The Temple of Apollo
Today Claire and I took a day trip to Delphi. At 8:30 am we boarded our tour bus and headed out on the nearly 3 hour journey to Mount Parnassus. It was a gorgeous drive! About half of the Greek population lives in Athens, so once you get outside the city there is a lot of beautiful green - mountains and agriculture. The drive was also nice because our tourguide provided wonderful commentary on the history of the region.
Once we arrived at the ruins we went first to the museum and saw many of the amazing relics that had been dug up around the Temple of Apollo. Supposedly when the Byzantine Empire converted to Christianity the temple was destroyed and forgotten. Eventually the village of Delphi was built on top of th ruins. The masterpiece remained hidden until a French archeologist was able to orchestrate the moving of the village 500 meters up the road, somewhere around 1930's. Countless treasures and priceless historical records were found in the rubble.
After the museum we continued on to the ruins. We wandered up the "sacred way" past ruins of treasuries ( built by rich Greek city-states to house their offereings to Apollo), bases where statues had stood, the polygonal wall etched with historical recore, etc. It was fabulous!
This site is famous not only because it is a Temple for Apollo, it was also thought to be the navel (center) of the earth and it had an oracle! An oracle was a place peoploe would go to have their questions answered, not the person. At the site a young beautiful Delphian virgin would sit on a tripod over a whole in the ground from which the fumes of the spirit of Apollo poured. She chewed bay leafs and was "elated" - because the fumes were actually petroleum. :) She would respond to questions in undecipherable ways and the preists would relay the message to the pilgrims. Pretty interesting!
Above the temple is a theater and further up the hill a stadium. The Greeks believed that music, theater, and athletics were ment to honor the gods. Thus these facilities were built high on the mountain to bring them closer to the gods. It was all fabulous to see, and the views were amazing!
After exploring the rui9ns we got back on the bus and headed into the village of Delphi for lunch. Then we headed back to Athens.
In Athens we spent the evening exploring the market area we got lost in yesterday before grabbing dinner and heading back to the hostel to pack up for our trip to Hydra.
Once we arrived at the ruins we went first to the museum and saw many of the amazing relics that had been dug up around the Temple of Apollo. Supposedly when the Byzantine Empire converted to Christianity the temple was destroyed and forgotten. Eventually the village of Delphi was built on top of th ruins. The masterpiece remained hidden until a French archeologist was able to orchestrate the moving of the village 500 meters up the road, somewhere around 1930's. Countless treasures and priceless historical records were found in the rubble.
After the museum we continued on to the ruins. We wandered up the "sacred way" past ruins of treasuries ( built by rich Greek city-states to house their offereings to Apollo), bases where statues had stood, the polygonal wall etched with historical recore, etc. It was fabulous!
This site is famous not only because it is a Temple for Apollo, it was also thought to be the navel (center) of the earth and it had an oracle! An oracle was a place peoploe would go to have their questions answered, not the person. At the site a young beautiful Delphian virgin would sit on a tripod over a whole in the ground from which the fumes of the spirit of Apollo poured. She chewed bay leafs and was "elated" - because the fumes were actually petroleum. :) She would respond to questions in undecipherable ways and the preists would relay the message to the pilgrims. Pretty interesting!
Above the temple is a theater and further up the hill a stadium. The Greeks believed that music, theater, and athletics were ment to honor the gods. Thus these facilities were built high on the mountain to bring them closer to the gods. It was all fabulous to see, and the views were amazing!
After exploring the rui9ns we got back on the bus and headed into the village of Delphi for lunch. Then we headed back to Athens.
In Athens we spent the evening exploring the market area we got lost in yesterday before grabbing dinner and heading back to the hostel to pack up for our trip to Hydra.
Gorgeous view!
Looking down at the theater and temple (on the left)
The stadium
At the ruins
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