Delos, the Birthplace of Apollo and Artemis

Last Update: 23 Mar 2021

The History of Delos

Delos is a small Cycladic island of Greece and is located near the cosmopolitan island of Mykonos.

According to Greek mythology, Delos was in the beginning a single rock called 'Asteria' or 'Ortygia'; it had no fixed position, but floated and wandered through oceans and seas.

The Birth of Apollo and Artemis on Delos

The island of Delos was discovered by the beautiful mortal Leto, one of Zeus' mistresses, who after many journeys settled on the island to give birth to her twins, the Olympian gods Artemis and Apollo. Only then was the island able to obtain a permanent place in the middle of the Cyclades and was given the name Delos ("the unconcealed").

With the birth of Apollo, the god of the sun, the sun immediately shone on the island and the island of Delos was declared a holy island of antiquity.

The island was declared a World Heritage Site in 1990 by UNESCO