We left Athens and headed for Delphi. For those of you that haven't been reading up on ancient texts or Greek Mythology. Let me give you some background information. Apollo is the son of Zeus, twin brother of the goddess Artemis, and he is the god of prophecy (he is the god of lots of other things, many of which are boring and irrelevant to my point). Apollo wanted a place to call his very own so he searched and searched until he found the beautiful spot of Delphi. And the story would end here if it weren't for the fact that the city of Delphi was already taken by one of the oldest gods the mother earth (I don't remember her name, but is it really that important?) The mother earth had a temple here and her son the snake (I don't remember if he was actually the god of anything or just a snake) guarded the temple. To claim the spot as his own Apollo fought and killed the snake (see it really doesn't matter what I know about him because he doesn't last very long in the story). This story is about how the old gods are replaced by the new gods and because Apollo had to do this cleansing thing for killing the snake it is also about the purification process mortals had to go through. (If you truly care about the gaps in the story google it) In any matter Delphi is Apollo's city. If you want to find Apollo looking here would be a good way to find him. Apollo is the god of prophecy and Delphi is his city, so who wants to guess what the city of Delphi was best known for. If you didn't guess oracles who deliver prophecies to those poor souls that travel from a long way away to seek help in their most important decisions, then you really haven't been paying attention.
We went to the museum for the site first. At the museum we saw the really cool ivory and gold pieces of statues of Apollo and his family, marble statues, friezes, bronze statues, pots, and various offerings to the god Apollo. Something I don't think I have mentioned about Greek statues is that all the men are naked. The Greeks believed that since we were made in the image of the gods we should revel in the human form. (Fun Fact: I don't know if its really that fun but the athletes would train in the gymnasiums and perform in the games, like the Olympics, naked for the aforementioned reason). The female statues are sometimes naked, sometimes fully covered and sometimes in this weird in between state where it looks like their clothes are just falling off. I don't know why there is the difference, it was not explained to me. Also, apparently Zeus told everyone that Delphi was the center of the world. I don't know what map he was looking at but in any case there are a bunch (and when I say a bunch I meant that we saw two) of egg shaped rocks in the site and at the museum.
The site itself was my favorite place in Greece. The first place in the site are the ruins of little shops where one could buy little statues to offer to Apollo (apparently he is more likely to give you a prophecy if you buy him something). Here we could see some stones that the archaeologists moved here so that we could see the Christian influence (there were giant stones with crosses on them) after they came into Greece. Then you walk up the sacred way. I don't know if I have ranted about this yet and if I have please feel free to skip on down but a bunch of these sites are built on hills, which makes the walking uphill and downhill, and that's all fine and good except the streets are made out of marble and they are really slippery. Did ancient people just have amazing balance? Needless to say I slipped on several occasions. Anywho, we walked up the sacred way, being extremely careful not to fall, and we saw an old temple to the mother earth (remember the story). We were also able to see the rebuilt bank of the Athenians. Bank? For those that are confused let me explain. When people would come with lavish and expensive offerings those offerings would be put into a bank, the city they were from would determine which bank (for those that are slow: if you're a wealthy Athenian and you bring an ivory and gold statue of the god Apollo, it would be put into the Athenian bank, got it?). The different cities would compete on who had the most expensive and lavish items in their banks. We kept walking up the path and we finally got to the temple where the oracle sat. People would come in and not see the oracle because they would be separated by a screen. They would pose their question and she would give them a riddle answer that they had to decipher to figure out the prophecy. For example, before the Persian War the Greeks asked the oracle how they could beat the massive Persian army. Her response was to built a wall of wood. A wall of wood? That would be easily burned down? What is she talking about? Anyone in the audience have an answer? If you guessed that the prophecy was to build a bunch of ships then you get a gold star! The Athenians defeated the Persians in a naval battle. Fun fact about the oracle. An American (USA, USA!) and Greek archaeologist found that because of some earthquakes the base of the temple had shifted and that the place where the oracle originally sat had a hole in the floor that allowed poisonous gases to leak in. So, basically she was high as a kite when she was giving prophecies. There would be more than one oracle and they would take turns giving prophecies but as you can imagine inhaling noxious fumes is not ideal for the health of these ladies, so they didn't exactly have long careers as oracles. Further up the hill is a theater, because there is always a theater at ancient sites. Past that is an arena. Tip for future travelers: If your tour guide tells you that there is something further uphill, gives you some information before you head up, and then tells you that she is going to wait at the bottom, it is pretty safe to assume that it is a long walk up.
After the site we checked into the hotel and that's about it for Delphi.
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