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Modern Description: The horizon to the east of the House of the Dolphins is dominated by the abrupt rise of Mount Kynthos. An ancient stone path, partly stepped, leads up to the east before turning south to the summit. To the right of the pathway is a curious shrine known as the ‘Antron' or ‘Cave of Hercules'. It is in the form of a grotto with an entrance (facing due west) and a pitched roof formed by ten granite slabs of very large dimensions, placed against one another in pairs, in a fashion reminiscent of the Sybil's Cave at Cumae, near Naples. The massive blocks of the boundary wall in front are beautifully engaged with the natural bedrock. Earlier visitors can be forgiven for seeing in this impressive construction a pre-Classical shrine, possibly a “birth-place of Apollo”. The fact that nothing earlier than Hellenistic finds have been recovered here, however, has led archaeologists to suggest that this deliberately archaic method of construction was self-consciously adopted as part of a fashionable revival of the ancient, mythical worship of Hercules – a phenomenon not infrequently found in Hellenistic times. Inside, a base of reddish granite supported a Hellenistic statue of the hero, fragments of which are in the museum. This was illuminated by light from above, as if through an open ‘oculus'. In front of the entrance is the marble base of an altar, also Hellenistic. Although the appurtenances are later, the cultic use of such a natural cleft in the hillside is likely nonetheless to be far more antique than the remains that have been found.
In the corner of the first sharp turn in the stepped pathway is a sanctuary attributed by the Athenians to Agatha Tyche (Good Fortune), which later served as a ‘Philadelpheion', dedicated to the cult of Arsinoe, sister and wife of Ptolemy II Philadelphos, who was deified after her death in 270 BC. From here the summit of Mount Kynthos (112m) is easily reached; the mountain's name was used as an epithet for both Apollo and Artemis, who must have been worshipped here in the 7th century BC. The pathway passes numerous ruined monuments, aedicules and shrines. The site has yielded remains of Cycladic dwellings of the 3rd millennium BC, but was abandoned for long periods and became an important sanctuary only in 281-267 BC when the existing buildings were rebuilt and a rectangular peribolos constructed. On the flattened summit stood the Sanctuary of Kynthian Zeus and Athena, with niches for votive offerings, statue bases, and a dedicatory mosaic. 100m to the southeast, on the south summit, are the remains of a small Sanctuary to Zeus Hypsistos (the ‘highest' – possibly here a Greek appellation for Baal). To the east, on a barely accessible terrace, has been excavated the 5th century BC Sanctuary of Artemis Locheia, with the foundations of a temple having a doorway in the middle of the longer, south side. On the way down the north side are the ruins of over a dozen other tiny sanctuaries dedicated to unknown and oriental deities. A large, protruding rock, 100m north of the summit, bears the 5th century BC inscription, “the boundary of Leto”.
Returning to the foot of the hill by the stepped path and turning north, you descend to an area dense in the ruins of superimposed buildings and temples. In earliest times this area was dedicated to Hera, the goddess whose vengeance pursued Leto until she finally settled on Delos to give birth to the two divine twins. Hera was most likely venerated here in a largely propitiatory fashion: even though her role was an obstructive one in the story of Apollo and Artemis, the great goddess was nonetheless never to be overlooked, and it was appropriate to mark her cult here with an imporant sanctuary. The venerable, 6th century BC Temple of Hera is immediately to the north – just beyond a broken altar on a platform – consisting of a south-facing entrance with two standing columns, and an east wall of fine construction in marble which rises almost imperceptibly in the centre. The interior floor is now missing, but reveals the solid base of what has been identified as a preceding, late Geometric period temple below, constructed with wood and mud-brick elements, which remains in effect enshrined by the later temple. The building is firmly identified by the dedication to Hera of numerous vases and terracotta figurines found here.
To the north and west opens a large area known as the Terrace of the Foreign Deities – testimony to the cosmopolitan nature of the population of Delos in the last period of its mercantile prosperity during Late Hellenistic and Roman times. The Heraion now became surrounded by the sanctuaries of new, imported divinities – Egyptian Serapis to the south and west, and Syrian divinities to the north. The popularity of Serapis – a curious, composite or syncretic divinity, typical of the multi-cultural world of the Hellenistic age – derived from the fact that he was believed to have the powers of healing and of prophecy.
