The Mists of Prophecy

  Delphi, Greece
Friday, May 25, 2007

We're in Delphi, previous home to a big temple of Apollo, a small one of Athena, and the Oracle - a place where some chick went into a crack in the ground and got high on fumes from the Earth and saw 'visions'.  Some of you may remember it from your high school Classical Studies lessons - the Oracle of Delphi was once extremely powerful and consulted by everyone from kings to generals to everyday fishermen, and the Temple of Apollo was her home.  It turns out, thanks to the wonders of modern science, that the reason she was able to 'predict the future' was that a hallucinogenic gas (similar to nitrous oxide, or laughing gas) oozes from the ground at this one spot in Delphi, and the temple was built directly over the spot where it comes out.  Regardless, thanks to the Oracle's amazing powers, a sizeable ancient city was built here, complete with statues, temples, and massive amounts of gold and ivory offerings to the gods.

The Valley of Delphi

We haven't had great weather here so far, it was bucketing rain when we arrived yesterday, but we spent a lovely afternoon in a restaurant overlooking the spectacular drop to the valley below, lined with a virtual ocean of olive trees, and some small towns clustered around an inlet, just visible through the clouds.  We splurged on an actual sit-down meal (after almost two weeks of sandwiches and gyros, we figured it was time!) and had a fabulous wood-fired Mediterranean-style pizza while we watched the rain fall outside.

Temple of Apollo

Today we went out to see the remains of the Temples and the archaeological site, less than a kilometre from the main town along a beautiful path which follows the edge of the valley.  It was a foggy day, which made the mist sit in the valley and hover eerily around the columns of the temples.  It all felt quite mystical despite the crowds of tour-bus hordes and American school groups, and we spent quite a while exploring the main site and the lower Temple of Athena.

Temple of Athena

After the site, we checked out the archaeological museum, where the original statues and treasures from the site are kept. The museum was fantastic, the exact opposite of the National Museum in Egypt - well lit, well labelled in several languages, and with fantastic reconstructions and stories about the functions and meanings of the ancient artifacts.  The displays included some 6th century BC bronze warrior's helmets, some massive bronze, marble and terracotta statues, and the remains of some spectacular statues of the gods in gold and ivory, as well as a life-size silver bull statue.  Very cool.

Young Love

We spent the rest of the day exploring the town, with it's narrow cobbled streets shaded by vines, whitewashed houses and red-tiled roofs.  Tomorrow we head back to Athens for the night, then fly out to Norway.  Our time in Greece has been great so far, but we are excited to move on to Scandanavia, the land of the Midnight Sun!

Cheers from Greece,

Dan and Gabrielle