One of the pearls of history: Delphi

One of the pearls of history: Delphi

By Isabella and Maria

Delphi is located near the Gulf of Corinth and was home to the famous oracle of Apollo and to the Panhellenic Pythian Games. The site was first settled in the 1500-1100 BCE and took a religious significance from around 800 BCE. Its original name was Pytho (the snake that Apollo killed) and Apollo's temple is believed to be built on the spot where this happened. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was famed throughout the Greek world and even beyond. The oracle - Pythia -would answer questions put to her by visitors wishing to be guided in their future actions.

Delphi was also considered the center of the world in Greek mythology, since when Zeus released two eagles, one to the east and another to the west, Delphi was the point at which they met after encircling the world.

The first temple in the area was built in the 7th century BCE and was a replacement for buildings of worship which had stood there before. The Doric temple of Apollo was destroyed three times by natural disasters and in the end was replaced with a similar temple in 330 BCE. Other important constructions at the site were the theatre, the temples to Athena, a tholos with 13 Doric columns, the stadium and around 20 treasuries.

Most information is from: http://www.ancient.eu/delphi/

We thought that the remains were amazing and breathtaking. It is a beautiful place to visit and there you can really feel the history in the air. It is nice to walk around and look at the magical views surrounding you and to understand that this is really what people before us lived by. Their religions, their architecture, understanding of life and views in the world were completely different and these are things that we should all take a moment to think about.

Delphi museum:
We also visited the Archeological Museum of Delphi. We learned about the history of the Delphic sanctuary. The museum has sculptures, statues and other smaller objects. Some of the art that we remembered the most were these:

The Mycenaean figurines
They were clay statues that represented the believers since they had their hands pointed up as if they prayed. We found the figurines interesting because they showed how people tried to be closer to the gods.

The Large Sphinx of Naxos
The statue showed a Sphinx sitting on an ionic column. It had beautiful wings, a body of an animal and a human face. We thought that this statue was very cool, since it showed an animal with a human face and wings, and we don't see that in everyday life.

Twins of Argos
The twins of Argos are two identical kouros statues. They are simply dressed, looking forward with no movement and only one foot stepped forward. The two statues are bigger than normal people. We learned that they come from a legend. They were made by Argives to honor Cleobis and Biton. Cleobis and Biton helped their mother by dragging her in a wagon to the temple. Later on the mother prayed to Hera to give her sons the best that men can receive. After they feasted because Hera heard the mother's prayers and after the feast the two brothers fell asleep forever. We found the statues very, very similar to each other and symmetrical. But we also thought that they looked a little fake, since they have no facial expressions or movement.  

The Charioteer
We learned that the Charioteer is the most important statue of the museum of Delphi. The statue is made in a technique that leaves the inside empty. It is made of wax and then poured over with bronze. There aren't a lot of pieces left of this statue, but we can see that it was done very well, since there are a lot of details. The statue showed a person on a chariot, riding a horse and a boy was holding the outer horses' reigns. We also learned that the statue was preserved thanks to an earthquake. We found this statue the prettiest. We liked that it is made out of bronze but empty on the inside. The detail were small but very nice. One if the details was a little bow on the back of the head of the chariot rider, it is a small detail, but these details make up a beautiful masterpiece.