Dreams inspired by Phoebus: Western visitors to Delos from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century*

Abstract

Delos first became a serious target for Western visitors in the 1620s, when it was virtually looted on behalf of collectors such as the Earl of Arundel, the Duke of Buckingham and King Charles I. Many marble sculptures and altars were removed, and objects which could not be transported whole were gradually broken up, like the colossal statue of Apollo. In the eighteenth century, visitors were primarily concerned with recording what they saw, relating it to descriptions in ancient literature, and studying the architecture. Some treated their visit almost as a pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites of Antiquity. The effects of the Napoleonic Wars brought more British tourists to Delos from the end of the eighteenth century, and there was much small-scale removal of marble objects, often to be displayed as souvenirs in the grounds of country houses. A group of five Delian altars in the grounds of Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, helps to illustrate changing tastes and interests over a period of two centuries.