Delphi

The ancient sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi is high on the side of Mount Parnassus above the Gulf of Corinth. We stayed in the Amalia Hotel very nearby and the view from our room was breathtaking.

It’s something of a climb from the entrance to the site to the temple complex so several people elected to wait down below while the tour continued up the hill. In case you have forgotten, Delphi was the place where The god Apollo answered questions through an oracle. But the answers were most often very cryptic and were given in writing. Greek was written in those times with no punctuation and no spaces between the words so the reader had to add them as they read. One time a general asked if he would survive an upcoming war. The answer was YOUWILLGOANDCOMEBACKNOTYOUWILLDIE. The question is, should the comma go before or after the “NOT”?

The ruins are picturesque.

After the site itself we went into the museum. There were several earthquakes and fires in antiquity and so lots of rebuilding. After one fire, the ivory and gold statues of Apollo, Artemis and their mother Lido were badly damaged so they were buried. They have been rediscovered.

A myth about two brothers, whose names I forget, says that they performed glorious service for their city. A god decided that a reward was in order so asked their mother one night to ask for something on their behalf. She asked that her boys should have peaceful deaths in the best circumstances. They did not wake up the next morning. You really have to be careful asking for things from Greek gods.

They believed that Delphi was the centre of the earth so comical shaped stones were displayed around the site as the earth’s navel

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After lunch in the seaside town of Ieto we drove five hours up to Kalambaka to another lovely Amalia Hotel. A wedding reception is going on tonight around the pool.