7/2 Delos

Similar to Ostia, Delos was a major port city and critically important to the Greeks because it was the supposed birth place of two giants in their belief system, Apollo and Artemis, and because it is centrally located in the Aegean Sea, leaving it to become a major trading hub. It was also part of the Cyclads, a circular group of 40 islands that make up a major archipelago of Greece. Delos features all of the layers of history we have encountered so far: a Neolithic, Mycenaean, Classic/Archaic, and Hellenistic layer, and all of the typical building types as well. The carbon copy nature of this island and many others we have visited is not lost on me, as you can connect the dots and realize this was a completely interconnected series of settlements that just happened to take place across a vast sea featuring many different islands. The entrance port to the city leads, of course, to the sanctuary of Apollo, the key deity of the island. As you enter the gate of the city, the principal building which is adjacent to the entrance is the Oikos of the Naxians, an L-shaped structure that can essentially be understood as a temple because it hosted rituals, was made of marble, and built in the Ionic order.

One of the trademarks of more archaic Greek architecture, it has a row of columns running down the center that splits the central cella into two parts. The early Greeks were unable (or maybe just unsure of themselves) to span large spaces, so the central column would allow them somewhat larger spans and larger spaces. A 27’ tall statue of Apollo stood outside the Oikos. 3 additional temples to Apollo flank the Oikos and run down the main street. All of them have a different orientation than typical temples (which are east facing), as they face west toward the Altar of Apollo.

One of the architects that we have seen before, Kallikrates, builds the temple of Athena Nike, which is another example of Greek mannerism in that there have been so many iterations of temples from the Classical Era, that it has morphed into one which is not of the hexastyle peripteral type. The Romans also took advantage of the strategic location of the island and used it to trade slaves in the Agora of the Italians, which saw nearly 10,000 slaves bought and sold daily. More superstitions about Apollo abound on the island of Delos. The Lion Street sought to symbolically protect his birthplace by lining the street with statues of lions. Did the lions actually protect the island from harm to Apollo? I mentioned this similar debate at the Lion’s Gate in Mycenae. But again, does it matter as long as the island was thriving and the people were fat and happy?

In order to better understand and appreciate the Greeks’ eternal search for universal harmony in their structures, one only needs to look at the design of their houses. Imagine taking a square with size measuring 1, then using the diagonal of that square to construct a larger square around the original, this one measuring √2. The figure ground relationships between the inner square and the outer square are what they based their courtyard houses around. People typically didn’t tend to invest in private property. However, this island being one of the wealthier in the Greek system, people did start to invest in private domicile property. They wanted their houses to act like their private temples, harmonious and proportional. Often times it would feature a hole in the center of the roof for rain collection and for smoke to escape, a dual function that was quickly duplicated throughout the ancient world. Some of the more affluent clients built their houses with marble columns, mosaic floors, and stucco + paint walls, materials that weren’t common to domicile construction but fit the people’s lifestyles.