{"id":1590,"date":"2014-07-26T01:17:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-26T05:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svetanyc.com\/?p=1590"},"modified":"2015-09-16T20:51:18","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T00:51:18","slug":"delphi-greece-july-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/192.168.2.119:1984\/svetanyc\/2014\/07\/delphi-greece-july-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Delphi, Greece. July 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 25, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, D. and I started our road trip around Greece and on our first day, we planned to visit 3\u00a0places:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Thiva<\/a> (also called Thebes) – the birthplace of Hercules and Dionysus, once the most powerful city-state in Greece<\/li>\n
  2. Delphi <\/a>– one of the most famous and influential places of Ancient world, where Oracle of Delphi prophesied the future of the kings<\/li>\n
  3. Thermopylae<\/a> – where the infamous battle of 300 Spartans with the army of Persian king Xerxes I took place in 480 BC. This historical event served as a plot for the “300”<\/a> movie by Zac Snyder.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Night we planned to spend in Kalabaka, at the foothill of Meteora site.<\/p>\n

    \"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

    We started our drive very early in the morning and about an hour later (88 km from Chalandri) we arrived to Thiva<\/a><\/strong>. One of the world’s longest inhabited city, its history goes back for 5 millennia; it was an important Mycenaean center in the middle of the Bronze Age and a very powerful city-state during the Classical period. The city participated in Persian and Peloponnesian wars and in the early 4th century BC it became the most powerful city in Greece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    You won’t find a single place in Greece that won’t have a mythological reference, Thiva (Thebes) is not an exception. Actually, there are several myths associated with the city.\u00a0In mythology, the city was founded by a Phoenician king from Tyre<\/a> (now in Lebanon)\u00a0Cadmus<\/a>, son of Agenor, brother of Europa, and ancestor of Oedipus<\/a>.\u00a0The myth says that after killing a giant serpent (or dragon) which Ares<\/a> had sent to protect the Areia Spring, Athena<\/a> instructed Cadmus to sow the serpent\u2019s teeth into the ground from which sprang up warriors who would found the city of Thebes. \u00a0Also, according to Herodotus<\/a>, it was Cadmus who introduced the Phoenician alphabet<\/a>\u00a0to Greece and built the Acropolis, named the Cadmeia<\/a> in his honor, that became an intellectual, spiritual, and cultural center.<\/p>\n

    Thebes was, according to legend, the birthplace of the mythological pan-Hellenic\u00a0hero Hercules<\/a>. It was also the place where the Sphinx<\/a> – a mythical creature with a woman\u2019s head and a winged lion\u2019s body – appeared to terrorize the area until her riddle was solved. She\u00a0asked passersby to identify the creature that might have two, three, or four feet, could move in air, water, and on land, and moved slower the more feet it had. Oedipus solved the riddle (which was “man”) and in a rage the Sphinx leapt to her death from the Camdeia. Another mythological story connected to the city is the legendary expedition of The Seven Against Thebes<\/a> (and subject of the play of the same name by the 5th century BC tragedian, Aeschylus), but list of myths doesn’t end here.<\/p>\n

    Strategically situated on a low plateau of Boeotia, Thiva was first inhabited around 3000 BC.\u00a0From 2500 BC there is evidence of food and wool production and storage. Trade, both local and further afield, is suggested by the presence of precious goods such as gold, silver, ivory, and Cycladic influenced stone vessels. From 2000 BC the site expanded with the first presence of stone cists and pits for burials and shaft graves which contained precious objects. From 1700 BC the settlement became more populous, and the site reached its Bronze Age peak during the Mycenaean period. There is evidence of palatial buildings of two stories and with wall paintings, greater fortifications (probably of a Cyclopean nature and referred to in Homer\u2019s Iliad<\/a>), workshops (especially for jewelry), and stone-built aqueducts with terracotta pipes. Clay Linear B tablets and seals suggest the site was an important trading centre in olive oil, wood, livestock, wool, and leather goods.\u00a0The end of this period is marked by evidence of earthquake and fire damage.<\/p>\n

    Following the Dark Ages in Greece (c.1100 to 700 BC), Thiva re-emerged as an influential Greek city-state and for the next four centuries the city would be a constant rival to Athens and Sparta for regional dominance. In 480 BC Thebes sided with\u00a0Persia when Xerxes<\/a> invaded Greece (though a contingent of 400 was sent to Thermopylae and remained there\u00a0alongside the Spartans to the end), and the city was a major protagonist in the\u00a0Peloponnesian War <\/a>from 431 to 404 BC, siding with Sparta against Athens (yet in 403\u00a0BC they secretly supported the restoration of democracy in Athens in order to find in it a counterpoise against Sparta).<\/p>\n

