In many posts on this blog I have mentioned
some of the great sanctuaries of antiquity such as Delos, Olympia and Nemea. I
have touched on the special feeling one gets when walking the ground of these
places, the sense of peace that washes over you.
Today, we’ll be taking a short tour of one
of the most important sanctuaries of the ancient world: Delphi.
Delphi was of course the location of the
great sanctuary of Apollo whose priestess, the Pythia, was visited by people
from all over the world who came to seek the god’s advice and wisdom.
I have been fortunate enough to visit
Delphi a couple of times and I do hope to return there someday. The first time
I was there, the mountain rumbled throughout the night. Unused to earthquakes,
my brother woke me to say that he thought there was a ghost in the room because
his bed (he had the smaller one) was jumping up and down. Looking back, it’s
funny that ghosts were a more logical explanation for us. Too many movies, I
suppose.
But, despite frequent earthquakes, Delphi
is indeed a place of ghosts. They are everywhere, the voices of the past, of
the devoted, great and small.
There is something about Delphi that draws
you in, that makes you want to go back again and again. Despite the throngs of picture-snapping
tourists along the Sacred Way, or the hum of multi-lingual tour guides wherever
you step, the sense of peace at Delphi is unmistakable.
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| View of the Temple of Apollo and valley beyond |
For those with the ability to see and hear
beyond the bustle, it is as though a smoky veil rises from the ground to block
out the noise, leaving you with the mountain, the ruins, the voices of history.
Delphi is located in central Greece in the
ancient region of Phokis. Perched on the slopes of Mount Parnassos in a spot
one can well imagine gods roaming, it possesses a view of a valley covered in
ancient, gnarled olive groves spilling toward the blueness of the Gulf of
Corinth.
Here is an excerpt from the upcoming Eagles
and Dragons Book II, Killing the Hydra.
In one part of the book, some of the characters visit Delphi on their way back
to Athens. This is a fragment of a letter from Alene Metella:
“The sanctuary
is unlike any other I have ever seen. As I entered the precinct I could feel
the god’s presence and an overwhelming sense of peace came over me. It seemed
as though music lingered permanently in the air. No doubt Apollo’s muses sit
atop the cliffs and peaks playing for him. The air smells sweetly of cedar, and
delicate pines speak in hushed tones. Sacred groves of olive stretch out as far
as the eye can comprehend, like a vast, glistening ocean in which the waves
brake occasionally on the tips of towering cypresses. The shadows of hundreds
of years are cast to walk with the living, and soft muted breezes caress the
ears like a warm bath. I think that all of the great poets must have been to
this place. See what it has done to me!
There
is a permanent line to see the oracle, the Pythia. It weaves its way down the
mountainside, a truly amazing sight. So many pilgrims, for so long.”
Alene Metella has always been a romantic!
As a Roman tourist, she might not have known of an earlier deity in Delphi.
Though the site is always associated with
him, Apollo did not always rule here.
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Delphic 'kylix' depicting Apollo
pouring a libation |
Long before the Olympian god arrived,
Delphi was the site of a prehistoric sanctuary of Gaia, the Mother Goddess and
consort of Uranus.
It was after Apollo, urged on by his mother
Leto, defeated the great python in the sanctuary of Gaia that the Delphi came
under his protection.
A new era had dawned and after Apollo’s
slaying of the Python, barbarism and savage custom were discarded. In place of
the old religion came a quest for harmony, a balancing of opposites. Apollo was
worshiped as a god of light, harmony, order and of prophecy. His oracles
communicated his will and words.
If one approaches Delphi from the east and
the town of Arachova, the first thing you pass is another important sanctuary,
that of Athena Pronaia. ‘Pronaia’ means ‘before the temple’. This sanctuary would likely have been visited
by pilgrims first.
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| Tholos in the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia |
The sanctuary of Athena is farther down the
mountainside from that of Apollo and located in a quiet olive grove. In its
time, it contained two temples dedicated to Athena, the earliest dating to 500
B.C. There were also two treasuries, altars and of course, one of the most
picturesque ruins of ancient Greece, the round tholos temple. The latter is
13.5 meters wide and had twenty Doric columns with metopes portraying the
Battle of the Amazons and the Battle of the Centaurs the remains of which can
be seen in the Delphi museum. The exact use of the tholos is uncertain though
many believe it was consecrated to the cult of Chronic deities.
Between the two sanctuaries is the sacred
spring of Kastalia, the water of which was intimately associated with the
oracle. Water from here was carried to the sanctuary of Apollo and it was also
here that priests and pilgrims cleansed themselves before entering god’s
domain.
As part of her ritual too, the Pythia
bathed in the Kastalian spring before entering the Temple of Apollo.
