10 March 2010 (Wednesday #3) – Delphi day

 
(still) At the Ruins of Ancient Delphi 

Still walking up the Sacred Way:

Passing the Treasury of the Boeotians:

Boeotian city-states existed in Ancient Greece. In the Mycenaean period, Thebes, one of the fortified Boeotian towns, attracted attention from invading Dorians, whose soldiers took their name from their tendency to march into battle carrying a Doric column. Not really, but I enjoy working “Doric columns” into my blog.

As noted in the previous post, a treasury was a small rectangular building used to protect valuables such as silver and gold offerings brought in by representatives of various city-states. The offerings were frequently a tithe (tenth) of the spoils of a battle.

The treasuries resembled simple temples. They were built high off the ground, on pedestals without steps, which made them difficult to enter. The treasuries typically had thick, windowless walls and columns on the front.

Here’s our tour group, standing in front of something and listening to our tour guide tell about it:

There I am to the right, enjoying some time with my black L.L. Bean trench coat.

As indicated by the marble marker, we have now arrived at the Treasury of the Athenians:

It was built to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Marathon and to house some of the spoils of that war.

A look at part of the Treasury of the Athenians:

A (crooked) look at the whole front of the Treasury of the Athenians:

The Treasury of Athens was built about 500 BC. with two Doric columns and thirty metopes depicting the labors of Herakles and Theseus. It was over 30 feet tall, but only about 22 feet in diameter.

You’ll note one of the Doric columns looks really weird:

This treasury has been partially reconstructed. You’d think with all the column parts lying around all over the place, the reconstructors could have found a better match. Pathetic. What a desecration of a Doric column!

A close-up of some of the metopes surrounding the Treasury of the Athenians:

A metope is a square space in a Doric frieze, or border.

While continuing on the Sacred Way, I couldn’t resist a look back at the Athenian Treasury . . . must have been those Doric columns:

Shortly after the Athenian Treasury, we came to this cone-shaped stone known as the Omphalos.

“Omphalós” is the Greek word for “navel.” This stone at Delphi was thought to have marked the center, or navel, of the earth. (See previous post about Zeus and those two eagles.) The navel of the earth is an outie.

Side note: Every time I type something like "is the Greek word for..." or "comes from the Greek word...,"I feel like I'm the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Now we’ve arrived at the Rock of the Sibyl:

Here’s the whole thing:

It’s a tad overgrown. Legend has it that Herophile, a daughter of Zeus, sang her oracles and foretold the future from atop this 10-foot high rock.

Here are some of the flowers surrounding the rock:

Looking at these bright, cheerful flowers, it’s hard to believe it was pouring rain.

Delphi is a gorgeous place, even in the rain:

Back on the Sacred Way, almost to (what is left of) the Sanctuary of Apollo:

There’s a peek at the Sanctuary of Apollo (the columns midway up on the left).

Before we got to the Sanctuary of Apollo, we passed the Athenian Stoa:

In Ancient Greek architecture, a stoa (such as this Athenian Stoa) was a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public usage:

WHAT?? It has Ionic columns? Didn't the Athenians get the memo that Greece is all about Doric columns?? Originally the Athenian Stoa had seven columns, each carved from a single stone. It was built primarily to house the trophies of their naval victories over the Persians. And it has the wrong kind of columns.

The stones in the foreground show more of the names of the freed slaves:

The writing is teeny, tiny.

Here’s a closer look at the Polygonal Wall behind the Athenian Stoa:

It was built to shore up the foundations of the Temple of Apollo (the thing we were still trying to walk to), after the temple was rebuilt following an earthquake. (Before the earthquake, the temple was also rebuilt after a fire.) The wall is called the Polygonal Wall because of the shape of the stones. Great job fitting those stones together without mortar!

Bases of some columns that didn’t survive:

View of the valley from high up the Sacred Way:

Looking back at the Athenian Stoa (right) and the Treasury of the Athenians (where the people in the background are):

If it looks like I’m now going backwards, that’s because I was. I got tired of the rain, cut short my walk to the top, and went to the Delphi Museum. Conrad continued to the top. The next post will show photos he took as he finished climbing the Sacred Way.

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.

