Delos was once the ‘source of Apollonian light’ where, on the conical 386 foot high Mount Cynthos, Leto was said to give birth to Apollo under the shade of a date palm.
It was also called, in earlier times, Asteria, Ortygia and Chlamydia. It has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BC.
Thucydides identifies the original inhabitants was piratical Carians who were eventually expelled by King Minos of Crete. The first traces of occupation on Delos date from the second half of the third millennium on Mont Cynthos.
During 1000 BC, Delos was peopled by Ionians, for whom it was the chief center of political and religious union in the time of Homer.
By the year 700 BC Delos had emerged as an important center of worship. Delos was also on its way to becoming a commercial port, as pilgrims from all over were drawn to its shores.
After the Persian wars the island became the natural meeting-ground for the Delian League, founded in 478 BC, the congresses being held in the temple.
By the year 314 BC, Delos had grown to become a flourishing religious center in an island alliance under the protection of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt; the year 250 saw it under the guardianship of the Macedonian kings.
The Romans made Delos a free port in 167 BC. This brought even greater prosperity, due largely to a lucrative slave market that sold up to 10 000 people a day. By the 3rd century AD there was only a small Christian settlement on the island,
The island of Delos, Greece
