While we hated to leave that splendid hotel, we moved from there to the grand village of Delphi. We drove for several hours, across and around a lot of water and then up another big mountain to get to the mountain town of Delphi.
The ancient Greeks and others considered Delphi the center of the world – therefore Delphi has been a tourist town since 1000 BC. They won't particularly wow you with their amenities…but it is comfortable, and the restaurants were good.
Words can’t do justice to the emotions of seeing the archeological site of Delphi. The thought that Socrates and Plato walked those same stones was very moving. This large rock mass is called the Sybil where the source of knowledge was thought to have spewed up from the earth.I was standing on the grounds where the ultimate and apparently the first true political operatives once stood was amazing. You see some of the smartest and richest people of the time came to Delphi to pay for advice from a ranting young woman (likely from being intoxicated from the gases, and starved for a week) – whose utterances were then translated by very politically savvy “priests” in response back to questioner in the form of a command to take an action – sometimes to start or end a war – sometimes to give or take a life. Of course there were strict rules about all of this.
The questioner – usually someone of great wealth and or power came (because who else could afford the journey) to ask a question, and that person was kept cooling his heels (oh only men need arrive) for several days awaiting the only day of the month that the oracle could be heard. Anyway, during that time, there were spies all over the city that would find out what the real question was – and then that would be vetted by the powers that be to determine what answer the priests would give in response to the question. If by chance they couldn’t figure out what question was going to be asked, the questioner wouldn’t be given the chance to ask the question, though their lamb or goat would be taken in payment of their effort to ask the question….
It’s really amazing, and the Greeks who created the scheme must be given credit for the design. There was an amazing amount of money spent to create the temple of Apollo and “treasuries” buildings that were sometimes covered in goldplate and that provided for waiting areas for the askers. The region was flooded with commerce and means of making money was rampant – either legit or not.
The construction of the sight is also amazing and well worth the visit even if only for the views from the temple or the stadium out over a sweeping canyon, to see the bronze chariot rider whose statue was cast 1000s of years ago, or to view the temple for Athena down below.