The Serapeion is an extensive complex which must have grown rapidly during the course of the 2nd century BC. Numerous inscriptions here testify to Athenian patronage in its construction. It comprised two colonnaded courts, several temples to Serapis, Isis and Anubis, altars, inscriptions and ex votos - its haphazard growth indicated by the fact that the complex has few right-angle corners, no over-riding alignment and little axial organisation. The long trapezoid court below the polygonal retaining wall of the Heraion is divided length-ways by a sacred avenue, in Egyptian style, which was lined with altars and crouching sphinxes (a couple at the south end of the western line survive), leading to a small temple set at an angle to the axis. The narrow, north end of this court abuts another paved area bounded on the south and partly on the west by an Ionic portico and surrounded by small temples and sacred rooms. The two most conspicuous temples are: to the north, a Temple of Serapis from the first half of the 2nd century BC built partly in a bluish marble with a poros-stone wall coated with stucco at the rear; and to the east, on a higher level above a ledge of natural rock, a Temple of Isis whose marble pedimented façade has been pleasingly reassembled. Against its back wall is a statue of the goddess, probably dedicated by Athenians as an ex voto: a low fence closed off the naos, over which the head of the statue (now missing) would have been visible from outside. Lower down, directly in front of the temple, is an incense altar the upper part of which is decorated with four pieces of marble in the form of horns.
To the north – grander still in dimensions and conception than the Serapeion – lies the Sanctuary of the Syrian gods, Hadad and Atargatis, whose cult was also introduced here in the early 2nd century BC. Its beginnings would have been small and private, but by the end of the century it was made ‘official' under the aegis of an Athenian high priest. In the process, Atargatis became identified with Aphrodite.
The original entrance to the Syrian sanctuary was by means of the stepped street which is visible rising steeply up to the terrace from the west: the path today does not respect the original enclosures and passes directly north from the Serapeion into the back of what was only a lateral courtyard of the Syrian sanctuary: after 25m it descends to the main terrace. Running north/south, on the left, was a long colonnade which would have been plastered and painted originally: in an exedra just left of its centre is an area of pavement with a mosaic inscription commemorating the benefaction of an Athenian named Phormion. To the right (east) is the sanctuary's small theatre (with 12 rows of seats accommodating 400-500 spectators) in which sacred rites were performed, protected from view by walls and an internal portico on three sides which surrounded the space. Sacred fish were kept in a tank in the sanctuary.
The grandeur of these two sanctuaries gives a sense of the wealth of the island's immigrant merchants; while their enclosed, inward-looking architecture speaks of a different cultic world from the open sanctuaries of the older Greek gods.
The stepped path which descends to the west leads down to a large public cistern – the Inopos reservoir – cut into the rock, and now filled with fig trees, terrapins and frogs. At the north end marble steps led down to the water level which was regulated by a series of overflow holes. It collected the fugitive and variable waters of the Inopos torrent which drained from a source on the slope of Mt. Kynthos and flowed intermittently down to the Sacred lake and the Bay of Skardana. A curious Delian tradition imagined that its waters came from the Nile, an association perhaps endorsed by the resemblance of the local agama lizards to small crocodiles. A small terrace lined with bench-seats overlooked the cistern from the north and must have constituted a cool and pleasant meeting place to sit and converse.
- Detour: On the opposite side, south of the reservoir, are the ruins of the ‘Samothrakeion', dedicated to the Samothracian Cabiri, who became increasingly identified with the Dioscuri twins in the late Hellenistic mind. The sanctuary is built on two terraces. On the upper level stood the 4th century BC Temple with a curiously asymmetric Doric portico. On the lower level was a circular altar of the 2nd century BC for offerings. To the right hand side are the foundations of a monument to Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus (120-63 BC), with two Ionic columns and a frieze of medallions depicting his generals and allies.
A street runs between the Inopos Reservoir and a row of shops to the east: between two of the shops is an alley, with a bench carved with dedicatory inscriptions to Serapis, Isis and Anubis on its front edge. At the end of the alley is a staircase leading to the ruins of ‘Serapeion B', marked by several small ‘horned' altars. The small temple is placed in the northwest corner of the court, facing south.
