Page 42 - MYCONIAN COLLECTION MAGAZINE 2025

SA CRED ISLA ND

A LIVING MUSEUM
Alongside the Archaeological
“IN THE FIRST CENTURY BC, there were Delos Museum of Delos, established in
approximately 30,000 inhabitants on this 1931 and expanded in 1972, the
small island in the Cyclades. Most of them island itself stands as an open-air
were Athenians, but there were also people museum. Spanning various ancient
epochs, its myriad antiquities and
from other parts of the Mediterranean. Where natural landscapes are safeguarded,
They lived peacefully, they wrote and spoke curated, and cherished under the
Greek and they worshipped their gods”, the stewardship of the Ephorate of
Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Antiquities of the Cyclades.
Cyclades, Dr Dimitris Athanasoulis, begins. Time
Firmly grounded in today’s world, with
a scientific background and a vision for
contemporary archaeological sites and
museums, the archaeologist uses simple
words to impart his knowledge and share Worships
his love of narratives of the past. “This
era is typical of Delos, as it is only here
and nowhere else in Greece that visitors
can grasp the meaning of the first instinct the Light
for globalisation which materialised in
the Hellenistic kingdoms after the death
of Alexander the Great. That part of the
city, which is still in the process of being
excavated, is in excellent condition. So, we
could say that during that period, Delos
was a huge multicultural centre, similar to
the Mykonos of today. Visitors to Delos are
mainly tourists who choose Mykonos for
its attractions, and take the trip to Delos
because of its proximity”, Athanasoulis
makes clear from the beginning. “So, this
is a very interesting, paradoxical pair of
attractions for visitors. Bathed in myth and
What is Mykonos today? A world-renowned
cosmopolitan island, one big party! To sunlight, Delos is one of
use one of Foucault’s favourite terms, it is
a heterotopia. Visitors to Mykonos escape
their daily life and find themselves in an the most sacred sites of
environment where ‘non-time’ prevails; a
time for unlimited entertainment. During
their stay, there is no sense of time, as they the ancient world. Today,
find themselves in a timeless place. Delos,
however, is the exact opposite. As with
every museum or archaeological site, it is its marble ruins continue
a time warp – for example, when you climb
up the Acropolis, you travel back to the 5th to echo the grandeur of
century BC. The advantage to Delos is that
you experience the journey back in time
even as you travel there, reaching the island classical Greece, drawing
by a small boat much like the inhabitants of
old. The boat trip is a prelude. So, this is the
first reason why it is worthwhile for revellers visitors into a timeless realm
of ‘non-time’ Mykonos to visit Delos and
experience these extreme contrasts. It is a
voyage of a different kind, something worth where history feels alive.
getting your head around – and whatever
your state of mind, you cannot avoid a sense
of altered states whilst on Delos! Although

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