Delphi
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Wed 16 Jul 2025 14:34
| We were video-calling our son Tom one day, and telling him that the next stop on our trip was to Delphi, when our 8 year old grandson Ben popped up saying “Ooh, Delphi! Are you going to see the Oracle?” Ancient Greece has been the theme at school this year and Danny, Ben and Clara can all claim much better knowledge about Greek history and mythology than we can! I texted on the morning that we were due to visit the archaeological site at Delphi and asked if there was anything specific we needed to look out for. “Please send photos of the Temple of Apollo and the Omphalos” came the reply. We didn’t know what an Omphalos might be but gladly accepted the mission! Delphi is built on the slopes of Mount Parnassus and, as we climbed ever higher up the winding road from the valley floor, the views got more and more spectacular. It’s worth going there for the location alone. View towards the Itea Gulf from the road to Delphi, and this was only half way up! At ‘To Patriko Mas’ restaurant. Highly recommended for the view as well as the food The Ancient Greeks believed that Delphi was the centre of the world, and here’s where the Omphalos comes into the story. In Greek mythology Zeus sent out two eagles from opposite ends of the Earth, and where their paths crossed over Delphi, he threw down the Omphalos stone to mark the centre of the world, omphalos being the Greek word for navel. The Omphalos stone inside the museum…. … and a copy version in situ at the Earth’s centre Early Greek myths indicate that Delphi was the site of an important oracle as early as 1400 BC and was rededicated as a place of worship for Apollo from about 800 BC. The ruins of the Temple of Apollo we can see today date from the 4th century BC. The oracle, the Pythia, prophesied from a tripod seat set over an opening in the earth within the inner sanctum of the Temple. Vapours rising from the earth were inhaled and the Pythia would speak with jumbled words, as if in a trance, and the words were then interpreted by priests. Our friend Nik Liamis (from Thessaloniki) recalled learning some of the sayings of the oracle when he was at school, and how they were cleverly written so that they could be interpreted in a number of different ways. Presumably this gave the priests a chance to interpret according to the needs of the person asking a question of the oracle. The saying he remembered in particular was 'you will go you will return not in the war you shall die’. If a comma was placed before the word ‘not’ then the person would not die in the war, and if the comma was after ‘not’ the person would go to war and not come back. Ultimately, the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire led to Delphi’s decline in importance and the abandonment of oracle consultations in the 4th century AD. Temple of Apollo seen from above. Note the vast olive groves covering the slopes behind. Delphi was economically strong due to its fertile land The site of the Delphi ruins is interesting in itself. The hillside is very steep and the creation of so many stone structures at such a height must have been a feat of engineering. The position of the site seems to have been carefully chosen, as we discovered on a trip to Galixidi on the other side of the Itea Gulf. From there, where ships might have landed to threaten Delphi’s security, you could see the new town of Delphi clearly, but the ancient ruins were tucked behind a rocky outcrop and totally invisible. Any forces attempting to come at Delphi from the other direction, down the valley, would have had mountain passes to deal with first, high enough to house Greece’s Mount Parnassus ski area today! Galaxidi. Delphi new town can be seen on the hill to the right of the yacht masts. The ancient ruins are over the hill behind. Galaxidi was a delightful place: a small sleepy town on a rocky outcrop with two natural harbours, one on either side of the peninsula. Until about 200 years ago it was a busy commercial port so it has many sizeable houses built by wealthy merchants. Today it’s a weekend holiday spot for Athenians and an idyllic anchorage for yachts and super yachts. We liked it so much we had fun planning which house we would buy. A property in Galixidi would qualify us for a Greek Golden Visa and free travel within the Schengen zone. Now there’s a thought!! |