    In the 4th century BC, two Theban leaders achieved long lasting fame: Pelopidas<\/a>, who was the subject of one of Plutarch\u2019s Lives<\/a>,<\/em> and the brilliant military strategist and student of philosophy, Epaminondas<\/a>. These two generals, Pelopidas campaigning in central and northern Greece and Epaminondas in the Peloponnese, were largely responsible for Thiva’s greatest period of regional dominance.<\/p>\n

    An unusual feature of the Theban army was the Sacred Band of Thebes<\/a>. This was a military corps founded by Gorgidas and consisting of\u00a0300 infantrymen linked in homoerotic pairs, the idea was that soldiers would fight better if their lover were at their side. The Sacred Band, used for the first time as an independent unit by Pelopidas, defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Tegyra in 375 BC. Even more decisive was the Battle of Leuktra in 371 BC<\/a>, where the Spartans were roundly defeated and where the victory monument set up by the Thebans is still visible today. This was sweet revenge for Sparta\u2019s imposition of a garrison at Thebes from 379 to 376 BC. Victorious, Thebes created a new Arcadian capital at Megalopolis and was now firmly established as the most powerful city-state in Greece. Incidentally, a young Philip II, the future king of Macedonia, was captured by Pelopidas whilst campaigning in Thessaly and taken hostage to democratic Thebes where he studied military tactics.\u00a0The Sacred Band remained undefeated until 338 BC and the invasion of the Macedonians.<\/p>\n

    In 364 BC Pelopidas was killed (but victorious) in the Battle of Cynoskephalai<\/a>.\u00a0Two years later, Epaminondas fell in the Battle of Mantinea<\/a> against a Spartan and Athenian led alliance. With the loss of their two great generals, Theban dominance began to wane and Sparta and Athens would become the two major players in Greece.\u00a0In 338 BC Thebes joined old rivals Athens and Corinth in order to face the invading army of Philip II of Macedonia in the Battle of Chaeroneia<\/a>. Thebes ended on the losing side, the city was destroyed by Alexander the Great – Philip’s II son (except for the house of the poet Pindar<\/a> and the temples),\u00a0and the population was sold into slavery.<\/p>\n

    After Alexander’s death, Thebes was re-established in 315 or 316\u00a0BC\u00a0by Cassander<\/a>, perhaps in his desire for fame,\u00a0however the city-state never returned to its former prominence or power.\u00a0From the 10th century, Thebes became a centre of the new silk trade and by the middle of the 12th century, the city had become the biggest producer of silks in the entire Byzantine empire, surpassing even Constantinople<\/a>. \u00a0The Frankish dynasty de la Roche made Thiva its capital – the castle built by Nicholas II of Saint Omer<\/a> on the Cadmeia was one of the most beautiful of Frankish Greece. Latin hegemony in Thebes lasted to 1458, when the Ottomans captured and retained it until the War of Independence<\/a>\u00a0in 1832.<\/p>\n

    The fact that the modern town lies directly upon the historical site has created difficulties in reconstructing an accurate history for the ancient city. It is also the reason why Thiva has so few vestiges of its prior glory, except for the archeological museum, which sadly was closed for renovation. However, as a history buff, I couldn’t skip this town, so we stop in the center for 30 minutes and wandered around.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1925\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    From Thebes (100 km and 1.5 hours), our route took us to the place that enchanted me from childhood – Delphi<\/a>\u00a0 <\/strong>(book recommendations are here<\/a>). Myth says that Zeus sent two eagles (one to the west and one to the east) in order to find the\u00a0omphalos<\/a>, or navel of Gaia (Mother Earth). The eagles met in Delphi, establishing\u00a0the center of the world. Dominating the slops of Parnassus, for over a thousand years this picturesque site played the most important role in deciding the destinies of the states, kings and regular people. It met its visitors with a statement “Know Thyself”\u00a0inscribed on the Temple of Apollo, a warning or even a threat that Pythia’s Oracle won’t be understood unless you know who you really are. It is still very much a mystery place!<\/p>\n

