Delos

Delos served as one of the most important Panhellenic sanctuaries for over a millennium. The Ionians established Apollo's cult in the 9th-10th century BCE; the Athenians purified the island in 540 and 426 BCE, forbidding birth and death; the Delian League stored its treasury here. After Roman conquest, the island became a major Mediterranean port before being sacked by Mithridates' forces in 88 BCE.

The mythology is older than the sanctuary's stone temples. According to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, composed around 700 BC, Leto wandered the world pregnant with Zeus's children, fleeing Hera's jealous persecution. Hera had forbidden any land from giving her shelter. Every place Leto approached refused her—all except a floating island called Delos, which had no roots in the earth and thus had not sworn Hera's oath.

Leto labored for nine days on the barren, floating rock. All the goddesses attended her except Hera and Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, whom Hera deliberately kept away. Finally, the other goddesses bribed Eileithyia with a golden necklace, and she came to Delos. Leto grasped a palm tree on the slopes of Mount Kynthos, and Apollo was born. At that moment, the floating island became anchored to the ocean floor by four pillars, fixed forever at the center of the Cyclades.

Apollo spoke immediately at birth, asking for a lyre and a bow, claiming prophecy as his domain. He became Cynthius, the god from Kynthos; his sister Artemis became Cynthia. The island that had been barren and worthless was transformed by divine birth into 'the most sacred of all islands.' The Greeks understood this as the moment when light entered the world.