When the Pythia was prophesying, Delphi must
have been bustling, for she was not always there. In fact, in its early days,
the oracle performed her function once a year on the 7th day of the
ancient month of Bysios (February-March) which was considered Apollo’s
birthday. Later, the Pythia prophesied once a month, apart from the three
winter months when Apollo was said to spend time in the land of the
Hyperboreians far to the north.
I won’t describe all the remains of the
sanctuary of Apollo in detail here. There is far too much to cover and it is
all fascinating. I will say that it is one of those places that every lover of
history must visit.
When I think of history, the study of it,
this place is what it’s all about.
On your way through the sanctuary you pass
many remains, one of the most interesting being the Athenian treasury which
held many rich votive offerings from the ancient polis. It is well preserved
and some of the most interesting things are the inscriptions of the Hymns to
Apollo and carvings of laurel leaves upon its walls.
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| The Sibyl's Rock |
On the left, once you leave the Athenian
treasury, there are two large boulders. They look to be nothing more than rocks
but these were of utmost sanctity thousands of years ago. The smaller of the
two is called Leto’s rock because it is believed that that is where Apollo’s
mother stood when she urged him to slay the python. The larger rock is called
the Sibyl’s Rock as that is where the first oracle (‘Sibyl’ is another name for
Apollo’s oracles) stood when she came to Delphi and gave her first prophecy.
Each time I walk the marble of the Sacred
Way, zigzag my way up to the Temple of Apollo, the theatre and the stadium
beyond, I am in awe. The sun seems more brilliant here, the colours richer. The
buzzing of cicadas in the pine and olive trees are a sound ancient pilgrims
would have been familiar with. It would
have been crowded during the time of prophesy and the line must have wended its
way down the mountain to Kastalia and the sanctuary of Athena.
Every part of the sanctuary would have been
adorned with bronze and marble statues, tripods, altars and other offerings from
around the world. The smoke of incense and sacrifice would have weaved among it
all to please Apollo and other deities who also had altars about the temple
such as Zeus, Poseidon and Hestia whose immortal flame remained burning.
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| Ruins of Temple of Apollo |
The Temple of Apollo itself occupies a
magnificent position and though not much remains, it is still a place of awe
due in large part to the surroundings. The layout is not known exactly due to
damage over time but archaeologists have discovered that there were two ‘cellae’
(temple chambers), an outer one where priests and pilgrims remained, and an
inner one.
The inner cella is believed to have been
the subterranean chamber where only the Pythia herself was permitted. This
chamber was where she prophesied. It contained another sacred spring, the
Kassiotis spring, from which she drank, a crack in the earth from which fumes
emanated, the oracular tripod in which she sat and the sacred ‘omphalos’, or,
‘navel of the earth’.
The Pythia would chew laurel leaves, inhale
the fumes from the earth and go into her trance. She would deliver her prophecy
in riddles which were delivered to pilgrims.
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Artist Representation of
The Pythia |
To a modern mind, the ancients might seem
absurdly superstitious, naïve even. But, in the ancient world the respect and
awe with which the oracle of Delphi was viewed cannot be overestimated.
The truth of the oracle was never doubted
for matters great or small. Cities, peoples, peasants and kings all sought the
wisdom and guidance of Apollo through the oracle.
When I reach the top of the site and look
out over the sanctuary to the valley and sea beyond I feel that I do not want
to leave. From the top of the third century B.C. theatre, or in the quiet of
the stadium that once held 7000 spectators for the Pythian games, I reflect on
my journey and those of the people who have come here before.
As a writer, I find people fascinating.
What brought each of them to this place? What questions might they have asked?
How did they receive the answers given by the oracle?
Delphi was not just the site of some
quaint, ancient, superstitious practices as some might see them today. This was
a place of power, of beauty, refinement and of hope. In some ways, it still is.
The Pythia is gone, the sacred games
long-since banished by the Christian Emperor Theodosius I. The temple and the
treasures of the sanctuary have been looted and what is left lies in romantic
ruin or on display in the museum.
However, if your path ever leads you to this
ancient place on the slopes of Mount Parnassos, you may just hear the pilgrims’
prayers to their gods, the melodic utterings of hymns to Apollo and the hushed
voice of his oracle beyond the veil as she passes his words on to generations
of mortals seeking his wisdom.
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| The peaceful sanctuary of Athena Pronaia |
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| Ruins of the theatre which overlook the Temple of Apollo |
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The Stadium farther up the mountain from the sanctuary
was the site of the Pythian Games and seated up to 7000 spectators |
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| Detail of temple foundations |
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| Location of the entrance to the Temple of Apollo |
