View of Delphi Theater & Temple from above
Marders in Greece: Day 9
Delphi
We left our hotel in Delphi and went straight to the historical site known as Delphi. Very unlike the geography at Olympia, this site is built into the side of a mountain. As legend goes, the god Zeus released two eagles and had them fly around the world. He then assumed where they met was to be considered the center of the earth. That very spot was right here in Delphi. They thought of this place as the "navel" of the world. As our guide Helen was describing this to us on this site, Patty commented, "then we must be the lint" sending our group into laughter. Luckily, our guide did not get offended by the joke, as she did have a very good sense of humor. Anyway our guide led us up the side of the mountain describing the ruins of this beautiful site. By the 6th Century BC this site held many stone buildings including a Greek theater, stadium, and a large temple, dedicated to Apollo. Here's where the story gets interesting. The history shows that in the basement of the temple was a middle-aged woman who spoke in many unconnected words and riddles. People from all over Greece would come to this place to learn the meaning of their lives and perhaps what the future held for them. This woman was called The Oracle of Delphi. Each visitor would then be granted an audience with her and through the help of an interpreter, (who would translate these unconnected words) would receive the information that they were looking for. The trick was (as it is today by palmists, tea leaf readers, etc.) that the information was given in very broad terms that could be interpreted in many different ways. So the person who received the Oracle's information (and some time it was royalty!) had to decipher the actual meaning for themselves. This became one of the very important places in all of Greece and thus was claimed later by the Romans (who erected their own statues) and later destroyed by the Christians and Moslems as pagan relicts. We hiked through the ruins and were struck by the magnificent beauty of the locale. It seemed like you could see the whole world from this very spot. After our tour of the grounds, we went into the associated museum and viewed a few of the recovered sculptures that were discovered during the archeological digging of this site. The sculptures were again astounding in their beauty and detail. Following our visit to Delphi, we got back into our motor coach and drove northwest through a rugged mountain pass to our next destination, Meteora. It was about a 4 hour drive through the mountains and plush agricultural plains before we arrived in Meteora and the nearby town called Kalambaka. The striking geography of Meteora was in our view as straight-up hills of rock in the center of a former river flood plain. We learned that this geography was probably due to earthquakes and erosion. We rode our motor coach to check into our hotel, have some dinner, and spend the night.
We left our hotel in Delphi and went straight to the historical site known as Delphi. Very unlike the geography at Olympia, this site is built into the side of a mountain. As legend goes, the god Zeus released two eagles and had them fly around the world. He then assumed where they met was to be considered the center of the earth. That very spot was right here in Delphi. They thought of this place as the "navel" of the world. As our guide Helen was describing this to us on this site, Patty commented, "then we must be the lint" sending our group into laughter. Luckily, our guide did not get offended by the joke, as she did have a very good sense of humor. Anyway our guide led us up the side of the mountain describing the ruins of this beautiful site. By the 6th Century BC this site held many stone buildings including a Greek theater, stadium, and a large temple, dedicated to Apollo. Here's where the story gets interesting. The history shows that in the basement of the temple was a middle-aged woman who spoke in many unconnected words and riddles. People from all over Greece would come to this place to learn the meaning of their lives and perhaps what the future held for them. This woman was called The Oracle of Delphi. Each visitor would then be granted an audience with her and through the help of an interpreter, (who would translate these unconnected words) would receive the information that they were looking for. The trick was (as it is today by palmists, tea leaf readers, etc.) that the information was given in very broad terms that could be interpreted in many different ways. So the person who received the Oracle's information (and some time it was royalty!) had to decipher the actual meaning for themselves. This became one of the very important places in all of Greece and thus was claimed later by the Romans (who erected their own statues) and later destroyed by the Christians and Moslems as pagan relicts. We hiked through the ruins and were struck by the magnificent beauty of the locale. It seemed like you could see the whole world from this very spot. After our tour of the grounds, we went into the associated museum and viewed a few of the recovered sculptures that were discovered during the archeological digging of this site. The sculptures were again astounding in their beauty and detail. Following our visit to Delphi, we got back into our motor coach and drove northwest through a rugged mountain pass to our next destination, Meteora. It was about a 4 hour drive through the mountains and plush agricultural plains before we arrived in Meteora and the nearby town called Kalambaka. The striking geography of Meteora was in our view as straight-up hills of rock in the center of a former river flood plain. We learned that this geography was probably due to earthquakes and erosion. We rode our motor coach to check into our hotel, have some dinner, and spend the night.
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