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  • Day 594

    Day 595: Ruins of Delphi

    October 2, 2018 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Grabbed a quick early start, and our first free buffet breakfast in an awfully long time! Managed to arrive at the nearby ruins of Delphi before most of the tour buses had rolled in. Delphi is an ancient sanctuary, one of the most revered of the ancient world. The ancient Greeks consulted the Oracles here on all sorts of matters from around 800 BC right through until 400 AD when the practice was outlawed by the newly Christian Roman emperors.

    It's a fairly small site, but it was in great condition. In a super dramatic spot on the slopes of a mountain, upon entering you wind your way up the Sacred Path which leads past ruined temples and treasuries before eventually arriving at the Temple of Apollo. According to Greek mythology, this was where Apollo slew the serpent god Pythos who fell into a chasm in the earth. Ever since, the chasm has emitted noxious fumes, and the main temple was constructed over said chasm.

    Upon being asked a question, the Oracles (actually local peasant women) would take a deep breath of the noxious fumes, suffer what modern scientists think was probably an epileptic fit, and babble incoherently. A cabal of priests would nurse her back to health, "interpreting" her babble and translating it into a poetic prophecy that would answer the question - for better or worse.

    Thankfully there was no inhaling for us, but it was a fun place to wander around and imagine the ancient goings-on. There was a large theatre here too, since Apollo was also the god of music and poetry and the arts, and right at the top was another stadium like we'd seen a few days earlier at Olympia.

    Quite an interesting site all up, and the attached museum was quite good too - but we were finished by lunchtime. Grabbed some gyros at a restaurant in the nearby town (which seemed to be entirely made up of souvenir shops and tourist hotels), then drove back to our cabin and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. I had a quick dip in the swimming pool, though it was unheated and absolutely freezing!
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