Delphi

The awe-inspiring natural site of Delphi itself radiates spiritual power. It sits on a small plateau where a level area had to be carved out for the establishment of the sanctuary that was one of the most important religious centers of antiquity, considered to be the center of the earth (omalos yis).

The site, at 570 meters/1870 feet, sits on the southern slopes of Mt. Parnassos in an angle formed by the two sheer peaks of about 300meters known as the Paedriades (Shining Rocks) which create a chasm below them. The western one is called Rhodhini (Roseate), the eastern one Phleboukos (Flamboyant). Those found guilty of sacrilege were allegedly hurled from the second by the Delphians. In a cleft between the cliffs is the Kastalian Spring, where pilgrims to the sanctuary purified themselves, and in a ravine to the south below the peaks flows the River Pleistos. Completing the circle to the west is is the 700 meter peak of Aghios Ilias (St Elijah), beyond which Mt. Kirphys rises. The river valley is planted with olive trees, and extends to the port of Itea and the Gulf of Corinth. The site is relatively small-about 6 acres-and south-facing.

Legend has it that Delphi was founded by Zeus, and ancient historians recount the flight of two eagles, sent by the gods to find the center of the earth, who then met above Mt. Parnassos and decided upon Delphi as the sacred spot.

Delphi was, however, a sacred place as far back as the 2nd millennium BC, dedicated to the Earth Goddess (Gaia or Ge/Yi, which means 'Earth') and her daughter Themis (one of the Titans) who expressed themselves in the sound of earth tremors, rustling of leaves and the gurgling of water from rocks faults, the goddess hidden below, guarded by her son, the snake Python. Female oracles, known as sybils interpreted these 'utterances'. Bronze Age shrines and figurines have firmly established that the Mother Goddess worship and oracular activity prevailed here, as well as finds at the Korykeion Cave on Mt Parnassos. Sybils were found all over the Mediterranean and usually associated with sacred rocks and springs. From 1500-1100 BC Delphi was a Mycenean village. The structures of the Apollonian and Athenian sanctuaries which followed (around 1000BC) were built on top of the older Earth Goddess ones.

There are various theories as to the origins of the cult of Apollo, including Dorian Crete, Thessaly, Siberia, and to the Hittite tradition, where he was known as Apulunas, god of the gates. In any case, the shift from the feminine to masculine image of prophetic power paralleled the shift from nomadic to settled culture, with public decisions requiring spiritual counsel and approval. The first Apollonian temples were of mud-brick and the first sybils usually peasant girls who seemed to have intuitive capacities. The worship of Dionysos accompanied that of Apollo, presenting a balance of rational and 'irrational' elements-the latter representing the forces of nature in this place of frequent earthquakes and tremors, which had also been the center of Earth Goddess worship in earlier times.

During the Archaic period (roughly 8th to 5th centuries BC), a council was formed from twelve families to adminster the shrine of Delphi, and was called the Amphiktyonic Council. It met twice a year and established policy, a festival calendar, and organized the Pythian Games. Various city-states and larger regional powers exerted control over the shrine during the ensuing centuries: Sparta, Phokia, Athens, Macedonia. A series of Roman emporers built monuments and stoas there in a revival that followed a long lull in activity, but it was also sacked by Roman emporers such as Sulla and Nero. By the 4th century AD the voices of prophecy had been stilled.

Apollo along with his father Zeus, and his sister Athena, is one of the three most influential gods in the Greek pantheon. He was worshipped not only in mainland Greece but throughout the Aegean. He represents the principle of Light, pure intellect, spiritual knowledge and prophecy, form, moderation, order, morality , justice, poetry and music, sacred geometry and architecture. Father of Asklipios, he is also the god of healing.

It is not really so strange (though sometimes thought so) that he is also the god of plagues, since these were seen in ancient times as punishments for immortality (pollution of the spirit), and hence connected with his attribute of justice). His beauty is an ideal beauty. It was his province to establish temples sacrifices, as well as purification rites. His instrument was the seven-stringed lyre, which he perfected after receiving it as a gift from its inventor, Hermes. There were contests between the lyre (which represented all of the 'spiritual' qualities listed above that were associated with Apollo), and the flute (Pan-pipes really), which represented all that went with the Dionysian (excess of passion primarily). The slaying of the Python and musical victories of the lyre over the pipes is symbolic of the supercession of the new city (polis) based civilization over the 'primitive', nomadic life (and, simultaneously), the control of the 'lower' emotions by the 'higher' mind).

