DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0126
CHAPTER XII.
OF THE ISLAND OF DELOS.
The island of Delos has been so well described by Wheler and Spon, Tournefort, and others, that
few particulars remain unnoticed by them; and many things they saw are now destroyed. What
seemed chiefly to deserve our notice were, the Temple of Apollo and the Portico of Philip King
of Macedon, than which last I have not any where seen a more elegant Doric example, nor any more
fitted for the use of profane or private edifices.
This island, once so celebrated, the resort of multitudesa, the seat of religion, religious cere-
monies, and pompous processions, is now an uninhabited desert, every where strewed with ruins, so
various, and so well wrought, as to evince its once populous and flourishing condition. The only
animals we saw here, besides rabbits and snakes, were a few sheep brought occasionally from Mycone,
a neighbouring island, to crop the scanty herbage which the ruins will permit to grow. Travellers,
who have visited this place, have been distressed for water; I have therefore given a map of the island,
in which, among other particulars, the situation of an excellent well is marked. The number of
curious marbles here is continually diminishingb, on account of a custom the Turks have, of placing
at the heads of the graves of their deceased friends a marble column ; and .the miserable sculptors of
that nation come here every year, and work up the fragments for that purpose, carving the figure of
a turban on the top of the monumental stone. Other pieces they carry off for lintels and window
sills; so that, in a few years, it may be as naked as when it first made its appearance above the sur-
face of the sea. The description and map of this island, given by Mons. Tournefort, are both very
exactc: it was our misfortune not to have his book with us, or to have read it, before our return to
England. Here are two examples of the Doric order, both excellent in their kind; one of which
belongs to, what I imagine to have been, the Temple of Apollo ; the other to the Portico of Philip d;
the latter, on account of the lightness of its proportions, differs from all the other examples we have
given, and is more suitable for common use. We found it impossible to make out the extent or plans
» Delos was a great emporium, the commerce at which was scriptions in general very true; but a great part of the antiqui-
much augmented by the destruction of Carthage and Corinth. ties being either carried away, destroyed, or burnt into lime, the
Strabo says, that after those events ten thousand slaves could islands are now less interesting, have both fewer inhabitants and
be sold there in a day. L. XIV. p. 668. [Jed.] are less cultivated, some of them without any inhabitants at all,
b In the year 1785, there were no remains but one single altar and entirely bare, as is the case in this island. [Jr.]
of marble, broken into pieces, with heaps of ruins of buildings, d The following conjecture of Mr. Stuart, written in a sketch-
but not even a stone of any regular form, or any' ornamental frag. book, is here inserted. It appears, however, uncertain, whether
ments. The antiquities, described in this chapter, are said to he intended it should be published or not, viz. " Is it not pro-
have been taken away by a Russian fleet, in the last war against bable that this portico was erected by Philip, after the Sacred
the Turks. [r.] War; and that these ruined trophies2 are of himself and his
c Mr. Reveley, who had Tournefort's Voyage, found his de- allies, the Boeotians ?" [r.]
1 Mr. Reveley, who edited Stuart and Revetfs original papers for this volume, numbered 102 and 103, the last of which was a part of a colossal foot apparently
being so very erroneous in this statement, could never have visited Delos, for in the only relick of the great statue of Apollo, the dedication of the people of
the year 1818 we were at that island, and measured the details of the subjects of Naxos. See also page 127, note a. [ED.]
this chapter, besides various other fragments ; particularly a Doric order decorated ! Stuart probably here alluded to the shields represented in Plate XXXV.
witb heads of bulls, which may be referred to in our fourth volume. We also wit- Fig. 16. Nos. 3 and I. See note a, p. 128. [ed.]
nessed the embarkation of two marbles now at the British Museum, in Room XIV.
VOL. III. x j
OF THE ISLAND OF DELOS.
The island of Delos has been so well described by Wheler and Spon, Tournefort, and others, that
few particulars remain unnoticed by them; and many things they saw are now destroyed. What
seemed chiefly to deserve our notice were, the Temple of Apollo and the Portico of Philip King
of Macedon, than which last I have not any where seen a more elegant Doric example, nor any more
fitted for the use of profane or private edifices.
This island, once so celebrated, the resort of multitudesa, the seat of religion, religious cere-
monies, and pompous processions, is now an uninhabited desert, every where strewed with ruins, so
various, and so well wrought, as to evince its once populous and flourishing condition. The only
animals we saw here, besides rabbits and snakes, were a few sheep brought occasionally from Mycone,
a neighbouring island, to crop the scanty herbage which the ruins will permit to grow. Travellers,
who have visited this place, have been distressed for water; I have therefore given a map of the island,
in which, among other particulars, the situation of an excellent well is marked. The number of
curious marbles here is continually diminishingb, on account of a custom the Turks have, of placing
at the heads of the graves of their deceased friends a marble column ; and .the miserable sculptors of
that nation come here every year, and work up the fragments for that purpose, carving the figure of
a turban on the top of the monumental stone. Other pieces they carry off for lintels and window
sills; so that, in a few years, it may be as naked as when it first made its appearance above the sur-
face of the sea. The description and map of this island, given by Mons. Tournefort, are both very
exactc: it was our misfortune not to have his book with us, or to have read it, before our return to
England. Here are two examples of the Doric order, both excellent in their kind; one of which
belongs to, what I imagine to have been, the Temple of Apollo ; the other to the Portico of Philip d;
the latter, on account of the lightness of its proportions, differs from all the other examples we have
given, and is more suitable for common use. We found it impossible to make out the extent or plans
» Delos was a great emporium, the commerce at which was scriptions in general very true; but a great part of the antiqui-
much augmented by the destruction of Carthage and Corinth. ties being either carried away, destroyed, or burnt into lime, the
Strabo says, that after those events ten thousand slaves could islands are now less interesting, have both fewer inhabitants and
be sold there in a day. L. XIV. p. 668. [Jed.] are less cultivated, some of them without any inhabitants at all,
b In the year 1785, there were no remains but one single altar and entirely bare, as is the case in this island. [Jr.]
of marble, broken into pieces, with heaps of ruins of buildings, d The following conjecture of Mr. Stuart, written in a sketch-
but not even a stone of any regular form, or any' ornamental frag. book, is here inserted. It appears, however, uncertain, whether
ments. The antiquities, described in this chapter, are said to he intended it should be published or not, viz. " Is it not pro-
have been taken away by a Russian fleet, in the last war against bable that this portico was erected by Philip, after the Sacred
the Turks. [r.] War; and that these ruined trophies2 are of himself and his
c Mr. Reveley, who had Tournefort's Voyage, found his de- allies, the Boeotians ?" [r.]
1 Mr. Reveley, who edited Stuart and Revetfs original papers for this volume, numbered 102 and 103, the last of which was a part of a colossal foot apparently
being so very erroneous in this statement, could never have visited Delos, for in the only relick of the great statue of Apollo, the dedication of the people of
the year 1818 we were at that island, and measured the details of the subjects of Naxos. See also page 127, note a. [ED.]
this chapter, besides various other fragments ; particularly a Doric order decorated ! Stuart probably here alluded to the shields represented in Plate XXXV.
witb heads of bulls, which may be referred to in our fourth volume. We also wit- Fig. 16. Nos. 3 and I. See note a, p. 128. [ed.]
nessed the embarkation of two marbles now at the British Museum, in Room XIV.
VOL. III. x j