Mmmm turtle soup

Temple of Athena (Tholos)

Just a mile east of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi is the Sanctuary of Athena. All you have to do is trek down a dirt path down alongside the road and you can find this rotunda. I honestly can't remember anything that Roula told us at this site, most likely because I was caught up in its beauty:

From this temple to other was just another quick bus ride... but along the way we spotted our doppelgängers:

Uncanny, no?

When we got to the site, we got in fo' free! On account of it being the international Earth Day or some such nonsense.

Our journey began like so many others before us, along the twisty-turny Sacred Way that leads up to the main sanctuary. Along the way are a series of votive offerings for the oracle from the city-states.

This spot (on the right) held nearly 40 bronze statues, which celebrated the Spartans' victory over the Athenians (which ended the Peloponnesian war and Athens' rule over the Greek city-states).

Directly across from the monument is the Athenian monument that celebrates the victory at Marathon, which only held 13 statues (the location of the Spartan monument was no coincidence).

Athenian Treasury

Treasuries, which once lined the Sacred Way, were places where the more valuable votive offerings were kept.

The Athenian Treasury is the only treasury to have been reconstructed. The building serves as a big fat "thank you" to the Oracle for the Athenian victory at Marathon (even though the Oracle wasn't a huge fan of theirs).

Not the omphalos, but I like this picture

Why Delphi? How did Delphi become such an important place in Greek history, religion, and politics?

As the story goes, Zeus set two eagles from the ends of the earth to find the middle of the world. And guess where they met up? Oh, you're so smart. The Greeks marked the center with an omphalos, which literally means belly button (how adorable!).

Tripod of Plataea (not a great shot of it, though)

The Tripod of Plataea celebrates the defeat of the Persians by 31 Greek city-states.

Temple of Apollo

View of the temple from the theater

The sanctuary of Pythian Apollo was home to the most famous oracle of the ancient world. Good old Herodotus tells us that Croesus, the Lydian king, had a "trial of the Oracles" to figure out which was the most accurate. He sent out Lydians to all the famous oracles with a "test" question. Croesus told them that after 100 days of traveling, they should consult an oracle and ask them what he was doing on that very day, and then write down the answer and bring it back. Only the Oracle at Delphi was correct: he was making tortoise soup in a bronze pot, with a bit a lamb mixed in. Croesus figured that combination would be impossible to think of.

After having found himself the "true" Oracle, Croesus asked if he should march against the Persians. The reply he received was that, should he march against the Persians, he would destroy a great empire. Little did he know that the great empire would be his own.

Further up the hill from the Temple of Apollo is the Delphi Theater. When seated in the theater, the audience had a great view of the entire sanctuary below, as well as the valley in the distance.







Even further up the hill (much, much further) was the Stadium. It was used for the Pythian and Panhellenic games, as well as other athletic events and music festivals.

After our long hike up the hill to reach the stadium, we had another one of our famous story-times. We even had an American couple stop and listen to Joe read from Herodotus.

Next up on our Delphi-tour was the museum. The only thing I'm really going to bother blogging about is the Charioteer. This life-sized statue was found at the Sanctuary of Apollo, and now sits in the Delphi Archaeological Museum.

The statue was built to commemorate the victory of a chariot team in the Pythian Games. It was originally a part of a much larger statue, which included horses.

Joe, if my aunt had a replica of this in her house, I would definitely it hate it too. That is one freaky piece of bronze.

After the museum we left to go eat lunch in town, and afterwards we sought to discover what it had to offer (in terms of shopping, of course!). Everything was fine & dandy until Robyn got stung by her very first bee! But she was such a trooper, love that girl to death.



That night we got rained in, and spent the night enjoying free liters of wine, compliments of the brothers who owned/operated the hotel. Silly boys, didn't they know what happens when Americans are offered free booze?

Ominous fog creeping into the city