He was the illegitimate child of Zeus and the nympth Leto, and hunted by Zeus' legal wife Hera (Ira in Greek) so that she fled to Delos and to give birth to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. As an infant, he demanded bows and arrows and sought out the serpent Python on Mt Parnassos, who was his mother's enemy. The serpent fled to Delphi to the safety of the Earth Mother's shrine, but Apollo slew him anyway, thus polluting the shrine and offending the goddess. His purified himself of his crime in the Vale of Tempe, the gorge beneath Mt Olympos (or to Crete, according to the myth that places his origins there). According to Homer, he went into exile for eight years. Returning to Delphi, he persuaded Pan to reveal to him the art of prophecy (Pan being a manifestation of the Dionysian, earthly side of things formerly represented by the Earth Goddess). Dionysos came for three winter months every year to share the sanctuary with Apollo, when the latter went off to the north to spend time alone.

In killing the Python, Apollo became the Python himself-the voice of divine prophecy. The Sybils, who delivered his replies to questions posed him, were actually themselves called Pythia. At first they were chosen only from local virgins, but later only a woman over 50, who had lived an impeccable life, could fulfill this role. She drank first from the Kassiotis fountain near the temple (said to bestow the gift of prophecy), and then entered the crypt of the temple where she breathed the smoke of burning laurel leaves (laurel being the sacred tree of Apollo) and barley meal. Finally, she sat on a tripod cauldron near the Omphalos (navel of the earth) and near Dionysos' tomb. The pilgrims (men only) were ushered into the adjacent room where the priests heard their questions and then passed them on to the Pythia. She went into a trance, sometimes with convulsive twitchings, and both her vocal utterances and physical movements were interpreted by the priests, who expressed them in hexameter verse. This state of prophetic madness was known to Greeks as enthousiasmos (a word deriving from being in or with god (theos). Contrary to what is usually understood by the word prophecy, the replies took the form of counsel rather than prediction, though approval for various sides in warfare were included.

The site of Delphi

The oldest part of the site is in the Marmaria, a narrow strip of land on the southern slope of Parnassos, where the Sanctuary of Athena is found. She was worshipped as Athena Pronaia/Proneia (Guardian of the Temple). It was occupied during Neolithic times (5000-3000BC) and a Mycenean settlement was found in this area in 1922. This part of the larger Delphi site was dedicated to the Olympian gods, particularly Athena, but, like the Apollonian shrine, was first dedicated to the Earth Mother, with remains from sacrifices found there. Athena superceded her in the Classical Age.

The Temple of Athena Pronoia dates to the 6th century BC on the site of a 7th century edifice. The temple was damaged by rockfall in 480 BC and completely destroyed by earthquake in 373 BC. Fifteen remaining columns had been unearthed before a landslide destroyed all by three. This spot experienced 3000 years of continuous religious focus, from Neolithic to Roman times.

The Tholos Temple (L & R) was built in the early 4th century on another site sacred to the Earth Mother. The round shape resembles that of Mycenaean sacrificial pits.

This temple was 13.5meters/45 feet in diameter and was erected on a triple platform, with twenty slender outer columns, the inner colonnade built with Corinthian columns, and the floor laid in geometric patterns of Pentellic and Eleusinian marble.Above the outer columns are reliefs depicting a battle of the Amazons.

 

The New Temple of Athena Pronoia has a portico of six columns of the Doric order. The Gymnasium, first built in the 4th century BC, was rebuilt by the Romans., and is arranged of different levels due to the lay of the land. A covered colonnade is on the top level, which is known as the Xystos. This is where athletes practiced in bad weather, with a parallel track out in the open. The Palaestra is on the lower level, and divinded into a colonnaded court, the Baths, and a series of douche baths. The hot baths to the north of the court were added by the Romans.

The Kastalian spring (left) is situated in the ravine between the two Phaedriadhes, at 538meters. There are actually two springs, the one closer to the road being the older one, built during the Archaic period and not found again until 1958. The later spring was carved out of the rock and dates to Hellenistic times, and this is the site of the Kastalian Fountain.

Apollo was said to have planted a laurel cutting from the Vale of Tempe here. This area too was a place of cult worship of the Earth goddess, evidenced by the base of a statue of her. Pilgrims to the Delphic shrine had to purify themselves here, the washing of the hair an important part of the ritual, but murderers had to bath their entire bodies.

