Day 5 - Delphi

We had another very nice day today, in fact it got a little hot climbing the hill at Delphi. But first, a couple pictures from yesterday that didn't make it up yet.

This is the view from our hotel balcony in Itea, the port city close to Delphi. We didn't get to spend a lot of time there, but it seems like a nice little fishing town.

Dinner at the hotel.

We got a little extra time to explore the town and the waterfront after breakfast in the morning. Natalie got some treasures from a guy that used to live in the states.

Here's the town of Itea on our way up to Delphi.

The temple at Delphi was the home of a well known oracle. This priestess would breathe vapors coming from a hole in the ground and reach a state not unlike people taking LSD. They believed that she was communicating with the god of the earth. People would come from all over and ask questions. This oracle even gave very specific directions for the spread of the Athenians into the rest of the Mediterranean world. When people would come to get answers, they would bring gifts. This obviously led to a large collection of artifacts from all over the world in Delphi.

 

This one is for Stephen. It is one of the oldest written music in the world. It was inscribed in 128 BC and used during religious ceremonies.

This is a 3-D representation of what the site at Delphi would have looked like.

The Athenians built a porch at the site and inscribed the names of 1000's of slaves that were freed. The slaves were freed when the Persians were coming to attack the city. The Athenians were far out numbered and in order to bolster the army, they freed the slaves to fight. Because of this wall, we know the names of the slaves, despite only knowing the names of a few leaders in Athens.

Looking down on the temple at Delphi.

The theater.

And the stadium.

Before going into the holy of holies to speak the oracles, the priestess would take a ritual bath in water that had flowed through the crack where the vapors came from. A group of scientists tested the water and it showed high amounts of methane and other carcinogens.

This is view down on the temple of Athena. People would often use this as a stopping point on the way to Delphi. It is a few miles from the site.

One last picture that I snapped. I was trying to get a close up of the flowers with the hills in the background. I had no idea that a bee had jumped into the frame until I downloaded the pictures.

 

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