10 March 2010 (Wednesday #1 ) – Delphi day

From Athens to Ancient Delphi

Conrad and I are so getting into the swing of this Greece travel thing! We have a morning routine.

We start each day by pigging out at our hotel restaurant's scrumptious breakfast buffet, and then we go to our hotel lobby. Ponytail Man saunters into the lobby, says “Geebson,” and we follow him to a bus. Once on the bus we sit on . . . yes! The right side! Once Ponytail Man has gathered all our tour companions for the day we set off for . . . yes again! The National Road!

This morning while driving through Athens, we passed people, buildings, and vehicles:

We passed McDonald’s:

We passed Greece’s Parliament, which was originally the royal palace, but became the seat of Parliament in 1935:

This photo is misleading. It looks as if those steps in the center lead right up to the building, but on the other side of the steps is a wide street between the steps and Parliament. The Presidential guards march and change shifts every hour on the pavement in front of Parliament, which is blocked from view here by the steps. The guards are the ones who wear kilts and shoes with fluffy pom-poms on the toes.

I just read the guard’s manly uniform is based on the attire worn by the mountain fighters in the War of Independence (1821-1829). Their opponents must have been laughing too hard to fight.

We passed what was the residence of the Mycenaean archeologist Heinrich Schliemann:

It’s now the Numismatic Museum of Athens.

We passed congested streets with fuchsia lampposts:

We passed palm trees sporting loudspeakers, with mountains in the background:

We passed little, bitsy vehicles:

True to the Athenian tradition, they were covered in dirt.

We passed stray, street dogs, easily identifiable by their size and by their collars and tags:

(This one looks like he’s waiting patiently to eat that woman.)

Then we got to Important Ancient Stuff in Athens, as evidenced by the fact that it was hidden by those dang trees:

If the ruin weren’t hidden by trees, it was hidden by walls, or by trees and walls, as shown here:

(That’s probably an ancient Doric column.)

When trees and walls weren’t handy, those clever Greeks positioned buses to hide our view:

Did you notice when there is finally Something Important to see from our seats on the right side of the bus, it is hidden?

Here our view was blocked by numerous buses:

Note we’ve been “driving” (okay, mostly “sitting”) in Athens for a long time. Ponytail Man beckoned us to our bus at 7:35 a.m., and the clock on the bus says it’s already 9:00 a.m., but we’re still in Athens. Look through the windshield of the bus to see the reason for our delay:

Protesters who will participate in tomorrow’s national strike/riot were gathered to discuss their plans, and they were meeting in the middle of the street! The sign that looks like it's left over from the Olympics seems to be the Official Strike/Riot Symbol.

These guys (also in the middle of the street) were passing around sign-up sheets for the riot:

They really were!

At last we were out of Athens and on the road to the ruins of Ancient Delphi:

Bus + Conrad = zzzzzzzzz:

Check out the highway we were following:

That’s it on the lower right of the photo, with more of its zigzags showing further up on the right side. We were on those zigzags, traveling at a high rate of speed, too.

The bus driver stopped for us to have a potty break. At this point we’d been sitting on the bus for nearly 4 hours. We were told not to bring food or drink back onto the bus to keep it tidy. Well, then they shouldn’t have stopped where 10 other tour buses stopped. Here’s our baklava on our laps in the bus:

It was THE stickiest baklava I’ve ever had in my life. We were not tidy in its consumption.

We also purchased drinks and brought them on the bus. Here’s the top of one of them:

The purpose of this photo is to illustrate a popular Greek custom—putting a foil seal on everything!!

Back on the road to Delphi:

Two concerns cropped up about this time on the drive:
1. The hours of sitting and that huge baklava were causing my rear to expand greatly. I could feel it happening.
2. We’d been driving for hours, but from the moment we left our hotel I had not seen any blue skies, the sun . . ..

Instead, the clouds darkened (we were up high enough to be in the clouds), and raindrops appeared on the bus windows:

And it got darker:

But wait! There’s a spot of light over those mountains in the background:

Oh. The light is revealing the snow. It got cold, too.

Here's a map of Greece (albeit a strange one) showing Delphi in relation to Athens:

The two locations are about 100 miles apart, so the drive can take 2-4 hours, depending on pre-riot conditions in Athens.