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Delos

Aegean island sacred to Apollo and Artemis, spared by the Persian fleet in 490 BCE

In the game: Level 8: The Bay of Marathon

Delos was a small island in the central Cyclades, held to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Herodotus says the fleet of Datis and Artaphernes passed it in 490 and did not harm it. The story is told by a Greek writer, and the Persian side has left no account of the visit.

In the game: Delos is named in the Chronicle and in the event article on the expedition of Datis and Artaphernes, as the island of Apollo spared by Datis. It has no mechanic of its own.

A sanctuary in the Cyclades

In the record

Excavation on Delos by the French School at Athens has uncovered the sanctuary of Apollo and the remains of earlier cult buildings. The island was a major festival centre for Ionians and islanders. Most of the surviving monuments are probably later than 490, so the site shows the cult's importance rather than the events of that year.

Excavation reports of the French School at Athens on Delos

Datis and the Delians

Ancient account

Herodotus says the Delians fled to Tenos when the Persian fleet approached. Datis sent a herald to ask why they had run away and to say that he would not harm the island, since it was the birthplace of the two gods and the King had ordered it spared. Herodotus adds that Datis then burned a great quantity of frankincense on the altar.

Herodotus 6.97

The earthquake

Disputed

Herodotus says Delos was shaken by an earthquake soon after, the first and last in his knowledge, and that it was a portent of coming troubles. Thucydides mentions a shock on Delos shortly before the Peloponnesian War, which sits uneasily with Herodotus's claim that there was no later one. The omen is a Greek reading made after the event.

Herodotus 6.98; Thucydides 2.8

Persian policy toward Greek gods

Disputed

Persian respect for Apollo may fit a wider pattern of the King's officials honouring local cults, as with Egyptian and Babylonian temples. It is uncertain how far Datis acted from policy and how far Herodotus shaped the scene. The Persian side leaves no account of the visit.

P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 2002

Delos after the war

Ancient account

In 478 and 477 the Greek allies formed a league under Athens, and Thucydides says its common fund was kept on Delos and the allies met in the sanctuary. The treasury was later moved to Athens, a step modern scholars usually date to about 454. Plutarch connects the move with Pericles.

Thucydides 1.96; Plutarch, Pericles