The Roman poets acribed poet inspiration to the waters, and the present-day fountain dates to Roman or Hellenistic times. A fascade of seven marble pilasters ornaments the spring with four niches presumably for votive offerings. In the biggest niche is a column drum from an altar of a Byzantine chapel. The water was channeled into a long reservoir 9 meters by 1 meter which fed seven jets which in turn fell into a rectangular court (9 meters by 3 meters) reached by stone steps .The water overflowing the fountain plunges down the ravine to join the waters of the Pleistos River far below. An Archaic fountain house near the road was discovered in 1957. The Pythian Sanctuary is an area with many monuments besides the temple itself. A wall encloses the precinct, with several gates in it. It is trapezoidal in shape and measures around 183meters by 128meters. The walls date from the 6th, 5th, and 4th centuries BC. This is a terraced area, necessitated by the steepness of the slope, with separate platforms for each building.

The Sacred Way runs up through the terraces, and is 3.7 to 4.9meters wide. It was paved with slabs during the Roman period, taken from nearby buildings during the period of Delphi's decline. Several inches below it is the earlier road.

It begins at the Roman agora, and leads westward past monuments and treasuries before veering north and upward. Before there were any monuments there, the view of the twin cliffs must have been very moving. Some of the monuments include the huge bronze Bull of the Korcyrans , dating to the late 5th century BC., erected as a gift to Apollo. Pausanius describes how a bull on the island of Corfu had directed the local population to a school of tuna attracted to the edge of the sea by the bull's bellowing. Unable to catch the fish, they asked the oracle (Apollo) what to do, and he told them to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, upon which the fish were caught and the bronze bull was their thank you to the god. The real bull, no doubt, felt rather short-changed (but Pausanius doesn't say). Nine bronze statues erected by the Arkadians follow, and after that, a figure of a general who defeated Sparta in a battle in the 3rd centuryBC. There are many more statues, some having connection with the Peloponnesian war, and a base for a huge bronze horse (which might have been meant as the famous Trojan Horse).

The Treasuries include that of, Sifnos,(right) which was built during the 6thcentury BC from the tremendous wealth of this Cycladic island's gold and silver mines. Many of its fine marble scultptures were found and are housed in the museum. Its temple was an Ionic building in marble with a sculpted pediment supported by two caryatids and sculpted frieze. TheTreasury of Sikyon northwest of Corinth and The Treasury of Thebes are others, the latter built of grey limestone. The Treasury of the Athenians, (below) which has been reconstructed, is a Doric structure built of Parian marble during the 5thcentury BC from the booty taken from the Persians at Marathon, and adorned with scenes of the battle between the Greeks and Amazons and legends about Thseus and Herakles (housed in the museum). Its reconstruction is a reflection of the importance of Athens in modern times and was carried out in 1906 by a French architect, using most of the original masonry. It has fluted columns supporting the porch.

The Asklipion is just behind the Athenian Treasury and consists of a small area dedicated to the man-god Asklipios (son of Apollo) and the healing arts. Common elements to all such places was a source of pure water, a temple dedicated to Asklipios, and an abaton, where patients entered into the sleep in which the god came to them in their dreams (sometimes in the form of a serpent). The water here came from a fountain fed by a spring (at the west end of the Temple of Apollo), brought to the fountain through stone ducts. The one building here seems more like a temple than an abaton, however, suggesting that the site was more devotional than curative.

The Precinct of the Goddess. Here stands the Rock of the Sibyl. According to legend, Herophile, daughter of Zeus and Lamia (the first sibyl) sang on this rock about the Trojan War and predicted the fate of Helen. Near it is a sacred spring called the Sacred Fountain which comes up from under the temple and seems to return to the earth behind the rock. An olive tree (the tree sacred to Athena) grows there today, watered by the spring.

The Rock of Leto is next to the Rock of the Sibyl. This is the rock to which Leto, mother of Apollo, brought him as a baby and taught him about dragon slaying, and from here that he went to Parnassos with bow and arrow to find the Python and slay him. Behind this rock is the Sphinx of the Naxians, with the head of a woman, the wings and breast of a bird, and the lower body of a lion. Erected during the mid-6th century BC, she guards the entrance to the temple and the precinct of the Earth Goddess as she sleeps. The Halos is beyond here on the other side of the Sacred Way. This is a circular dancing or threshing floor where, every eight years, a drama called the Stepteria was performed to honor Apollo. It is a reenactment of the god's defiling of the sanctuary (by killing the Python) and his subsequent purification, using young boys as the actors, who set fire to religious objects on a table in a hut and then flee to the Vale of Tempe.

