Delphi (Greece)

Our visit to the Delphi site takes up good part of a Sunday, and we are many times lucky there. Firstly, the entrance is free on the day as it’s (unbeknown to us previously) an Environment Day. Secondly, and with more luck then design, we manage to stage our visit so that we avoid most of the tour groups as we visit the museum in the lunch hour and the sanctuary - normally the busiest part of the site – towards the closing time.
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The road to Delphi from Itea and our campsite (Chrisso) winds up along tight serpentines, most of them close to 180 degrees. Eventually the coastal plain and the view of the bay disappears and we are surrounded by mountains from all sides. The site is located at the end of the modern village and consists, essentially, of three parts: the newly refurbished museum, the Sacred Precinct itself with the temple of Apollo, theatre and the stadium ... more

Our visit to the Delphi site takes up good part of a Sunday, and we are many times lucky there. Firstly, the entrance is free on the day as it’s (unbeknown to us previously) an Environment Day. Secondly, and with more luck then design, we manage to stage our visit so that we avoid most of the tour groups as we visit the museum in the lunch hour and the sanctuary - normally the busiest part of the site – towards the closing time.

The tour groups here are overwhelming. Apart from numerous Greek schoolchildren which somehow don’t bother me because after all who has not been on a school trip, though mine were to rather less exciting locations, there is a lot of American ones, conforming to all the worst stereotypes of colourful, noisy philistinism, but most touring nations are represented (strangely though, no sign or sound of Brits) and it’s really the tank-like nature of a tour group that makes it such an unpleasant obstacle to individual/family visitors rather than particular characteristics of any given nation, operator or age group.

This little rant in full swing, I stop myself and wonder who am I to criticise people who travelled thousands and thousands of miles to see the same things I would jealously like to reserve for myself? And why do I feel better just because I have never had inclination/money/courage to go on an organised tour? So let me go back to the meritum.

The road to Delphi from Itea and our campsite (Chrisso) winds up along tight serpentines, most of them close to 180 degrees. Eventually the coastal plain and the view of the bay disappears and we are surrounded by mountains from all sides. The site is located at the end of the modern village and consists, essentially, of three parts: the newly refurbished museum, the Sacred Precinct itself with the temple of Apollo, theatre and the stadium and the area called Marmaria comprising ruins of a gymnasium, temple of Athena and the Castilian spring.

The spring lies at the bend of the road couple of hundred meters up from the main site and it’s here where we begin our pilgrimage. A spring still spouts water from a mouth of unidentifiable animal on the roadside and we fill our bottles with clear, cold, refreshing mountain water. The actual area of the spring (in which the visitors had to purify themselves before entering the sanctuary) is now railed off because of the danger of an occasional landslide but we can peek down to the ruined entrance and – below the canopy of trees, in perpetual semi-shade broken by the rays of light filtering from above – at the stream flowing down the rocks to soon disappear under the road. It’s here that I have, for the first time, the impression that will be repeated again and again in Delphi: if the old gods are still alive somewhere in Greece, it’s this place indeed.

From the spring we wander down to Marmaria proper, called that because it was used as a convenient marble quarry in the medieval times. This part is free of charge and perhaps that’s why only some tour groups seem to come here, as it couldn’t possibly be the walk up the road from the coach park, could it?

Both gymnasium and the temple of Athena are reasonably interesting (gymnasium area provides excellent view of the Sacred Precinct on the mountainside above us), but the focus of the area is the Tholos: a mysterious round structure of which three columns and some metopes have been reassembles. Nobody know what it was for and it stands there beautiful and secretive, reminding us that of the mystery in the past covered up by the millennia and forever hidden. The site is virtually dwarfed by the massive crags of Parnassus rising above and by all means should feel claustrophobic and foreboding, but it doesn't. It feels solemn and very, very old but it's not an old age of decay and desolation, is a wise and timelessly beautiful one.

From the Marmaria we trek back to the main site and decide to go to the Museum first as it closes earlier, and leave the main site to the last.

Delphi museum, recently refurbished, is an impressive, clearly laid out and reasonably well labelled in Greek, French and English. French is understandable as the site was excavated by the archaeologist of the French school (original panels in French and Greek only are still present round the site), and English is included for its obvious lingue-franca role; though I found strange that there was no descriptions in German, considering how many of the tourists in Greece and in Delphi as well were from that country.

The museum is arranged in a chronological order and virtually every room contains something of interest: from the early Mycenaean stripy female figurines made from terracotta to a silver bull with gilded horns and hooves to a beautiful sphinx (my 4 year old was fascinated by that) seated gracefully on a high Ionic column, to the highlight of the collection, the famous Charioteer, a bronze (now covered in green patina) and an undoubted masterpiece in what is called the severe style. His curls and folds of his robe perfectly parallel, his horse and chariot long gone, he stands there holding invisible reins and staring with his painted eyes into the abyss of eternity.

