Day 12, May 14, 2024 – We disembarked from M/V Arethusa in Piraeus, the Port of Athens, Greece and fought some miserable traffic trying to get out of the city where we ended up at over 3,500 feet in Delphi. We were able to tour the Museum. We went back to Arachova for lunch and then back to the grounds of Delphi for the afternoon. We stayed in Arachova overnight.
Arachova is a resort town that is a favorite for Greeks on skiing vacation.
The famous “twins” of Argos: Kleobis (Cleobis) and Biton are two Archaic Greek Kouros brothers from Argos, whose stories date back to about 580 BCE. Two statues, discovered in Delphi, represent them. Sphinx of Naxos
(560 BC)
The Sphinx of the Naxians was erected next to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, the religious center of Ancient Greece.
The Sphinx of the Naxians was erected next to Temple of Apollo in the Delphi religious center of Ancient Greece. It was a gift from the people of Naxos and is a 2.22 meter tall marble statue of a sphinx. It stood on a 10 meter column in about 560 BC.
The silver bull of Delphi is the first large-scale statue made all from forged metal – a bull made of sheets of silver. The sixty silver leaves that were found crumbled and damaged in a depository of the Delphic Sanctuary, after long and detailed conservation work, managed to revive, even if only in our imagination, the silver bull statue. The shape of the statue was created by a wooden core, which was filled with some malleable material: clay, wax or plaster. The silver leaves were applied on top of it and were secured with nails. The details of the bull (horns, ears, hooves etc) were gold-plated.
This was a statue made out of wood and then covered with ivory as skin, and gold. It was found in Delphi and is dated to around 550 BC.
The Charioteer of Delphi, is a statue from Ancient Greece an example of ancient bronze sculpture. The life-size statue of a chariot driver was found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi.
The agora or market place in Delphi is where one would purchase your offering for Apollo. You can see where the store fronts were located.
From a distance we could see the Temple of Athena, across the street from the Temple of Apollo.
The sort of round stone is what is known as the “navel of the world”, also called an omphalos. It is located in the sanctuary of Delphi, where the oracle of Apollo spoke. Delphi in the 6th century B.C. was the religious centre and symbol of unity of the ancient Greek world.
The structure with the columns is Athenian Treasury.
If you look closely you can see inscriptions that were carved into these and almost all of the rocks and boulders that made up some walls
These columns are the only ones left in the entrance to the Temple of Apollo.
This theater in Delphi could seat over 5,000 people.
We were here late in the day, it turned cloudy but no crowds! Perfect!
After touring the ruins we went back to Arachovalater in the day. This is the clock tower that is above the valley.