The polygonal retaining wall of the terrace on which the temple of Apollo is built is 83meters/272feet long and was built in the 6th century of huge blocks of limestone or random shapes. The wall is inscribed with the records of granting slaves their freedom during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and total more than 800.

The Stoa of the Athenians, which contains the naval trophies captured from the Persians is a wooden colonnade with Ionic marble columns.

The Temple of Apollo The ruins you will see there today date from 330 BCentury BC, the previous, 6th century, building having been destroyed by earthquake, as well as the temple to Gaia. This last temple is considered to have been the sixth on this site, and was built to the same dimension as the previous one, and with the same materials. The foundations, columns and entablature were of poros stone and the pediments of Parian marble.

Six columns have been reconstructed to present a visual idea of how the temple appeared in its last phase. The exterior Doric columns numbered 38, six on the fascades and fifteen on the sides (an unconventional design, perhaps because of the need for the inner chamber where oracles were given, something not necessary in other temples). The total length was 59.5meters/195feet and the width 23.8meters/78 feet. The interior columns were Ionic.

In the portico, along with a statue of Homer, were inscriptions with the precepts of the Sages of Greece including the famous: 'Know theyself', and 'Nothing in excess'. The naos at the center of the temple contained altars and statues. Of the latter, the most important was the golden statues of Apollo. The eternal hearth, the hestia (estia in Greek) was there as well. and beyond was the crypt or inner sanctum-- the adyton where the Pythia sat near the omphalos and the tomb of Dionysos. The area was sunken, with steps descending to it, and surrounded by Ionic columns. It has been suggested that in addition to the burning of laurel leaves and barley meals, ergot or hallucinogenic mushrooms might have been ingested by the Pythia. Though scholars have pooh-poohed this idea, the use of such substances by native peoples throughout the millennia speaks in favor of such a theory. The tripod on which the Pythia sat resembled a cauldron, which, according to myth, contained the bones of the slain Python, or of Dionysos.

The Theater dates from the 4th century BC and was restored by both the king of Pergamon (Eumenes II) and the Romans during the 2nd century BC, the earlier structure built of white marble from Parnassos; the latter with wooden seats. Restorations were necessary due to earthquake damage in this very seismic area. It seated 5000 spectators on 35 terraces of seats, who watched re-enactments of the battle between Apollo and the Python and heard the hymns honoring Apollo.

The orchestra, paved with polygonal slabs, is in the shape of a horseshoe, with a diameter of 18.5meters/60 feet. Behind the orchestra is a stone building which includes the raised stage, in front of which was a frieze in relief depicting the Labors of Herakles (Hercules), now housed in the museum.

From the top of the theater, fine views are to be seen. The theater is one of the best preserved in Greece. The theater was strongly connected with Dionysos, god of arts, wine and ecstasy, who reigned during the three winter months in Delphi when Apollo was on retreat up north.

A steep path leads upwards from here to the Stadium passing votive niches and fountains fed by natural springs on the way` The Stadium is situated in the highest part of the ancient city (645meters/2115 feet). The north side of the building is cut into the rocks; the south side supported by Classical period masonry. Of the Roman Triumphal Arch (at the southeast entrance) four pillars remain (in the final 2nd century AD phase of the building, given as a gift to the site by the wealthy Athenian Herodes Atticus, who was also responsible for the stone seating. The first stadium was built around 450BC. Before that time the Pythian games were musical contests that honored Apollo; later athletic contests were added, finally superceding the musical ones. The track was 177meters/600 Roman feet with twenty lanes. Some races involved two lengths of the stadium, and some were with chariots and horses. 7000 spectators could be accommodated here. It is surrounded by pine trees. Plays are now performed there in summer during the Festival of Delphi.

The Museum was rebuilt in 1959-61 and is beautifully arranged. It features Archaic sculpture from the site. The inscriptions are in both Greek and French, due to cooperation between the Greek government and the French School of Archaeology during the course of excavations at Delphi. For English guides, you'll need to get one at the desk. The museum is open in summer Mon-Fri &:30am-6:45 pm; Sat & Sun *:30am-2:45pm; 6euros joint ticket with site).

The marble Omphalos (left) that sits at the top of the stairs is a copy of the original found in the crypt (adyton) of the temple of Apollo and consists of a conical block of marble with a sculpted lattice effect on the surface. It was a common symbol throughout the ancient world, both as a grave marker and the image of a matrix (the beginning and end of life on earth). One theory has it that it was also meant to represent the mound of white ash surrounding hot coals and thus insulating the elemental fire. An Archaic tripod and cauldron are also on display.

