LAKE DISTRICT

Beware, an image from Epinal! Or rather of Delos. This district shelters indeed the most famous monument of the island, i.e. the terrace of the Lions, very certainly the most famous and the most photographed part of Delos. Before arriving, you will certainly have seen these five statues of lions sitting on their back legs, their front legs straight and their mouths open, on some guidebook or postcard. However, this iconic monument cannot overshadow the very impressive Agora of the Italians and... two pairs of testicles. It owes its current name to the ancient sacred lake, the only body of water in Delos that has now dried up. It is also called the district of Skardana, since the ancient port was located in the bay of Skardana, to the north. Until the 4th century BC, it was in this so-called archaic port that pilgrims disembarked, greeted on their way to the sanctuary of Apollo by the roaring statues of the Terrace of the Lions.

Hypostyle Hall. This hall "supported by columns" (hypostylos) is located at the extreme southwest of the Lake District, 50 meters to the right of the northern exit of the Sanctuary of Apollo. Measuring 56 m in length and 34 m in width, it is the second largest monument after the Agora of the Italians^. Its use is not known with certainty, although it is assumed that it was a hostel or refectory for pilgrims. The building was built in 208 BC by the Delians, but the Athenians changed the names of the donors and appropriated it in 166 BC. The hall consisted of three solid walls and 15 marble columns in the front. Inside, the roof was supported by 44 poros

(local tuff) columns in nine rows of five columns each, except in the center of the building, where one column was omitted to make the space wider.

Dodekatheon.

Dating from around 300 BC, this temple of the "Twelve Gods" stands just outside the northern exit of the Sanctuary of Apollo, opposite the southwest corner of the Agora of the Italians and 50 meters east of the Hypostyle Hall. It is an amphiprostyle marble building, i.e. with a single row of columns in the façade. In a modest space (16 x 10 m), three triads were honored: that of Apollo (Apollo, Artemis and their mother Leto), that of Zeus (Zeus, his daughter Athena and his wife Hera), that of Demeter (Demeter, her daughter Coré/Persephone and Eubouleus, a figure from the Eleusian mystery pantheon, who replaces Dionysus here) and three other deities about which there is some doubt (probably Poseidon, Aphrodite and Hermes).

Agora of the Italians. This business and handicraft center is inserted between the sanctuary of Apollo (south) and the Sacred Lake (north). Covering an area of 1 hectare, it is the largest monument on the island. A wealthy community of Romans had been living in Delos since the 3rd century BC, mainly in the Lake District. Around 130 BC, these bankers and merchants from southern Italy and Sicily established their luxurious agora here, one of the main trading places in the Mediterranean for grain and slaves. To do this, they drained the marshes to the south of the lake and obtained permission to destroy the ancient temenos (sacred district) dedicated to Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. The result is still partially visible. In the center of the agora, the large rectangular square (48 x 68 m) was surrounded by a two-level peristyle with pilasters on the^first

floor and 112 Doric columns on the ground floor, two of which, on the north side, have been raised with their epistyles. The archaeologists also reassembled some of the walls of the buildings. Set back from the colonnade, alcoves housed a series of statues, some of them remarkable, such as that of the merchant Gaius Ophellius Ferus, on display in the museum. The north and east sides of the peristyle were occupied by the "offices" of the merchants, while fragments of sculptures and musical instruments found in the south and west wings indicate that these must have been workshops. The main entrance to the agora was located to the west, next to the Leton, a small temple of the Archaic period (c. 540 BC), whose base of large carved blocks is the last trace of the cult of Leto here. The northwest corner of the agora was used as a bathhouse.

Terrace of the Lions. It is the obligatory passage, and sometimes the first step aimed by some visitors. So here you are. At the northwestern end of the Agora of the Italians and facing the Sacred Lake, this is the most famous and most photographed part of Delos. Five statues of lions sitting on their hind legs, their front legs straight and their mouths open. They are between 1.64 and 1.80 m high and the largest is 3.21 m long from head to tail. However, these are copies. The originals, threatened by the elements, have been relegated to the island's museum since 1999. Installed here by the Naxians at the end of the 7th century BC, the lions of Delos were initially much more numerous: nine or even sixteen spread out face to face in two rows over a length of 50 m. The abandonment of the site and then the looters took most of these felines in Naxos marble. The survivors were brought to light by French archaeologists between 1886 and 1906. Their morphology is surprising: sparse manes and thin bodies. This is often attributed to the fact that the sculptors had never met lions. African lions, surely, but what the artists of the Archaic period have represented here is the Panthera leo

, i.e. the European lion, a finer animal that survived in continental Greece until the first century BC. However, realism is not the main concern. The roughness of the features gives power to the lions which were to impress the visitors. Indeed, until the creation of the present port, it was through here that pilgrims passed on their way to the sanctuary of Apollo from the archaic port of Skardana Bay (200 m to the north), which was destroyed at the end of the 4th century BC.

