Delphi

Delfos (Greek Δελφοί, Delfoi, Latin Delphi) is an archaeological site — declared World Heritage UNESCO in 1987—and a modern city in Greece. In ancient times it was the place of the oracle of Delphi, inside a temple dedicated to the god Apollo. Delphi was revered throughout the Greek world as the site of the omphalos, or center of the universe.

Location

Map of the area of central Greece where some of the main cities of the ancient Fócida are located and where the location of Delfos is appreciated.

It was a city of Phocis, on one side of Mount Parnassus and on the other side of Cirfis. Delphi is located on a plateau on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus, adjacent to the sanctuary of Apollo, the site of the oracle. This semicircular projection is called Phaedriades Phaedriades, that is, the Shining Ones. They are some very high rocks that are called, respectively, the Flemboukos (the Flaming) and the Rhodini (the Red) because of the vivid reflections that the sun makes from it.

In front of the sanctuary opens the narrow valley of the river Pleistos. The city of Delphi was in the middle of the two mountain spurs and the ancients compared its position to a theater. Today the city of Kastri is nearby. About 15 km southwest of Delphi is the port of Cirra, on the Gulf of Corinth.

The undulating plain of Crisa, covered with green olive trees, which stretches between Delphi and the not-distant Gulf of Corinth, contrasts with the harsh and rugged landscape of the sanctuary. Here is the road that leads from eastern Greece to the Ionian Sea, and the one that leads from the north to Itea and the Peloponnese.

The city was almost inaccessible, but it had three roads leading to it: one from Boeotia called Skiste, to the east, and two more to the west from Anfisa and from Crisa. The pilgrims who came from Cirra did so by the third path.

The only side of the city not defended by natural accidents was the south, where a wall had been built. The city was small and had no more than 3 km of circuit. The temple was under the city next to the Phaedriades rocks, in the middle of the sacred constructions or temple enclosure, an enclosure surrounded by a wall and crossed by the sacred way, flanked by the buildings of the treasures (tesaurus) of the towns linked to the oracle; The sacred way reached the temple, a hexastyle of the Doric order, and gave access to an underground enclosure where, in front of the omphalos, the Pythia, after drinking water from the Castalia spring, made her prophecy amidst gaseous emanations that came out of a cleft in the the rock.

History

Model of the sanctuary of Delfos.

Picos Fedríades (the "Brillantes") of Delfos.

Mythology says that Delphi belonged to various gods before it was owned by Apollo. Aeschylus says that it belonged to Gaea, Themis; Pausanias says that it was an oracle of Poseidon and Gaia, that the latter gave her part to Themis and Themis to Apollo, who later obtained the other part from Poseidon in exchange for the island of Calauria.

The legend of the foundation of the temple is known by Homer, who says that Apollo wanted to found an oracle and arrived at Crisa, near Mount Parnassus, he liked the place and began to build the temple that was finished under the direction of two brothers, Trophonius and Agamedes. Apollo killed the snakes that infested the place and a monster (the snake Python), and opened the temple that was called Python, and its god Python (Pytho). Apollo turned into a dolphin to attract a Cretan ship, whose people he wanted to use as priests; the Cretans landed and founded Crisa and were charged with being priests of the temple and worshiping the god under the name Apollo Delphinius to commemorate his conversion into a dolphin, from which the name Delphi came. Regarding the origin of the place name of Delphi, he proposes that it comes from Delphine (Δελφινης), which was the name of the mythological dragon that guarded the oracle before the arrival of Apollo.

Crysa had dominion over the sanctuary of Python, and when the Amphictyony council began holding their spring meetings there, she retained dominion and became guardian of the temple. Next to the sanctuary a city was formed that soon claimed to administer the temple without the intervention of Crisa; at the same time Cirra, the port of Crisa, became larger than the city itself, which declined, while Delphi and Cirra increased. Around 595 B.C. C., Crisa was already, surely, an unimportant city. This year Cirra was destroyed by order of the amphictyonic council and the plain of Cirra was declared sacred and at the service of the temple. Since then, games called Pythic Games (Pythis) have been held, which were held under the direction of the host council every four years, and were the first in 586 BC. C. In the plain of Cirra there were exhibitions of purebred horses and other animals and there were the hippodrome and the stadium (the latter was later transferred to the city of Delphi. By this time Delphi was already an independent city-state governed by natural magistrates of the city.

