Delphi and Sounion

Friday, April 20: Delphi

Set off on the longish drive to Delphi, which is in a wonderful setting in the mountains. We took a ferry across the narrow strait to leave the Peloponnese and get to the mainland of Greece. The water was a bit rough, but not quite bad enough to cancel the ferry, as sometimes happens.

Sophia explained how Dolphins carried Apollo to the mainland, where he boarded a flying tripod for the trip up to the mountain shrine where, after wrestling the python which guarded the place, he took possession of the shrine. His pristess there was known as the Pythia, and was famous in antiquity for her prophesies. Ed was quite taken with the idea of flying on a tripod.

We got to Delphi by more normal means and began with a visit to the museum, whose most amazing piece, for me, was the bronze chariot driver. I don't think there were ever fewer than about 20 or 30 people around it at any given time. The place seemed packed, and this was the OFF season--must be a nightmare in the summer.

We then hiked up to the temple of Apollo. The climb was not quite as bad as Mystras, so I took my time and made it to the temple. Sophia had told us that people would take a pebble they found and give it to the oracle to reveal the truth about themselves. I found a black pebble for myself, and Sophia found a white one for me. I wonder which is truer?

We walked down to the sacred spring where the Pythia would bathe before going to the shrine and getting high on burning oleander leaves (sounds pretty risky to this Southern Californian, who knows about oleander), and then delivering her prophesies. The spring is still running, and I bathed my hot and sweaty face therein.

Back aboard the bus for the ride to Athens. Our hotel is near the Acropolis, which I managed to spot several times. The hotel itself is a tad down-at-the-heels, but is OK, and the location is great.

I'm clearly coming down with something--sore throat and hacking cough. Bad.

Saturday, April 21: Sounion

I'm definitely sick. In the morning we drove to Sounion to see the temple of Poseidon. It is located on a peninsula at the southern end of Attica (the region surrounding Athens). It is from the cliff here that Aegeus supposedly threw himself into the sea when Theseus forgot to change the sails on his returning ship to white. Seeing the black sails Aegeus assumed his son was dead and hurled himself into the water, thus giving the sea its name. Theseus certainly had a bad memory--he also forgot Ariadne, leaving her on a lonely island and sailing off without her. As a result his atrocious memory he arrived home to become king and was not saddled with a wife. Sounds a bit suspicious.

We had several hours to kill since our flight to Santorini isn't until about 6PM. We had had lunch on the way out of town (wonderfully tender lamb), but it was still pretty early when we got to Sounion. Spent a leisurely time wandering around the temple and taking pictures, then went down to the little cafe and sat drinking coffee and chatting. A lot more pleasant than sitting in the airport. We finally went on to the airport and took wing for Santorini. Had dinner at our hotel. It was very good.