Greek Myths revisited...

October 10th. Mykonos, Greece.

Mykonos is a contemporary island, they say the most cosmopolitan centre in Greece. It is the current gathering place for the well to do party crowd. Dozens of restaurants, bars, clubs. High end and designer shops along side of touristy shops selling souvenirs and T-shirts.

 


The most famous church is called Paraportiani, a massive white structure overlooking the port. It is really a combination of four small churches which were later enclosed and added to to become a fifth larger church.

Old Port is a friendly, not so posh area where you can sit at little seaside cafés enjoying a drink, a snack or a meal. You can walk along the water or lounge on the beach. Here boats leave for day tours or water taxis can take you to neighbouring areas.

And you can wander through the little streets and alleys of Little Venice, so named because of the buildings that rise sharply from the water like in Venice. All it is missing is the canals and a gondolas.

Yesterday we spent exploring this lovely little town and all its nooks and crannies.
Stopping for lunch at a little café on the water we had mini-waffles ( take a think fluffy Belgian waffle and cut it into the individual squares, then add fresh sliced strawberries, bananas, crushed walnuts and maple syrup) So good!  

And, by the way.... a yellow door!

DELOS, Sacred Island of the Gods....



These famous lions guarded the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.
 

Today was our day to visit the ancient Gods and Goddesses of Greek Mythology. Just a few kilometers from Mykonos is a tiny island called Delos, the Sacred Island of the ancient Greeks. It is only 5 mms long and 1200 metres wide but was once the most important commercial trading centre in the world, with 30,000 inhabitants and thousands od visitors a year. It is estimated 750,000 tons of goods moved through its ports each year. This was the beginning of the first century BC.

Delos is now a Sacred Island. No one is allowed to live on the island or to remain on the island between sunset and sunrise. The reason it is sacred is because it is the said to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, twins, fathered by Zeus. Apollo is the God of Light, harmony and balance. Artemis is the Moon Goddess.
















The island now is an excavation site where ancient ruins depict the way of life of the people, earliest inhabitants are dated back to 2500 BC, but much of it is around the 1st and 2nd century BC.



Temples to the Gods like Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus. Houses where the merchants from all over the world traded their goods. There are aqueducts and cisterns depicting an advanced civilization, under street water and sewer systems. It is fascinating.

And amid the site is the Museum housing the statues and antiquities discovered here.

Me at The Temple of Ises.

Beautiful statues housed within the Museum. It is interesting that no one artist is attributed with the creation of the art because in ancient Greece art was a gift from the Gods and never signed  or belonging to a person.


From the House of Cleopatra.

This massive statue was commissioned by a wealthy Italian merchant as a likeness of himself for his house. It is said he paid to have the form youthful and vigorous, not exactly a real likeness.



The real statues of the lions are housed inside the museum to protect them from the weather, the ones outside in the ruins are replicas.

Only one more day...... Come With Me.....