Delos

Certain · the excavated island

Smallest of the Cyclades and holiest: here wandering Leto, denied everywhere by Hera’s wrath, bore Apollo beneath the palm, and the island was fixed in the sea. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo, in this library, sings the birth and the Ionian festival. The annual Athenian mission to Delos, becalmed, is why Socrates’ execution waited a month — the month of the Phaedo’s conversations.