Date: Wednesday May 25, 2005
Partners for the day: Laura (text) Nkosi (images)
Site(s): Delos
Museum(s):
Principal Buildings/Monuments: House of Hermes, private Sarapeion, public Sarapeion, and other sanctuaries to non-Greek gods, Heraion, Mt. Kynthos, House of the Dolphins, House of the Masks
Time Spent on Each Site: from ca. 9:30 AM to ca. 1:45 PM [ _4.25___ hours]
Weather:Warm and humid, but cloudy and gray with a strong breeze
Due to Delos’ size, we headed back to the island for a second day of exploration, catching the 9:00 AM ferry, and arriving at Delos around 9:30. Whereas yesterday we concentrated on public architecture and sanctuaries of Greek gods, today we focused on residential architecture and sanctuaries of foreign gods. We started out by touring the impressive House of Hermes, a large house with three stories preserved. After examining a few other nearby houses, we reached the base of Mt. Kynthos, the area dedicated to Egyptian, Syrian, and other Oriental cults. While these sanctuaries were all from the 3rd century BC, nestled amongst them was also a more traditional Temple of Hera from the early 5th century BC. We then climbed up Mt. Kynthos, where we battled high winds to get impressive views of the entire island of Delos, the nearby Cyclades, the beautiful Aegean Sea, and the remains of a sanctuary to Zeus and Athena. After climbing down the hill, we looked at two of the largest houses at Delos, the House of the Dolphins and the House of the Masks, both decorated with beautiful mosaics. Our last stop was the Theater Quarter, an area that not only has a theater, but also tiny, twisting rows of streets lined with dozens of houses. We walked through the Theater Quarter at our own pace and then stopped at the site’s snack bar to refuel, before catching the 1:45 ferry back to Mykonos.
Delos is an incredibly large and important site, being not only the mythical birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, but one of the most important political and religious centers of the Hellenistic Period. Unfortunately, despite the importance of Delos, the site is not very well-presented today. The most pressing problem at Delos is its poor signage. The buildings at Delos only have small stone signs for identification, and labels such as “Temple of Sarapis” and “House of Hermes” are only marginally helpful. There is no further explanation of who Sarapis is, or what the relation between the house and Hermes is, let alone any information such as the date of the building or its plan. It is possible to buy guide books for the site, but why should someone have to pay more to be told what it is they’ve already paid to look at? At the ticket booth, there are free brochures that give a helpful overview of the history of Delos and a small map of the site, but there is no specific information on individual buildings. There are only the small signs that give just a name, and unfortunately, sometimes even that name means nothing to the average tourist. Even if they do not know who Sarapis or Hermes is, anyone can figure out what a house or a temple is obviously. However, other building types such as a stoa or a Heraion would be meaningless to the average visitor. For the site to be more relevant, there needs to be more signs labeling the buildings and giving contextual information in terms understandable to everyone.
Additionally, the site in general needs signs to label the pathways. The maps in the free brochures are tiny and do not show the pathways around the site. And with such a large site, it is very hard to navigate. Even Prof. Rutter didn’t quite know his way around and had to forge a few trails himself. Due to the size of the site, there needs to be more directional signs pointing out the way to major buildings, and maybe a map or two of the entire site at central locations.
Finally, the paths themselves need to be better maintained. The major paths around the most popular buildings and the paths between the museum, dock, and the site itself are helpfully paved and well-defined, but the smaller paths around other buildings are nearly non-existent and hard to find. Likewise, all the paths and the buildings are overgrown with tall weeds and nettles. It not only makes the site look rather unattractive and unkempt, but walking on small paths choked with nettles is rather painful. A good weed-whacking is desperately needed, and not only in the paths, but in the buildings. The central peristyle of the House of Inopos, for example, has weeds growing out of the cracks in its pavement, which is destructive to the building and will hasten its ruin. While some of the weeds are actually pretty wildflowers, overall the prevalence of the weeds and nettles makes the site uncomfortable for humans and harmful for the deteriorating buildings.
Delos has a lot to offer the visitor: a rich history, an expansive site with some impressively well-preserved buildings, and a museum with an important and interesting collection of sculpture, mosaics, and artifacts from daily life. If the site was only a bit better labeled and better maintained, it would be as important and impressive a site today as it was back in the Hellenistic Period.