Archaeological Site of Delos
Sacred ruins of a pan-Hellenic sanctuary where birth and death were once forbidden by law.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Archaeological Site of Delos, near Mykonos, opens in the winter of four twenty-six BC, when plague was tearing through Athens for the third time and Thucydides recorded the city's response: digging up every grave on this island sacred to Apollo. It follows what the Athenians found in those coffins, and reaches back to the myth of Leto, hunted by a jealous Hera, who found shelter here to give birth to Apollo and Artemis. You'll hear how that birth made Delos too holy for either birth or death to be allowed on it again, and what Athens ordered done about anyone caught close to either. Stand on the open, sun-flattened ground where the ancient town once stood while you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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