The population of Delphi came largely from Licorea, a city on Parnassus, led by Deucalion, supposed head of the local nobility. Five local priests, called Hosioi, were chosen from among the descendants of Deucalion and were the heads of the oracle and the temple. The city of Licorea was on the site of present-day Liakura, and it is assumed that it was a Doric city and that the inhabitants of Delphi had this same origin (it is known that they spoke Doric, and were certainly not Phocidians).

The government of Delphi was in the hands of the noble families who also had control of the oracle. Later, magistrates were chosen among the nobles and among these a king was chosen, later called Pritano (Prytanis). In recent times some archons and a senate appear.

View of the Stadium of the Sanctuary of Delfos, used for the Political Games.

The government at Delphi was theocratic. The temple and its god owned vast domains of land that were farmed by temple slaves; In addition, the priests received gifts from kings and rich men who went to consult the oracle, and offered sacrifices. The wealth of the city made the citizens decadent. The oracle had been consulted since the 8th century B.C. C. and the fame quickly spread to neighboring nations; Some kings or relevant people sent embassies to ask the opinion of the god. Almost all of the Greek colonies were founded under the influence of the oracle, and later Apollo was the patron of the new colonies. Gyges of Lydia made important donations to the temple, but the most important donations were those of Croesus. The Etruscan city of Caere had a treasure in Delphi. Even the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius the Proud, consulted the oracle.

In 548 B.C. C., the temple was destroyed by fire. The amphictyonic council decided to rebuild it much bigger and more magnificent. Delphi had to pay the cost and the rest had to be paid by other cities and kingdoms; the cost was 300 talents and the execution was entrusted to the Athenian family of the Alcmaeonides, who were then living in exile. The architect was the Corinthian Espintaros. Much of it was made of Parian marble.

In 480 B.C. C. the Persians arrived before Delphi. The citizens fled to the mountain, but the oracle forbade moving the treasures of the temple. Six inhabitants remained in Delphi to defend the temple. When the Persians advanced, a spectacular thunderclap was heard and some stones fell from the mountain and crushed many Persians; these, seized with panic, fled and were pursued by two large warriors who were said by the inhabitants to be the heroes Philachos and Autonoos, whose sanctuaries were nearby.

In 373 B.C. C. was destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt.

In 357 B.C. C., the phocidians were sentenced by the amphictyonic council to pay a large fine for having cultivated part of the sacred plain of Cirra. The Phocidian chief Philomelo convinced his compatriots to complete the alleged sacrilege by occupying the Delphi temple; Philomelo carried out the conquest and seized all the treasures. That originated the holy war. First, the Phocidians did not want to use the treasures, but later, under pressure from Thebans and Locrians, they converted the treasures into money to pay the soldiers. Philip II of Macedon, general of the amphictyonic council, won the war and returned the temple to amphictyony (346 BC), with the remaining treasures. The Phocidians were sentenced to return the treasures (about 10,000 talents) with annual payments, but the Phocidians were too poor to be able to pay such a large amount.

A new earthquake damaged it again in 330 BC. C. and was rebuilt by the architects Espintaro, Xenodoro and Agatón de Corinto.

In 279 B.C. C., Delphi was attacked by the (Galatians) led by Brenus, tempted by the supposed riches of the temple (which were no longer the same after 346 BC), but was supernaturally repulsed as the Persians were before, when large rocks fall from the mountains.

In the third century B.C. C. received the patronage of the kings of Pergamum. During that century it passed under the control of the Aetolian League until in 189 B.C. C. fell into the hands of Rome.

Later, in 86 B.C. C., was sacked by Sulla, who had also sacked Olympia and Epidaurus. At this time he was already very poor.

In the middle of the 1st century it was sacked by Nero, who took 500 bronze statues, and separated the plain of Cirra, which he divided among his soldiers, and abolished the oracle. But Adriano, later, restored it and it returned to have a certain renown and splendor for a while. In the days of Caracalla, coinage ceased to be issued at Delphi. Constantine the Great took some figures for his new capital. Julian the Apostate still consulted the oracle, but it was finally suppressed by Theodosius I the Great in 385 by outlawing pagan worship.

