt. Kynthos.

At 113 meters (370 ft), it's a healthy climb to the top of Mt. Kynthos, not the sort of thing you'd want to do very often if footwear was limited to sandals. Nevertheless the priests in Delos came up here regularly - it was also sacred. It has a fine view of the surrounding islands as well as all of Delos. The small uninhabited island to the left is Ekati, and the larger one beyond that is Renia. The vague shadow far off beyond that would be Syros. Besides a rewarding view of the surrounding islands (9), you can learn from up here that you'd need several more days to see all of Delos. Low stone walls criss-cross the entire island and we never even came near the stadium, the gymnasium, or several other homes famed for their mosaics.

Here again is the Temple of Isis (10), although much closer up. You can see that she's lost her head too. Another Egyptian god, Serapis, has a temple as well. Also nearby are the remains of a theater devoted to Syrian gods (before Poseidon) where crowds would gather to watch orgies. Those crazy Syrians. This is where we ran out of time and had to return to the boat for the trip back to Mykonos. On the boat back we met up once again with fellow travelers Randy and Bev. They offered us cookies and in return we told them about our impending escape to Santorini (I didn't say it was a fair trade, that was all we had to offer.) If you read through the Mykonos page you already know they decided to accompany us. If not, you can go read it now.