    In remotest antiquity the site was perhaps of only limited importance, however, in Mycenaean times, from 1400 BC, Delphi, the “rocky Pytho” of Homer<\/a>, was a sanctuary of a female deity Ge, who gave\u00a0oracles through prophetess. Mycenaean Delphi was destroyed by a rock fall towards the end of the Bronze Age. Delphi prospered again in the 8th century BC when it was for the first time associated with the cult of Apollo. According to the Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo, on this site Apollo killed the Pytho, a female serpent who guarded the prophetic spring Kassotis. He built his first temple in a wooden grove at Delphi and gave oracles in the shrine of Ge through a Pythia (priestess), who sat bound at the mouth of a chasm in the earth from which “vapors” arose. The first priests of Apollo were Cretans whom Apollo, disguised as a dolphin (hence the name – Delphi) guided to this place from a sea voyage. After seeing this barren rocky place, marines appealed to Apollo worried that they wouldn’t be able to survive here, where the god replied that they would live effortlessly from the offerings of his worshippers and surely they did! In the mid-8th century BC the brothers Trophonios and Agemedes, who were famous for their exploits, built the first ashlar masonry temple of Apollo.<\/p>\n

    Later in the blog I will describe in more details the buildings and traditions associated with Delphi, but now, I would like to spend more time talking about what made Delphi so famous – the Oracle of Delphi. Greek mythology speaks of many prophets (such as the Oracle of Dedona, Pyrkooi, Amphictyon etc), however, no sanctuary surpassed Delphi in reputation, wealth and power, and\u00a0not only in Greece but through all the then-known world. Apollo himself spoke through the Pythia. Originally it happened only once a year, probably during Apollo’s birthday in Feb-March. From the 6th century BC onwards (as the popularity and demand increased), the Oracle prophesied on the 7th day of every month, except for the 3 winter months when Apollo, according to the myth, left the sanctuary and Dionysus (god of wine and revelry) took over his place. Originally, the Pythia was a woman over 50 y.o. who left her family to enter the service of Apollo and lived in a special dwelling in the sanctuary. She didn’t have to be rich, from a good family or particular beautiful. Once the patronage and the reputation of the Oracle increased, two more Pythias were added. In addition, cities that had a permanent representative at Delphi were given the privilege of promanteia, which meant that they could consult the Oracle on any day if “the gods were willing”.<\/p>\n

    The ceremony went in the following order. At daybreak, the Pythia would go to the Kastalian Spring to purify herself, she would drink from the other sacred spring Kassotis and chew laurel. Priests would ceremoniously escort her to the inner shrine (adyton) of the temple of Apollo. The Pythia would sit on the sacred tripod (the chair of Apollo), by the mouth of chasm at the site of the omphalos. The visitor first paid for the service of Oracle, then drew a lot for order of preference and waited for his turn around the outside altar. When his turn came, he would be brought\u00a0to a special seat at adyton and seated behind the curtain without seeing the Pythia. He would ask her a question (either in written or oral form) through one of the priests who would read it to the Pythia. She, hypnotized or drugged by the vapors coming from the fissure in the ground, would reply in incoherent words, incomprehensible shouts and shrieks which the priests would interpret into hexameters, write them down and give them to the visitor. (It has been speculated that a gas high in ethylene<\/a>, known to produce violent trances, came out of this fissure, though this theory remains debatable). The ambiguous answer was interpreted by the visitor as it pleased him and, only if the future turned out otherwise, did he see the true answer. One of the most famous oracles is the reply to Croesus, king of Lydia, who asked if he would defeat the Persians. The Oracle replied “If Croesus crosses the River Halys, a great power will be destroyed”. Croesus interpreted the oracle in his favor, crossed the river between Lydia and Persia with a great army and was defeated. The Oracle had been right again.<\/p>\n

    Important to mention that Delphi was also famous for its Pythian Games, that took place every 4 years in the end of August. It lasted 7 days and was very different from other Games, as besides having the “traditional” sport contests, they also held drama and musical competitions. Winners were prized with the laurel crowns and the right to set up their statue in the sanctuary.<\/p>\n

    Since the 8th century BC Delphi exerted considerable influence throughout the Greek world (and even Egypt), and the Oracle was consulted before all major undertakings: wars, the founding of colonies, before entering marriages and so forth. Despite the raid from Sulla<\/a> and Nero, the site\u00a0relatively flourished till the time\u00a0of emperor Hadrian<\/a>, who is believed to have visited the oracle twice. By the 4th century BC, Constantine the Great<\/a>\u00a0looted several monuments, most notably the Tripod of Plataea<\/a>, which he used to decorate his new capital, Constantinople.\u00a0Despite the rise of Christianity across the Roman Empire, the oracle remained an active pagan centre throughout the 4th century.\u00a0Hagiography has it that in 362, on behalf of his emperor Julian the Apostate, Oribasius<\/a> visited the Delphic oracle, now in a rather desolate state, offering his emperor’s services to the temple and, in return, receiving one of the last prophecies by the Delphic Pythia:<\/p>\n

