The Isles of Greece - Stanza 1

The isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho* loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos* rose, and Phoebus* sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.

* Sappho - was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments. The adjectives deriving from her name and place of birth (Sapphic and Lesbian) came to be associated with female homosexuality.

* Delos - As the birthplace of Artemis and Apollo, the twin offspring of Zeus by Leto, the Greek island of Delos was a major sacred site for the ancient Greeks, second in importance only to Delphi. When Leto was discovered to be pregnant, Zeus' jealous wife Hera banished her from the earth, but Poseidon took pity on her and provided Delos as a place for her to give birth in peace. At its height, the sacred island was covered in a variety of temples and sanctuaries dedicated to a variety of gods. Today, it is a fascinating archaeological site located just two miles from Mykonos. The Ionians colonized Delos around 1000 BC and made it their religious capital. The island was so sacred that, at one point, no one was allowed to be born or to die there - those about to do either were rushed off to the nearby islet of Rinia. A great festival, the Delia, was hosted here in honor of Apollo, Artemis and Leto.
The Decline and Destruction of Delos
In 88 BC Mithridates, the king of Pontus attacked the unfortified island as part of a revolt against Roman rule. The entire population of 20,000 was killed or sold into slavery. A Roman legate built defensive walls around the city in 66 BC, but by then Delos was on its way out. It was gradually abandoned in the centuries that followed. In the 2nd century AD, Pausanius recorded that it was inhabited only by the temple guards. Delos was never forgotten, however, which meant further destruction and looting by the successive rulers of the area - pirates, Knights of St. John, Venetians, Turks - as well as its neighbors Mykonos and Tinos. In the 17th century, Sir Kenelm Digby removed some marbles from Delos for the collection of Charles I. Formal excavation work began in 1872 by the French School of Archaeology, which still continues today. The island is still uninhabited except for the French archaeologists and site guardians.

* Phoebus - is the Latin form of Greek = "Shining-one", a byname used in classical mythology for either the god Apollo, or the god Helios, or the sun, generally. Classical Latin poets also used Phoebus as a byname for the sun-god, whence common references in later European poetry to Phoebus and his "winged chariot" as a metaphor for the sun. In AD 362, in the Delphic Pythia's last prophecy, she said to Oribasius of Pergamum (personal physician of the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate) "Report to the emperor, fallen is the splendid hall, Phoebus no longer has his house. Neither the prophesying laurel nor the well will talk anymore, silent also the babbling water." Phoebus was also referred to as the God of enlightenment.

Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.

Greece has Mediterranean climate, so it is never too cold, always bright and sunny - thus eternal summer covers all of Greece's history, which now lies in ruins from which we can only imagine how the country looked in its days of Glory. So, all except their sun, is set. Everything's gone.