Αρχαιολογικός Χώρος Δελφών Audio Guide

Delphi sits about six hundred metres up the southern slopes of Mount Parnassus, in central Greece. The sanctuary of Apollo here was home to the Pythia, one of the most important oracles of the Greek world. Between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE it grew into a meeting place for Greeks from many cities. The site was laid out in two parts. Pilgrims arriving from the east reached the lower precinct first, in an area called Marmaria. There they honoured Athena Pronaia, a title that means roughly 'the one before' the temple of Apollo. Only after that did they climb the slope to Apollo's sanctuary. Across the lower site, the round tholos stands out, with three of its columns set back up. Around it lie the foundations of other temples, scattered across the ground.

Photo: Luarvick · CC BY-SA 3.0

Built of limestone in the fourth century BCE, this Doric temple was the third one raised on this spot. The two earlier temples were built of porous stone, in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE. The first of them was probably the earliest Doric temple, and twelve of its columns have been preserved. Its successor, from about 510 BCE, was probably part of a building programme by the Alcmaeonids, a powerful aristocratic family. Falling rock from the cliffs above has struck these buildings. In 1905 a rockfall destroyed columns of one of these temples that were still standing. Only the foundations of the limestone temple survive, but its plan has been restored in full. It had six columns across the front. Some scholars think it may have been dedicated to Artemis, following the travel writer Pausanias, though the traditional view keeps it for Athena.

Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0

Ancient tradition credits the design of this tholos to Theodoros of Phocaea. The Roman writer Vitruvius preserves his name in a book on architecture. It is called a tholos, the Greek word for a round building. It went up over roughly a decade, starting around 380 BCE. Twenty Doric columns once stood around its outside, carrying a horizontal band of carved stone. Inside, ten Corinthian-style pilasters, flat columns attached to the wall, rose from a stone bench. Its upper parts are fine Pentelic marble, on a base of limestone. Nobody knows for certain what the building was for, or what happened inside it.

KufoletoAntonio De Lorenzo and Marina Ventayol · CC BY 3.0

The band of stone above the columns, called the entablature, alternates grooved blocks with carved panels. The grooved blocks are called triglyphs, and the carved panels between them are metopes. On the outside, the metopes showed battles between Amazons and centaurs, scenes that Greek sculptors loved. Inside, a band of smaller figures survives only in broken pieces, and it may have shown the labours of Hercules or of Theseus. Specialists spent long periods fitting the fragments back together, so our view of it is only partial. Scholars praise the carvers' skill with marble and the lively, accurate detail of the figures. The figures on the metopes were carved in high relief, standing so far forward that they came away easily. In the early Christian years, the panels were reused as building stone and tomb covers, after their carved surfaces had been smoothed over.

Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt · CC BY-SA 4.0

The gymnasium was a training complex built around 330 BCE, between the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia and the Castalian spring. It spread over two terraces. The xystus, a covered portico for training, stood on one of them, with a side corridor called the paradromis used by runners. The palaestra, a square court with rooms around it, lay on the lower terrace. The xystus was nearly two hundred metres long. It was only nine metres wide, and its floor was spread with sand to make things easier for the athletes. Its first colonnade was Doric, with eighty-three columns of porous stone called poros. In Roman times, marble Ionic columns took their place, eighty-three of them again. The palaestra's rooms were used for changing and for fighting practice. For a long time a monastery stood over the site, and travellers in the Ottoman period often stayed there. Some of them carved their names into fallen columns that still lay in place. Lord Byron's signature is among them, and it can still be seen on the restored columns.

Photo: Harald Rossa · CC BY-SA 3.0

The round pool here is about ten metres across. The pool is just under two metres deep. It lies just west of the palaestra. Its water came from the Castalian spring. From the pool, water ran on to ten stone basins for bathing. Athletes would wash in these basins after their exercise. In Roman times a bath with hot water was built close by, an extra luxury for the athletes.

Erik Drost · CC BY 2.0

Every visitor to Delphi stopped at the Castalian spring, in the ravine between the cliffs, to wash and to drink. Athletes and pilgrims alike used its water. Accounts also say the Pythia and the priests cleansed themselves here before the oracle was given. Tradition gave the name either to a hero or to a nymph called Kastalia, daughter of the river Achelous. According to some versions of the myth, Apollo killed a monster that guarded the oracle, which is why the water was thought sacred. Roman poets later saw the spring as a source of inspiration for their verse.

Photo: Testus · CC BY-SA 3.0

Carved into the cliff beside this fountain are niches, meant to hold the votive gifts of pilgrims. Votive gifts are offerings given in thanks to a god. The fountain is usually dated to the first century BCE. It stands about fifty metres above the older spring. Water reached the fountain through a covered channel, and seven bronze spouts stood on its front. A paved courtyard lay before it, with stone benches along three sides. Later, one of the niches was turned into a church of Saint John the Baptist.

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Directly above the oracle and the Castalian spring rise two steep cliffs, known as the Phaedriades. The spring rose between them. Ancient writers said that those who had violated the sanctuary were thrown from these heights. In 279 BCE a Gallic army under a leader called Brennus invaded Delphi. The story goes that thunderstorms and snow came down, and rocks broke loose from the cliffs onto the attackers. By that account, the invaders were crushed and driven off. The Delphians set up a festival, the Soteria, to give thanks for their deliverance. It became one of the best known festivals in the Greek world.

Photo: Zde · CC BY-SA 4.0

Two cliffs above the sanctuary carry a name usually rendered as 'the Shining Ones'. Low sunlight shows why. The sun catches the rock faces and turns them gold, while the ledges and gullies between them fall into shadow.

NickStenning · CC BY-SA 2.0