My own favourite is a different piece though, a column garlanded by several circles of acanthus leaves and topped by a group of three women, all of them wearing short transparent chitons and rectangular head dresses, their facial features ground down by the years; captured in what seems like a graceful dance. There used to be a cauldron above their heads but nobody knows who they were or what they symbolised. The mystery attracts unfailingly.

We leave the museum in late lunchtime to conclude out tour with the visit to the main sanctuary. Paved Sacred Way leads up in a zigzag path past numerous statue bases and what votive offerings of various cities called ‘treasuries’. Most of them are ruined to the foundation level, and the statues are now in the museum, but one (the treasury of the Athenians) has been reassembled using the inscriptions on the sides and helps to imagine how the site must have looked. No, it doesn't really. We have actually no idea and probably very few people can visualise the opulence, the crowds, the liveliness, the colour of the sanctuary in its heyday.

Doric temple of Apollo is the dominant building in the sanctuary, after all he looked after the site for most of the year, his was the oracle and he killed Python the serpent to claim his ownership. It is another one of these strange Greek instances where balance seems to be of such supreme importance (they even had 'everything in moderation' written on the wall somewhere here): the site was under Apollo's patronage only for part of the year. The winter months, when the oracle was silent, were given to Dionysus, the god of wine and passion, poetic and sexual frenzy, and the theatre was build to stage plays under his patronage.

And originally Delphi was obviously dedicated to the powers of the underworld (thus the serpent, and after all Pythia inhaled hallucinogenic vapours from an underground chasm) and an old, old rock which is believed to be a Gaia altar is still there, and was there when the place was ruled by the Apollo's priests and covered in gold and marble. It looks strange, incongruent , ancient and scary. It reminds me of Old Powers in Earthsea though in the Greek reality it was just an old women's goddess, wasn't it?

Once we climb as high as and slightly above the temple, the views - which were great - become outstanding, and that is even after almost four weeks of travelling across Greek mountains. The six columns of the temple seem to be almost in the air, at the very edge of an abyss, framed by the crags and looking as if they were flying, despite the solidity of stone even the remains of the building have lightness derived not just from architecture but the way it interacts with the landscape around it.

The site is crossed by the Polygonal Wall, which, amazingly, is still standing despite all earthquakes. The inscriptions that cover the wall relate apparently to slave liberations for which Delphi was one of the few official venues.

Theatre is just above the temple, but to be honest it's not particularly impressive after the Epidavros one, so we have a look at another angle of the untiringly fascinating view and continue amongst the pines higher up to the stadium, which now has Roman-ear seats, but is originally on of the oldest stadia in the world. It was used for the Pythian games, run every four years here from 6th century B.C. The sides are covered in trees and as it's more or less deserted (tour groups rarely venture that high) it's an admirable spot for a picnic lunch: partially shaded, evocative structure, and half-way to the top of the world.

We trample down in the lowering sun, and manage to catch the bus back to the campsite just as we emerge from the site.

*** Verdict ***

This was a second time I visited Delphi (the first time was in the late 80's) and I am glad I did revisit, as the site was even better the second time round.

If you have a slightest predilection for ruins and antiques, go. Of all the antique sites I have seen in Greece this is probably the best, and certainly in the top three. The setting is superb, the ruins extensive, interesting and beautiful, the museum itself worth a visit.

Granted, it's very crowded with tour groups but even that can be negotiated sensibly if you time your visit well. We spend about five hours at the site, but then we explored all parts of it as well as the museum. You need reasonable amount of time to do the place justice, and if I would say that three hours is a minimum to have a good look at all the sub-parts and climb up all the way to the Stadium.

***Boring bits***

Entrance tickets cost 9 euro for the museum and the site, 6 euro just for the site. Marmaria and the spring are free of charge.

The site paths are not concreted over and the site is not accessible to wheelchairs or pushchairs, though most paths are not particularly precarious and a reasonably fit 3-4 year old would cope with no problems. The newly refurbished museum is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

There are toilets and cafes on both sites and in the museum. There is also a gift shop and a post office near the museum entrance.

Delphi is achievable from Athens as a day trip, by car or by bus (10 euro one way); there is several buses a day, but the bus ride takes 3 hours and is generally boring and painful, so you have to be pretty desperate to want to do it twice in one day. Travelling from Patras is an option for those who come on ferries from Italy and the route is beautiful and picturesque, taking in the new suspension bridge over Corinth Gulf, medieval port of Nafpaktos and town of Galaxidi. The journey also takes about three hours but there is only two buses a day, so a day trip by public transport isn't possible from that direction.

Accommodation is plentiful in Delphi and the nearby skiing village of Arahova. We stayed at one of the three Delphi campsites (Chrissa), 7 km down the road to Itea (see review).

 

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