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Modern Description: On the panoramic summit of a rocky spur, 3.5 km by road north of Parikia, are the remains of the Sanctuary of Apollo and Artemis, known also just as the ‘Delion' – built on a site which shows evidence of cult since prehistoric times. The eminence has unimpeded views in every direction: west to Siphnos, east to Naxos, and – crucially for cultic reasons – north to Delos. The peribolos of the area is traceable: it is square in outline, with the temple situated in the southwest corner, oriented on an east/west axis, and with the altar visible to the east. A short distance to the south is a separate structure, which possessed marble benches and a portico, which appears to have been an ancillary building, and could even have been a hestiatorion or feasting room. The temple possesses a deep recess beneath the floor-level of the interior, which probably functioned as the treasury for votive gifts; against the west wall would have stood the cult-statue – the colossal figure of Artemis, whose form has been re-assembled from countless fragments, and stands in the portico of the Archaeological Museum. The fragmentariness of the ruins and the small size of the broken pieces lying around suggest that the temple and statue suffered deliberate destruction. The choice of materials is interesting: the construction is partly in granite and partly in differing qualities of local marble. What has survived of the threshold is in very finely cut, purest Parian marble. The masonry would indicate a date in the early 5th century BC. There is an extraordinarily dense scatter of potsherds, with fragments of painted pottery visible in places, and even minute pieces of necklace and bronze still to be seen on the surface.
Wikidata ID: Q58330788

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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