10 March 2010 (Wednesday #2) – Delphi day

At the Ruins of Ancient Delphi

On a cool and quite overcast day (and with still sticky hands from the baklava), Conrad and I arrived at Delphi. Delphi is the name of both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece. We went to the ancient site. Of course, it’s on a mountain—Mount Parnassus, and it’s near water—The Corinthian Gulf. The area is covered with cypress trees.

For the ancient Greeks, Delphi was quite literally the center of the world, both geographically and spiritually. When Zeus (king of the gods in Greek mythology) released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth, they met in the sky above Delphi, establishing it as the center of the (known) world. It was the place where heaven and earth met, and the place where man was closest to the gods.

Another story from Greek mythology attributes the name “Delphi” to Apollo (the son of Zeus, as well as the god of light, the sun, truth, prophecy, medicine, music, etc., etc.). Once Apollo transformed himself into a dolphin and guided a ship. The ship’s sailors built a shrine to him, calling the place (where we were now visiting) Delphi, because the Greek word for “dolphin” is “delphis.”

The ruins of Ancient Delphi range in date from Mycenean times (late 8^th century BC) to the early Christian era.

When we exit a tour bus in a new area, the first question on my mind is, “Is this a stray cat place or a stray dog place?” Delphi is the home of many, many stray cats. Here are a few who were hanging out at (and on the top of) the entrance:

After checking out the cats and the dark clouds overhead, we took the long, steep walk along what was called the Sacred Way, past the remains of the “treasuries” of Greek city-states and past what was left of monuments erected to mark victories and great events.

Weather permitting, we intended to walk along the Sacred Way to the Temple of Apollo where the oracle had been, on to the terrace above the temple where a theater used to be (4^th century BC), and, finally, to the ruins of a stadium at the very top of the site.

In ancient times the Sacred Way was lined with up to 3,000 statues and "treasuries," built by city-states to house their people's offerings to thank Apollo. Many of the structures (most of which had Doric columns) were quite tall, but they were frequently damaged by earthquakes. Invasions and wars didn’t do them much good either. Suffice it to say, not much is still standing.

Here’s one of the first sights we encountered as we trudged up the Sacred Way:

What is it? I don’t know. Even with all my notes and books, I can’t figure it out.  This could have been part of the market place (agora) near the entrance where religious objects could be bought.

I do know that these ruins are covered in writing done by slaves, and that those ancient slaves certainly could write in straight lines!

These ruins (and a wall further up the Sacred Way) contain the inscribed names of manumitted slaves (manumitted = released from slavery). Slaves were often brought to Delphi and given their freedom by being sold to Apollo. Excavations at Delphi have yielded information about over 1200 slaves who were freed there.

I sort of remember our tour guide saying the slaves wrote their stories on the walls, which makes sense, because we saw more writing than the equivalent of 1200 names . . . unless they were really long names.

Close-ups of the writing:

Then we continued up the Sacred Way:

The Sacred Way makes lots of serpentine turns, which in olden days were filled with votive offerings left by grateful city-states and island colonies. Remember, this was a spiritual place for ancient Greeks.

Conrad stopped in front of this Important Stuff to take photos:

I can’t remember what this is either. (Gee, you don’t think my memory is getting fuzzy because it has taken me over a month to get these photos on my blog, do you?)

A stranger looking at that same important stuff:

I found it! This is the Spartan colonnade.

Note the Orthodox Christian Cross to the right of the center column in the above photo. It is from more "modern" times; specifically, the early Christian era.

Back to walking up the Sacred Way:

This photo of the Sacred Way is somewhat misleading. For some reason, I only took photos of it when the path was wide and the incline appears to be gradual. Rather, in real life the path was narrow, steep, and contained a lot of slippery marble.

Ancient “Do Not Touch” sign:

Note the Ancients had good manners; they used “please.” In addition to Greek, they were able to write in French and English, too. Just joking.

Marble indicating the Kings of Argos monument:

I don't know why I took a photo of the marble marker, but not of the huge semi-circular monument.

Stopping along the Sacred Way for the obligatory photo:

Note clouds were continuing to gather. My umbrella had already been up and down a few times. And the humidity killed my hair.

Note I was wearing what was my fav black trench coat from L.L. Bean. It’s been all over Europe with me. At this point, I did not know we were to have only two more days together. That glove and I parted company about an hour after this photo was taken.

I’m stopping this post to observe a moment of silence for my coat and the glove. In the next post I’ll continue narrating (in great detail!) our walk up the Sacred Way.