9.2 Oracle of Delphi! And a Greek night out!!

In this picture are groves of thousands of olive trees in the pernassus mountain valley. In order to gather olives, workers put nets under the trees and then hit the branches with sticks. The olives from the tree are not tasty at all. They are put into (brine) salt water to improve the flavor. Shriveled olives are put into salt.

Beautiful lunch spot...where Christian ate the tail of Karlee’s fish!!

Mrs. Rodriguez and Lynsey holding their beautiful flowers on our equally as beautiful bus 😑

Oracle of Delphi

Christina was our tour guide and she was such an incredible story teller!! Delphi is dedicated to Apollo, god of light (shedding light on matters), music, and logic. Muses are led and inspired by Apollo. The mother of Apollo helps us remember what we have learned. The better you understand the past, the better you become. She said that Apollo represents using logic and reason help you to become better.

The building were created in 8th century BC. In Roman days they would come here to ask questions to the oracle. Then there was a giant earthquake in 4th century AD and now less than half of original buildings are left.

She explained that anthro means “look up” and Greeks believe humans (anthropos) are meant to look up at the world around them.

Delphi means “the womb” and they believe that this is where humanity was born.

These Brick and stone walls were shops.

There was writing on almost every block of the walls that told the story of the Great Athenians

This building is made of Parian marble. It’s the best and shiniest and most expensive marble. It symbolized their strength. The building is for the Athenian marathon winners.

If you look closely at the rightmost block, 3rd from the bottom, on the picture of the wall above, you will see circles...if you look closer, you will see they are wreaths

Greeks build temples where they felt divine manifestation. Interestingly, 2 fault lines are under this area. Water and gasses came out of the earth. They called it the breath of a god.

In the back of the temple are two inscriptions:

Know thyself (the human part of everyone)

Nothing in excess (do not self-destruct)

Cone shape is there to remind you that you’re at the center of the world (cultural)...where Zeus’ eagles came.

The one who would communicate with the oracle was Pythia — an older woman. She would drink from spring and sit on bronze tripod to found the answers. But sometimes the answers could be interpreted in more than one way.

For example, Croesus started war in Persia and was told he would destroy an empire (ended up being his own)

Apollo and Dionysus were worshiped in this temple. For 9 months the Greeks worshipped Apollo (mind) and for 3 months they worshipped Dionysus (heart) because you can’t use your head and heart at the same time. The fact that there was a different in the amount of time they worshipped didn’t mean that they preferred one God over the other.