31 March
2025 – Delphi
Miles
driven today = 69
Total Miles
to date = 2,620
Up until
about an hour ago I had some really exciting news to share with you.
Avid readers of this blog will be aware that
despite having owned our van for more than 3 years now, we still haven’t come
up for a name for it which we can both agree on.
Then a few days ago Lisa had a brainstorm.
Why not call it Delfi, as in Delfi
Dethleffs.
Bingo!
But I thought we would wait until we had
actually visited Delphi (the “ph” and “f” spellings are interchangeable) before
announcing this to the World.
Except
Lisa has now decided that the van is in fact male, and so we are back to square
1!
Having seen
the lack of parking space around the archeological site when we passed it
yesterday we decided to get ourselves up and away as quickly as we possibly
could this morning and then have a rather more leisurely breakfast once we were
already parked up nearby.
A very
quick history lesson.
The Oracle at Delphi
was perhaps the most holy site to the ancient Greeks.
The serpent Python, son of the Goddess Gaia, was
believed to live in a rock chasm here until he was slain by Apollo.
But it was nevertheless believed that Python and
other Gods could still communicate with the living World and bestow their
wisdom in the form of strange vapours which exuded from the chasm.
The prophecies were relayed by The Pythean
Priestess and interpreted by priests, who I guess could have made up any old
twaddle but were nevertheless highly revered and extremely well educated for
the time, with networks of informants across the Realm.
Huge decisions, such as whether or not to
commence wars were taken based on the prophecies and, as I saw the other day,
the decision to make the Acropolis in Athens purely a place for the Gods to
reside was also taken here.
A large and
extremely rich sanctuary therefore developed around the Oracle.
The
majority of the site is visited by following the “Sacred Way”.
A steep path which zigzags up through the
site.
The first site we see is the
Monument of the Admirals which once contained 37 bronze statues of Gods and
Generals.
The marble columns are a Roman
addition.
I found out
a lot more about “Treasuries” at Delphi.
We had seen these previously at Olympia and I misunderstood their
meaning.
Each one was in fact set up by individual
city states or islands and filled with votive treasures and offerings, which in
many ways were the sponsor’s way of showing off their wealth.
We would get to see some of the treasures later
in the museum.
The Sacred
Omphalos or Navel was believed to have been a stone thrown by Zeus to mark
Delphi as being the centre of the World.
It also marked Python’s tomb.
I’m
fairly certain that this is a cast of the original.
The
Athenian Treasury is the best preserved building on the site.
It was pieced back together in the early 20
th
century by matching up the inscriptions which are carved into many of the
stones like a very large jigsaw.
The
Athenian Stoa contained trophies from a naval victory in 506 BC.
Behind that you can see the “Polygonal Wall”
made of interlocking stones which has remained intact since its construction,
despite several intervening Earthquakes.
The
Polygonal Wall is also covered in inscriptions, many of which refer to the
emancipation of slaves, which could only be officially registered at Delphi.
The twisted
bronze pillar here are the tails of three intertwined serpents whose heads once
held a gold tripod.
The tripod was
melted down by the Phocians during a Sacred War but the Serpents were carted
off to the Hippodrome in Constantinople in 330 AD, where they remain to this
day.
The plinth
next to it supported a gilded chariot of the Sun God Ilios, which was a votive
from the island of Rhodes.
The prime
location in the Sanctuary is taken by the Temple of Apollo, God of Music,
Harmony and Light (maybe we should call the van “Apollo”).
The
partially restored colonnade we can see today dates back to the 4
th
Century BC but there were 2 earlier Temples previously built on this same site.
I presumed
that this was some form of drainage channel.
The Delphic
Theatre was originally constructed in the 4
th Century BC but what we
see today is the result of Roman alterations of the 1
st Century
AD.
The Theatre had a capacity of 5,000
spectators.
Fantastic
view looking down from the top of the Theatre and over the Temple of Apollo.
Much like
Olympia and Epidaurus, Delphi hosted periodic games.
The Stadium’s racetrack was originally
created in the 5
th Century BC.
The marble seating was added under the rule of Emperor Hadrian in the 2
nd
Century AD.
The track
was one Pythean Stade (178 metres) long and was wide enough for as many as 18
athletes to race at one time.
Having made
our way all the way back down the hill through the site we headed for the
Museum.
I know what you’re
thinking.
More old pottery and model
horses.
But there was some incredible
stuff here.
This is the Winged Sphinx of
the Naxians from 565 BC.
One of the
Temple friezes depicting a battle between the Olympians and the Giant Children
of Gaia.
A pair of
marble “Kuroi” from Argos (the city, not the shop) and dated 580 BC.
Statues
thought possibly to be of Apollo.
The
bodies would have been wooden but the exposed parts like faces and arms were
made of ivory, which has been blackened by time.
Hair, clothes and jewelry
were made of gold.
A life size
bull measuring 2.3 metres in length and made of silver sheeting.
A “kylix”
found in a tomb which depicts Apollo playing a lyre. 480 BC.
This just
blew me away.
This is a hymn to Apollo
complete with musical notations for lyre, flute and a stringed instrument
called a cithara.
It was created in 128
BC and as such is the oldest known written record of a musical melody.
Statue of
Antinoos, who was a beloved companion of Emperor Hadrian and acquired Demi-God
status despite the fact he drowned in the Nile in 130 AD before reaching
adulthood.
And here he
is being dug out of the ground by a team of French Archeologists in 1891.
Finally, the
crème de la crème.
This is The Charioteer.
It
is the only large bronze statue to have survived intact due to the fact that is
was buried in an Earthquake in 373 BC.
It enables us to imagine how the whole site would have looked with
dozens of pieces like this all staring down on us.
Oh to have a time machine and be
able to see how this all looked in its glory 2,500 years ago.
Time to move on, so we jumped back in Delfi/Apollo/whatever
and pointed our noses Northwards, dropping down from Delphi and picking up the
very curly-wurly E65. From Amfissa we
climbed our way back up into the mountains and swung our way back down the
other side to the Malian Gulf, losing count of the number of times our ears
popped on the way.
Our next destination is the Pelion Peninsula but Google Maps
reckoned the journey time to get there was more than 3 hours, which translates
to more like 5 hours for us, so we’ve made a half way stopover at Camping
Interstation, which is just along the coast from the town of Stilida.
It’s a huge and spacious site but it’s almost completely
deserted.
I went for a good walk around
earlier and so far I’ve only seen one other person, an elderly and profoundly
deaf gentleman who appears to be staying in one of the chalets.
We’ll see if we have any better luck tracking
down a member of staff in the morning and if not then this could end up being a
very cheap night.
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