The main street continues, bearing left in front of the House of the Inopos. On the left beyond the reservoir and the Shrine of the Nymphs to its west – a small circular building in marble, dedicated by the Pyrrhakides family – is ‘Serapeion A', the oldest and most intimate sanctuary of Serapis on the island. Its temple stood facing west on a stepped basement in a paved court, between two small porticos; under its naos is a rectangular crypt, reached by a staircase and supplied with water by a conduit. Opposite the temple front is a meeting room with marble benches, on carved supports, round all four sides bearing inscriptions of dedication to Serapis, Isis and Anubis. On the surface of the bench on the west side has been carved a 12x12 chequer-board for playing games.
In this area are three of the finer Delian houses: to the north of Serapeion A is a house of curious design with a simple, perfectly preserved mosaic floor in three colours, on which stands the one and only column the house appears to have had, set at an odd angle to the floor-plan suggesting that it may belong to an earlier phase of the building than the floor. To east, behind a street façade in beautifully dressed marble, is the ‘House of the Inopos', built around a central court with peristyle on two sides. There are eleven large, unfinished, monolithic marble columns which lie, where they were found, in an adjacent room. These can perhaps only be explained by some interruption in the construction or redesigning of the house which was never again resumed. The method of delivery of these massive columns into this very circumscribed space is a mystery. Further downhill to the east the pathway passes the ‘House of Hermes', an elaborate, four-storey dwelling of the late 2nd century BC, partially restored: only a part of three storeys exists today. The house takes its name from a number of herms found on the site.
The entrance is by a narrow hallway; immediately to left are the latrines, with carefully sloping water channels for drainage; at the end of the hall on the left is the bathroom proper with a terracotta bathtub still in place. The Doric, peristyle court surrounds a marble impluvium: in the blank south wall, is a cut made into the live rock with a slit deep into the left. There must have been a weak water source here in antiquity which drained into the cistern, and was marked probably by a domestic shrine to the nymphs in the aedicule to the right. In the opposite (north) wall a wide marble doorway leads into the main reception room with two subsidiary rooms leading out from it. On the east side of the court a small dining-room still preserves a painted plaster decoration, imitating marble plaques. Steps lead up to the upper floor, with similar configurations of interconnecting rooms.
Further to the west is a small, late 4th century BC, sanctuary of Aphrodite, consisting of a temple surrounded by a number of smaller, ancillary sacred buildings. Beyond this point, paths return either to the Museum (right) or to the embarkation mole (left).
Along the shore to the south of the Sacred Harbour, a series of magazines or warehouses, have their backs to the Theatre Quarter. They would have opened on to a quay bordering one of the five basins of the Commercial Harbour (whose outlines can be distinguished when the water is still). All have substantial marble thresholds for the fixing and locking of gates: one has a well-preserved peristyle court in its interior. Further south is the line of the City Wall running down to the sea, followed by a second group of magazines. There was no conspicuous communication between these warehouses and the Theatre Quarter behind them, an indication possibly that much of Delos's commerce was essentially a transit trade. The blocks of buildings which follow are divided by streets running parallel to the sea or at right angles to it; each has a central court surrounded by large structures used as bonded warehouses. A typical example is the ‘Magazine of the Columns'. The building adjoining it has a fine marble basin in its vestibule. 100m further south are the remains of a shoreside sanctuary of the Dioscuri, protectors of seamen, dating in all probability from the end of the 6th century BC. Approximately 800 m beyond, following an indistinct path, is the Bay of Fourni, sheltered from the north winds by a rocky promontory on which are the ruins of a Sanctuary of Asklepios which, as a refuge frequented primarily by the sick, was founded at a safe distance from the centre of the town. It consists of three buildings in a line. The northernmost is a pro-style Doric temple with four columns; beyond is a large hall constructed with granite blocks, with a door on its east side – probably an ‘abaton' or infirmary; and finally the Propylaion to the sanctuary, paved in white marble.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthus
Wikidata ID: Q285086

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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