Greece Trip: Day 4

Day 4: March 13, 2011

Gulf of Corinth from Delphi

Temple of Athena at Delphi

Temple of Apollo at Delphi

We started the morning in Delphi waking up to a beautiful view at breakfast off the mountain out onto the Gulf of Corinth. This gulf is where many pilgrims came to then traveled the 17km up to Delphi to see the Oracle. Delphi is on Mt. Parnassus (2500m) about 1000m or so up and has a beautiful view overlooking mountain valleys including the valley leading to the Gulf of Corinth with 3 million olive trees. We briefly saw a small temple to Athena around the Delphi area. It is interesting in that it has a Tholos, a round building, one of only a few round buildings in ancient Greek culture. There was also a giant stone laying in the rubble believed to possibly have been from when either the Persians of Gauls attacked and started to demolish Delphi and large rocks came tumbling down and killed a few and so they left thinking the gods were against them. Delphi was a sanctuary for the gods. Maybe 1000 people lived there comprised of the priests and caretakers. Within the sanctuary area only the priests could stay over night and no one could die or be born there. Delphi was a religious, intellectual, cultural, and athletic center of the ancient world. The primary temple was to Apollo, as the story goes Apollo established the oracle there but it originally belonged to Gaeia, mother earth, and he killed a giant python, her son, in the process. So, to purify himself he went north and worked as a servant for 8 years. Apollo was the god of civilization, art, and music. At the time since there was no organized justice, if someone killed someone of something the victim's family would go after him. But, he could go to Delphi and pay a penance, either a fine or exile, etc, and be cleansed of the deed. This led also into the practice later that city-states would meet there to discuss differences or stop wars. There was a group called the Amphicteri (sp?) which was kind of like the UN of the Greek city-states. In the excavation of Delphi an important inscription was found from the Roman emperor Claudius talking about his 26^th acclamation and he references Gaeus the proconsul of Corinth and we know Paul was in Corinth when Gaeus was so it narrows it down to knowing Paul was in Corinth 51-52AD and that s probably where he wrote the book of Romans. People came to Delphi for over 1000 years until the 4^th century AD.

Temple of Apollo at Delphi

There was a presentation on this topic as well. The Oracle at Delphi was a woman who would inhale volcanic vapors form the earth that induced visions that would answer people's questions. People came with all sorts of questions, but the priority of asking them was Military people, athletes, poets, then heads of households. Her visions were usually kind of ambiguous. People would bring sacrifices and votive offerings to the oracle, in fact, if they didn't like the prophecy they got they might give gold to the Oracle and ask for another prophecy. Delphi was considered the center of the world, it was called the navel of the world. At Delphi there were many treasure houses used to store the gifts and offerings, often cities would try to have the nicest treasure house. They were built of local stone with marble decoration. The marble was imported from the islands, it was often done so by hanging it in the water on planks of wood between two ships to make it lighter. A retaining wall built here is interesting in that it is made with irregularly shaped, but well fitting, stones, this was supposed to help it hold up during earthquakes.

Polygon Retaining Wall

A presentation also touched on Greek athletic events. There were athletic games held at Delphi in honor of the god apollo. They occurred every 4 years. It started because Apollo served penance for 8 years but that was too long practically so they did 4 years. In fact these periods of years were called Olympiads and they were used to tell time, i.e. and event happened in the 2^nd year of the 5^th olympiad. However, olympiads were 5 years long since they counted the year at the end and beginning of the the games. Since we know the game started in 776BC, we have a good dating system for many events. The name olympiad comes from another of the 4 panhellenic games of which those at Delphi were a part of. There games at Mt Olympus for Zeus (the oldest games), the Pythynean games were the ones in Delphi, the Isthmian games in Corinth for Poseidon, and the Nemean games also for Zeus. During these games a truce/ceasefire was called in all Greece for the games and travel too and from. This was sometimes used as a time to try to negotiate a peace. For an athlete to win in these games was a very big deal for him and his city. In fact he would have food and shelter the rest of his life, kind of like today in Greece Olympic athletes can be made honorary army officers and given the salary even though they aren't in the military. The most impressive feat was to win at all four panhellenic games, kind of like winning the grand slam in tennis today. There were several different event including running (600 and 1200 ft and 1.5-3 miles), pentathlon, wrestling, and boxing, and chariot racing. The ~600ft running race was run the distance of a stadia which was a distance measurement of 600 human feet so the actual distance varied form place to place around 180-190m.

Sphinx

There is a 5000 person theater at Delphi overlooking the valley and we had a presentation of theaters there. They were used for plays and musical performances and talking. The one at Delphi held 5000 people, but some could hold several times that. They were designed in a semicircle with the seats ideally at 26 degrees to provide excellent acoustics so all could hear, even without microphones. In fact, at the theater at Ephesus the limestone used seems to echo high frequencies and muffle low frequencies to make the voices more clear. The events were usually free to go to as the events were sponsored by a wealthy citizen, as mentioned earlier.

Portion of the Frieze

The Charioteer

Model of Delphi

We then finished by going to the Delphi museum before driving to Kalambaka for the evening. The main attactions at the museum are a very large sphinxe from the 6^th century BC, and the famous frieze of Siphnos that decorated their treasure house. Part of it represented the clash of the gods and giants. It is one of the best preserved reliefs of the period. Finally, the most famous piece is the Charioteer. It is an excellently preserved statue from 470BC. While many statues were made in bronze then, not man have survived because they have been melted down and reused unlike the stone ones. It is a severe style and from the beginning of the classical period. It has great detail, it is a romantic realism. Very real but also idealized in size and proportions, it was about 1.8m tall which is tall for the time. It is considered one of the most important art pieces in the world.

Finally on our way to Kalambaka, we saw part of a 220km long aqueduct, sometimes covered, that brings water from springs to Marathon reservoir, north of Athens.

The Aqueduct