    Tell the emperor that my hall has fallen to the ground. Phoibos no longer has his house, nor his mantic bay, nor his prophetic spring; the water has dried up.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The Pythian Games continued to be held at least until 424, however, the decline was inevitable. The site was completely abandoned in the 6th or 7th centuries\u00a0and the small and insignificant village of Kastri was founded on the site.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_2077\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The large archeological site of Delphi is divided in two by the Spring of Kastalia. The east side is the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, the Gymnasium, the east cemetery etc. and the west side is the Sanctuary of Apollo, the Stadium, the ruins of the city and the museum. Excavated in the later 19th century by the French Archeological School, it is on the list of the UNESCO- protected World Heritage Monuments. Entrance fee is \u20ac9, please allow yourself at least 3-4 hours.\u00a0It is not longer the sacred place, but please remember to be respectful of the site and its sanctity.<\/p>\n

    We parked along the road by the Kastalian Spring<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0The purifying water of the spring gushed from the slopes of the Phaedrida, called Hyampeia in antiquity, and flowed into a narrow gorge, where myth had it that the dread guardian of the oracle Pytho(n), the son of Earth, had its lair. The stone fountain of the same name was built along the side of the road that led to the precinct of Apollo in the early 6th century BC. It supplied the sacred oracle with water, which served for the purification of both priests and faithful who entered the sanctuary. During the long use over the century, the Kastalia spring of the Archaic period which is mentioned by Herodotus, Pindar and many other poets, underwent many repairs and alterations.\u00a0In the present day, it consists of a rectangular basin divided into a central and two side chambers. The\u00a0facade of the central chamber was decorated with semi-columns and four (or seven) bronze lion-dead spouts. In the 1st century BC, the archaic fountain was replaced by another construction deep in the rock, at a distance of about 50 m from the earlier one. The niches above the basin, which were rock-hewn, received minor votives by pilgrims, normally figurines offered to the water-nymph Kastalia. During the Ottoman period, one of the three large niches was converted into the apses of a small church dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Even today, the cold and clean waters of the Kastalian spring continue to flow from a smaller and to be sure less impressive fountain.<\/p>\n

    \"DSC_9920\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    We decided to check out the Sanctuary of Apollo<\/a><\/strong> first. The area is located on a steep slope at the base of the western Phaedriada, today called Rodini. It is believed that Ge was originally worshipped at the same site, which was later connected to the cult of Apollo and the role played by the Oracle. The site of the sanctuary was surrounded by a built enclosure wall in which entrance gates were opened on the east and west. Throughout its history the city expanded multiple times and so did the walls. The first stone temple of Apollo and most of the treasuries (the small, temple-shaped buildings that housed votives by cities in memory of military victories and noble deeds) were erected in the 6th century BC. The elegant Treasury of the Siphnians, the restored Treasury of the Athenians, the treasuries of the Corinthians, Megarians, Boeotians were all built in the 6th century BC. The nuclei of spatial arrangement in the precinct were primary the Temple of Apollo and the Sacred Way, which after starting from the main entrance in the south-east corner of the enclosure, followed the winding course to terminate at the temple in front of the large altar, a Chiot votive. Over time, hundreds of valuable votives were set up along the road, including statues of gods and mortals, tripods and other works of art mounted on inscribed bases, columns and stelai, giving the precinct the appearance of a unique open-air museum even in antiquity. Today, only a few of these are preserved. The enclosure wall was extended northward to include the theater, built on steeply sloping ground. The city’s ancient Stadium is 500 m beyond the sanctuary but accessible via a small ascending path. The city must have been fabulous when all the buildings were still standing surrounded by the wall of Apollo, however, it still took my breath away the moment I stepped on the Sacred Way.<\/p>\n

    \"Map<\/a><\/p>\n

    The sanctuary of Apollo was accessed through 5 small entrances, the main entrance and beginning of the Sacred Way<\/em>, over which the processions for the Pythian Games and other celebration passed, were at the site were the Roman Agora<\/em> was built (p.1). The tiled square outside the main entrance betrays its Roman construction, especially on the north side where there were shops at the back of the Ionic stoa, in which visitors and suppliants could buy small offerings to Apollo, such as figurines, small vases, tripods etc. Plinths and bases, some of which are preserved, supported statues of Roman emperors and other important people. The columns of the stoa have been restored (1977) and marble architectural fragments have been assembled in the stoa and shops.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1939\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The messengers sent to inquire of the oracle entered the sanctuary just as we did after being purified in the Kastalian spring. Cities-states throughout Greece erected buildings and statues dedicated to Apollo on either side of the Sacred Way. Today, only bases are preserved, together with a wealth of inscriptions that makes the Delphic sanctuary the largest open-air library of authentic ancient texts. Among the most important monuments<\/em> at the start of the Sacred Way were:<\/p>\n