Main buildings and places

The treasure of Athens, built to commemorate its victory in the battle of Marathon.

• The walls of Filomena
• The Fedrias rocks
• the three temples
• Temple of Athena
• Sanctuary of Fiulacos (Phylacos)
• Gymnasium and training
• Stadium
• Sanctuary of Autonoos
• The source of Castalia
• The source Delphusa
• Sinedrion

Inside the sacred precinct of the temple of Apollo it is worth mentioning:

• The temple
• The great altar
• Treasures
• Bouleterion
• This of Athenians
• Estela de Átalo I
• Estela de los Eolios
• Neoptolemo tomb
• Source of Cassiots
• Leske
• Theatre
• Roman agora

Delphi was first explored in 1676 by Spon, and in 1756 by Chandler. Later, other more scientific explorations were conducted by the French School of Classical Studies in Athens (the same one that did them on Delos) between 1861 and 1880, when a dispute between the French and the Greeks paralyzed the permits, a dispute that was resolved. in 1891. Since then the excavations have not stopped.

The Treasures of Delphi

Some of the best-preserved treasures at Delphi date from the archaic period, while the oldest, that of Corinth (650 BC), which also contained the votive donations of King Midas of Phrygia, and from the Lydians Gyges and Croesus, few ruins remain.

Treasure of the Sicyonians

The treasure of the Sicyonians, dated to around 500 B.C. C., although said date is not unanimous among archaeologists, it had, like many others, the shape of a Doric temple, with two columns between the two wings of the façade.

For its foundations, blocks from two other older buildings were reused. From a circular one (a tholos), from around 580 B.C. C., and another rectangular monopterous building, that is, consisting of a simple open colonnade to support a roof. It has been supposed that the latter was topped by the chariot of Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, who had won the first Pythian Games in 582 BC. C., and the same monopterous building, which is dated around 560 BC. C., seem to correspond to the famous metopes also found among the foundations of the treasure and which represent mythological scenes sculpted in an archaic style of strong realism.

The ones of the Theft of the oxen are famous, representing the Dioscuri carrying off the herd for which they would find death at the hands of Idas and Lynceus and others with the ship Argo, or with Europa and the bull etc

Dinsmoor, one of the greatest specialists in Greek architecture, dates the treasure from the 5th century BC. C., and attributes the metopes to an earlier treasure of the Syracusans, from the VI century B.C. C., based on the fact that the use of figured metopes, common in Sicily, and in Magna Graecia, was unusual in properly Greek monuments.

Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, in her important book on archaic Greek sculpture published in 1977, observes that the Sicyonian metopes were part of a treasure offered by some Magna Graecia city, excluding Syracuse, and made in Delphi by artists foreigners or locals. Because it is possible that in Delphi, in addition to the artists we know from literary and historical sources, who came from all over the Greek world, there were local workshops, ultimately responsible for the formation of a "Delphic" style.

Treasure of the Siphnians

Reconstruction of the polychrome decoration of the treasure frieze of the Sifnios (525 BC) that represented the trojan cycle (Archeological Museum of Delfos).

It was the most sumptuous in the sanctuary. Ionic in style and built entirely of Parian marble, it had two caryatids on its front instead of columns and was adorned with two pediments and a long frieze sculpted with representations of mythological episodes.

As can be seen from passages in Herodotus and Pausanias, this treasure was erected by the inhabitants of Sifnos in 525 BC. C. (or perhaps a few years before, as the American Richter has indicated in her study of the Kuroí) with the tithes of the gold mines on the island.

It is the best-dated monument from the archaic period, as are its sculptures.

Fortunately, the excavations have restored a large part of the eastern pediment and almost half of the frieze that ran on the outside of the building and measured more than 20 m.

The dispute between Apollo and Heracles for possession of the Delphic tripod is represented on the pediment, with the image of Zeus in the center (and not that of Athena as at first thought).