The two Kouroi (plural of the Greek 'kouros' and pronounced 'kouri') are especially memorable figures in the museum. They were made in Argos by the sculptor Polymedes, with his name appearing on the bases. They date from the Archaic period, around 600BC, and were votive offerings. These huge twins represent the twins Kleobis and Biton, who, according to legend, were sons of a priestess of Hera, who yoked themselves to their mother's chariot and pulled it (and her) to the temple, a distance of 8km/5miles. One version has it that they died of exhaustion from the effort, another that their mother prayed to Hera in gratitude asking that her sons be rewarded for their devotion and that the goddess responded by having the youths die in their sleep in the temple (a painless death, though rather premature). The figures, which are similar within this genre, have Asiatic/Egyptian stylistic traits and exhibit a pure and elegant symmetry of form, and radiate a certain sunny, peaceful aura of youths that are part-god, part human.

The Hall of the Bull contains cult objects found in 1939 beneath the Sacred Way which had been buried in two pits. It was surmised that the objects had been buried because no longer in use, according to a time-honored Christian custom. A silver bull made from silver sheets fastened to a wooden framework was found there. The horns, ears, hooves and genitals of the bull were gilded, though, which was the custom with representations of sacred, sacrificial animals. There are other such animals depicted in this hall, on hammered gold panels, such as griffins, lions, goats, antelope, as well as a sphinx. These panels were part of a garment of a large statue and reflect the connection of gods with animal attributes.

The Naxian Sphinx (left) is housed in a room exhibiting Archaic finds from the two Cycladic islands of Sifnos and Naxos. It dates from 565 BC This woman with the breast and wings of a bird and the lower body of a lion (described in article on site) is exquisitely rendered, to the point that it seems quite real. It has the enigmatic quality found in the kouroi (the female version being a 'kore', which also means 'daughter' in Greek). This hall also contains finds from the Treasury of the Sifnians, including frieze sculptures of the Trojan War with Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo and Zeus. These among the rare Archaic pieces from temples that have been preserved (as many were destroyed or lost during reconstruction in Classical or Hellenistic times). The Athenian Treasury room contains musical notation for two hymns to Apollo which date from 128BC and were connected with the Pythian festivals. Letters and dots variously positoned signify both notes and finger positions for the lyre. The Acanthus Column of the Dancing Girls (right) is in a room housing Classical sculpture. This is a colossal sculpture with the maidens grouped around a Corinthian column resembling an acanthus stalk. The figures may have been Thyiads, who celebrated Dionysian feasts. A sacred tripod sits on their heads. There is also a figure of Dionysos in this room, made around 340BC, which was one of the huge sculptures that adorned the southwestern pediment of the final Temple of Apollo. The sculptor was Androsthenes of of Athens. On the same pediment are the Maenads, who were Dionysiac celebrants. The depiction of Dionysos is one of the finest of him, showing a feminine side not seen in the masculine figures of Ares, Zeus and Poseidon.

The Bronze Charioteer (left) is one of the most beautiful and well preserved statues from the late Archaic period, and perhaps the most exceptional treasure exhibited in the Delphi museum. Made in 478 or 475BC, and found near the theate, this statue was a votive offering depicting the winning quadriga (four horse chariot) in the Pythian Games of 473 and 474, and was presented by a the Sicilian Tyrant of Gela, Polyzalos, to the Delphic shrine. It is 1.80meters/5 feet 11inches tall-the size of a man of tall stature-and is facing a little to the right, with the horses reins in his right hand. The left arm is missing, crushed during the earthquake of 373 BC. On his head is the headband that indicated the victor in the Games. The original eyes, made of enamel and colored stones (magnesium and onyx) remain, and the entire figure is beautifully formed,though some complain that the proportions aren't right, something that might have had to do with the angle from which the sculptor had intended it be viewed. The head and feet especially beautiful and real seeming.

The figure was discovered in 1896 where it had fallen during the earthquake. The sculptor may have been Pythagoras of Samos. There is an interesting story about the events leadings to its unearthing during the excavation of the area, according to which an old woman, who had refused to relinquish her home to the excavators and be relocated along with the others who had lived in the village that was there, had a dream one night that enabled her to agree to the move. In the dream she heard a boy crying from under a green sea to her, begging to be set free, and this startled her so much that she gave up her house, under which the excavators found the bronze figure. Whether there is any truth to the legend is, of course, anyone's guess.

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