Delphi: The Bellybutton of the Ancient World
- Year:
- 2010
- 286 Views
By the mid 4th century, this was
one of the most awe-inspiring
and spectacular places
Its combination of art, religion,
money made it, in modern day terms,
the equivalent of the wealth of the Swiss
banks, the religious power of the Vatican,
the advertising potential
of the World Cup
and the historical importance of
all the world's museums combined.
This is Delphi, on the slope of
Mount Parnassus in central Greece.
Home of the great Oracle of Apollo,
Delphi was the Omphalos,
the belly button,
the centre of the ancient world.
According to ancient myth,
Zeus sent two eagles
from opposite ends of the Earth.
And this is where they met.
It was several days' journey from the
main cities of the ancient Greek world.
Yet for centuries,
not just ordinary people,
but kings and ambassadors
struggled up here
their most puzzling questions.
Fundamentally, they came here to ask the
Oracle of the god Apollo about the future.
But however unwelcome, unhelpful,
indeed awful, those responses
were, they kept coming.
Why? And why do we still
come here as tourists today?
For me, it was because Delphi told the
ancient Greeks something about themselves.
Indeed, above the entrance
to the temple of Apollo,
where they went to see the Oracle,
was a simple inscription.
It said, "Gnothi seauton".
Know thyself.
And that message, I think, isn't just
important to the ancient Greeks.
I believe that know thyself,
the message of Delphi,
and everything that was
incarnate in this place,
still has meaning
and importance for us today.
What the tourists see here at Delphi
has only been like this
for just over a century.
Before that, it was a lost world.
Scholars knew that Delphi had been
one of the most important
sanctuaries in ancient Greece.
But it was buried beneath earth,
rocks and centuries of legend.
The answer was to dig,
and just about everybody
had their shovels at the ready.
Ever since the Renaissance,
Europeans had looked
the foundation of Western culture.
By the 1890s, American, French
and German teams were negotiating
with the Greek government
for the right to excavate.
Eventually, in 1892,
the French won the race.
They sweetened the deal by lowering tariffs
on imported Greek currants and olive oil.
Ever since, they have led
the search for ancient Delphi.
When I first began studying the
sanctuary as a young postgraduate,
French scholars like Dominique Mulliez
were an enormous inspiration.
the archaeologists was that there
were people still living right
on top of the ancient sanctuary.
Despite the difficulties,
the sanctuary and its lost treasures
gradually began to emerge
from the soil.
The legend became a real place,
with an iconic reputation.
a communal sanctuary,
all over the ancient world.
Now, once again,
people flocked to Delphi.
It became a beacon for internationalism
just like the modern Olympic games,
which were founded
at the same time in the 1890s.
a beacon for internationalism.
Here's how ICOMOS,
the UNESCO organisation,
described Delphi when they made
it a World Heritage Site in 1986.
"This reaffirms that one
of the enduring missions
"of Delphi is to bring
together men and women
by material interests."
But is that true?
And if so, how and why did
Delphi get such a reputation?
The only way to answer
that is to find out
what was really going on at this
At its height, the sanctuary at
Delphi covered more than 100 acres.
The temple itself was surrounded by
hundreds of votive buildings,
treasure houses,
porticoes and statues,
all of them built by
grateful visitors.
Some of them had come
hundreds of miles.
They included rulers from across
the ancient world,
from the legendary King Midas
in the 8th century BC,
1,000 years later.
And the visitors came
for the Oracle.
To ask the god Apollo for answers
to their questions about the future.
But what actually happened
when they got here?
Well, luckily, one of
is the writings of a real insider.
He was a priest at the temple
called Plutarch.
is that the Oracle operated
on only nine days each year.
On those days, crowds of worshippers
would queue to ask their question.
Now faced with the front of the temple of
Apollo and the inscription "Know thyself,"
the consultant had to decide
Some examples. King Croesus
from Lydia in modern-day Turkey
wanted to ask whether he should
attack his next-door enemy empire.
Or the Athenians, when they were
faced with the Persian invasion,
asked what should they do?
But the thing is, we don't know exactly
how the consultation took place.
But if we can get inside the temple,
perhaps we can get a better idea.
And here we are,
inside the sacred temple of Apollo,
following in the footsteps of the people
who came to consult the Oracle.
Moving from the public, front end
of the temple, towards the back,
the inner sanctum,
the most sacred area.
It's here that
French archaeologists,
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