Sacred lake.

Opposite the Terrace of the Lions and north of the Agora of the Italians, this small lake is now dry and covered with dense vegetation. Oval in shape (70 m from east to west and 100 m from north to south), according to mythology, it was home to the sacred swans of Apollo and was therefore part of the places of worship dedicated to the god. Surrounded by a low wall and supplied by the Inopos, the only stream of Delos, it fed the many gardens in the vicinity before the creation of the Lake district in the 2nd century B.C. Due to a lack of maintenance after the abandonment of the island, its waters stagnated and it became a hotbed of malaria in the 19th century, before being filled in and drained in 1925. French archaeologists then planted a palm tree in the centre of the lake, a nod to the myth of the birth of Apollo and Artemis. A palm tree is still visible and accessible by one of the two paths that wind through the vegetation.

Houses. To the north of the sacred lake, towards the bay of Skardana, there are about ten blocks of houses with well-preserved walls and alleys. The ensemble is reminiscent of the ruins of Pompeii and is one of the most "telling" parts of the whole archaeological site of Delos. A whole series of remarkable houses are indicated by signs and numbers on the plans. Most of them were burnt down during a pirate raid in 69 BC. Among these houses, do not miss the house of Diadumene (no. 55), the largest on the island. With a floor area of 958^m2, it probably housed a brotherhood. It owes its name to the discovery in 1894 of a Roman marble copy of the famous bronze statue of the Diadumene ("with headband") made by Polyclitus in the^5th century BC. The very elegant Lake House (no. 59) dates from the 2nd century BC and was occupied by two generations of the same family until the fire. It is typical of the beautiful villas of Delos: a vast atrium served a series of rooms spread over two floors and protected from the noise of the street by thick blind walls. The Lodge of the Poseidonians (no. 49) was built in the 2nd century BC for a brotherhood of Phoenician merchants who worshipped the oriental god Baal, which they equated with Poseidon. It is marked by a portico with four columns that have been found near the Terrace of the Lions. The district also includes an agora (market place) and three palaces, such as the Lake Palestra (no. 61), the oldest, built in the 3rd century BC. Located next to the Lake House and covering 1,300^m2

, it served as a sports hall, school and private bath. It is also close to the racecourse belonging to the Stade district (to the north-east).

Towards the museum.

From the Palestra del Lago, a pathway leads 250 m to the southeast to the Archaeological Museum (and the only expensive café on the island) along the eastern side of the Agora of the Italians and four sections of the Triarius Wall, a defensive structure built after the pirate raid of 69 BC. After visiting the museum, don't miss two other monuments in the Lake District near the Agora of the Italians and the Sanctuary of Apollo.

Stibadeion of Dionysus. With its back to the sanctuary of Apollo and facing the museum, the ruins of this altar welcome you with two beautiful pairs of testicles enthroned on colonnettes. These are copies of two ithyphallic ("erect penis") statues mutilated in the early Christian era. The two phalluses framed the entrance to this building (22 x 14 m) erected around 280 BC, where sacred banquets were held in honor of the god of wine and its excesses. The Greek word stibadeïon

designates the bed of herbs and reeds on which the agape was held.

Minoe Fountain. Also called the Fountain of the Nymphs, it is located southeast of the Agora of the Italians, behind the stibadeion of Dionysus. Carved into a rock 7m deep in the^5th century BC and remodelled in 166 BC, the island's only public fountain forms a square 4m on each side. Five wide steps lead down to the basin, in the middle of which stands a column that supported a four-sided roof covered with tiles. The fountain was fed by ground water and allowed the inhabitants and pilgrims to draw water from it. But an ancient inscription states: "Do not wash anything in the fountain, do not bathe in it, do not throw garbage or anything else in it. Fine: two sacred drachmas. "The site was indeed sacred, the spring being considered the domain of the Nymphs. In any case, for their daily use, the Delians seemed to prefer rainwater, which was stored in tanks in each house.