Delphi

This morning we visited the ruins of ancient Delphi. We got a fairly thorough walk-through with our tour director, then climbed farther up to the Roman-era stadium at the top of the hill.

Our guide explains Delphi

The views were tremendous, and the restoration is thorough enough to allow one to visualize what the complex must have looked like.

Theater at Delphi

I had not realized that the oracle had been in operation from pre-Hellenic times through the Roman period. She had a good run – almost 1200 years!

Ruins of the Temple of the Oracle

The village of Delphi was actually moved by the French archaeologists in the 1870s. They paid the villagers to relocate so that the dig at the temple site could begin. The village is just up the road now, in a spot equally beautiful with full view of Itea and the sea.

Mysterious passageways remain in the ruins

After lunch we visited the museum associated with the Delphi site. It isn’t large, but some of the items there are quite amazing. So much of the statuary was nearly intact when found, and some of it hauntingly beautiful, such as the bronze charioteer.

Bronze charioteer

Also of interest was a stone in which a hymn to Apollo had been carved, but not only the text, also musical notation for both choral and instrumental musicians. It’s the earliest notation system known to date, and it has been sufficiently deciphered by musicologists that they are reasonably certain that they have reproduced the tune.

The Stadium at Delphi

Before leaving the area, we visited the ruins of the temple of Athena. This is a separate temple complex down the hill from the oracle and temple of Apollo. This temple is dedicated to Athena, goddess protector of women in pregnancy and childbirth. This was all very fascinating stuff.

Hymn to Apollo with musical notation.

The bus then drove us into the little village of Arachova, to which we had walked the night before, in order to take in a bit of local color and more of the St. George celebration. Our tour director took us into one of the very traditional coffee shops, where old men were drinking Turkish coffee or ouzo.

Temple of Athena at Delphi

They seemed rather startled by our invasion, and the tour director explained that such traditional coffee shops are almost exclusively male bastions – women almost never enter. But she bantered with them in Greek, introduced them all to us, and bought them drinks, so we were welcome. Even the old Orthodox priest showed up briefly, in his black robes and tall hat, and gave us a little welcome speech, which was interpreted for us.

Wine and deep-fried cheese. Wonderful!

Along with our wine, we were served a plate of local cheese fried in olive oil, along with bread, an olive spread, and a tomato. It was excellent, but may have raised cholesterol levels several points for each of us with each bite.

A long way up to the upper village.

On our own, we climbed about 100 steps to reach the church of St. George at the top of the hill where yesterday’s procession had begun. We were surprised at how much town was up this far, including charming homes and some restaurants. We were also impressed by the view, across the valley, all the way to the Corinthian Sea.

The winner of the footrace really gets my goat.

Returning down the steps, the celebration continued with the finish of a five mile running race by young men of the village. The winner received a live lamb, that was placed around his neck by the priest!

Little dancers did a great job.

We sat in an open air café to watch folk dancers in the square. They were all in costume and better than dancers we had seen before. The little kids started and did impressively well, then junior highs, then high school, and finally adults. Unfortunately, by the time the adults were dancing, it was much too dark for photos. But it was a fascinating exposure to something unique to this time of year.