The frieze also contains mythological scenes. The east side is divided into two parts. In the one on the right there is a combat in front of Troy around a fallen warrior. In the one on the left, a council of gods, with the divinities in favor of the Trojans - Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo and Zeus - seated in front of the supporters of the Greeks, among whom are Athena, Hera and Hebe.

On the north side, a long and moving Gigantomachy takes place, in which many Olympian divinities participate: Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus and Ares, among others.

Only a part of the west frieze, with the Judgment of Paris, has been preserved. And in the one on the south side, of which only a few slabs remain, the kidnapping of the daughters of Leucippus, the Messenian king, by the Dioscuri, or perhaps of Helen by Paris, must have been narrated.

There is clear evidence that the frieze was once polychrome. You can still distinguish the blue color of the background and traces of red on the lower edge and in some details: clothes, hair, weapons, horsehair and tails, etc.

Other details and decorative elements appeared made of bronze, and some figures were accompanied by inscriptions that have facilitated their identification.

The work of two masters is noteworthy: one—certainly a master of the Ionic school of art, if not of Sifnos itself—very imaginative, author of the eastern and northern sections of the frieze. Another, more traditional, from the Attic school, which carved the eastern and southern sections. Furthermore, if the reading of an inscription proposed by the epigrapher Lilian H. Jeffery, which appears on the shield of one of the giants, is correct, this second sculptor would be Aristion of Paros, an Ionian artist who worked for many years in Athens and to which is due, among others, the statue of the Koré Frasikleia, found in Merenda, next to Athens.

Treasure of the Athenians

Other archaic works

Naxios sphinx.

There are remains of many other monuments, although most of the times reduced to the foundations, such as the bouleterion where the 15 senators and the 8 pritanos of the city met, or the treasure of the cnidians, from the middle of the century VI a. c.

In the Marmaria, the limestone temple of Athena Pronaia, of which abundant remains remain, seems to date from the end of the VI< century a. C., but some drums with columns and 12 capitals have appeared, corresponding to a temple built perhaps around the middle of the VII century a. C., which would be one of the oldest in Greece.

The neighboring treasure of the Massaliotes, the very wealthy Greek colonists of present-day Marseilles, could be dated to around 530 BC. c.

The two colossal statues of Cleobis and Bithon, which are among the oldest Greek marble sculptures, dating from between 610 and 580 BC. C., and mark the transition from Daedalic art of the VII century B.C. C. to the archaic of the VI a. c.
They are two mythical twins, brothers from the city of Argos, who according to legend yoked themselves to the chariot of her mother, priestess of Hera, instead of oxen to take her to where the goddess's festival was celebrated. An incomplete inscription attributes them to a... medes from Argos, in whom the Argive sculptor Polymedes is recognized.

Perhaps 570-560 B.C. C. is the great Sphinx of the Naxios, which rests on an Ionic capital and a high fluted column. This important monument, which must have originally been more than twelve meters high, is of special interest for learning about the archaic art of the island of Naxos.

Modern Delphi

Modern Delphi lies immediately to the west of the archaeological zone and is therefore a popular tourist destination. It is on a main road that connects Ámfisa with Itea and Arájova. There are many hotels and guest houses in the city, and many taverns and bars. The main streets are narrow and often one way. Delphi also has a school, a lyceum, a church and a square (plateia). The European Path E-4 passes through the eastern end of the city. In addition to the archaeological interest, Delphi attracts tourists who visit the Parnassus Ski Center and the most popular seaside resorts in the region.

In medieval times a city called Kastri was built on the archaeological site. Residents had used the marble columns and structures as building materials for their houses, a common way of rebuilding cities that were partially or totally destroyed, especially after the 1580 earthquake, which brought down several cities on Phocis. In 1893 archaeologists from the French School of Athens found the place where ancient Delphi had stood and the town moved to a new location, west of where the temples had been.

The Delphi Archaeological Museum is located at the foot of the main archaeological complex, on the east side of the village and on the north side of the main road. The museum houses a collection associated with ancient Delphi, including the first known notation of a melody, the famous charioteer, gold treasures discovered beneath the Via Sacra, and fragments of reliefs from the Treasury of the Siphnians. Immediately adjacent to the exit is the inscription mentioning the Roman proconsul Gallio.

Slightly further east, on the south side of the main road, are the gymnasium and tholos.