My first picture in Greece

We arrived at our hotel in Athens about 9:00 Tuesday evening. Our flights were uneventful, but we were not prepared for the difference between British Air’s international and domestic flights. Service on the international flights is fantastic. We had a choice of two dinners and all the drinks we wanted. Even the wine is free. The domestic flight from London to Athens was the opposite. Drinks and snacks were for sale. One couldn’t even get a complimentary cup of water. Even though we arrived late at the hotel, we both wanted a light dinner. The easiest thing we could do is to visit the hotel restaurant. It turned out to be an excellent choice. The food was fresh and flavorful. The price was reasonable. The service was first-rate. And the view was of the Acropolis. This was certainly a fitting topic for my first picture in Greece.

Athens Treasury

Wednesday our tour guide Nota picked us up. We were going to visit Delphi, site of the most famous oracle of ancient Greece. Delphi was a neutral ground for the Greek citi-states. Cities vied for prestige with the beauty of their “Treasuries”. These were small buildings with some art objects inside. The Athens Treasury was by far in the best shape. It was the only one that was in good enough shape that one could readily identify what it might have originally looked like.

Athens Treasury Pediment and Frieze

The pediment and frieze for the Athens Treasury has also survived and is mostly intact. These shows the exploits of Hercules and Theseus. Inside the Treasury were spoils from their victory at Marathon, where they defeated the Persian army.

Temple to Apollo

The main building was the temple to Apollo. Kings of the city-states went to Delphi (or sent their representatives) to get knowledge of the future. The king talked to a priest. The priest talked to the Oracle. The Oracle was an illiterate young woman who had to eat a poisonous leaf and small an ethanol gas that rose from an underground chamber. These made her foam at the mouth and utter nonsense sounds (and also significantly shortened her life). The priest “translated” the Oracle’s utterances into a prediction. The woman was only a distraction. The priest gave answers that sounded favorable to the king but could be broadly interpreted. The most famous example is when a king was told that if he went to war, he would destroy the army. The king went to war and saw his own army destroyed. Technically, this outcome met the Oracle’s prediction. The other thing that made predictions successful was that all kings went to the Oracle. This gave the priest more information than anybody else in Greece.

Stadium with room for 10,000

Such an important neutral zone couldn’t be used only for predictions. The area had a stadium for the Marathon games (similar to the Olympic games, but not played in Olympia). They had musical and theatrical competitions at their stadium. The stadium could seat 10,000 people, an average size stadium.

Bronze Cauldron – note repairs

There were several different Oracles with different divination techniques. These competed for prestige. Delphi was the best known. They demonstrated their importance by displaying their wealth. This brass cauldron is an example. These cauldrons were used to prepare food for large crowds. But Delphi displayed far more cauldrons that were needed for food preparation, just to show how much brass they owned. This cauldron is especially interesting because the rivets clearly show where it had been repaired.

Ivory and Gold Statue

Statues and other works of art were also used as bragging rights. This is an extremely rare example of a technique using ivory and gold. The most famous temple was the Parthenon, which had a very large ivory and gold statue of Athena. The statue did not survive. The statue in this picture shows the technique, which can help us imagine what more famous ivory and gold statues looked like. This ivory looks black because it survived a fire. But the statue is in remarkably good shape.

Bronze Statue

Most of the ancient Greek statuary was bronze. Ironically, very little bronze statues survived because of the value of brass in making weapons. The Delphi museum has one of the finest examples of brass statuary. The piece is of a charioteer with his chariot and horses. The piece suffered significant damage, but the charioteer survived perfectly. Even the eye lashes are still intact. It is also one of the finest pieces of bronze art produced, displaying the Greek idea perfect beauty, down to the famous “Greek foot”, where the second toe is longer than the great toe.

Meteora Rocks

The afternoon was spent driving to Meteora, where we would be visiting some famous Monasteries. The area as mysterious rocks. Not part of any mountain range, these rocks appear to pop out of the earth for no reason. The look smooth at a distance, but when one gets close they are clearly aggregate (like cement). The rocks have many mysterious and wonderful holes, or small caves.

Nicholas Monastery

The monasteries started out as hermits living in the caves in isolation. Over time, Monks moved into these holes, built monasteries, and developed the monastic lifestyle. This is a picture of the St. Nicholas Monastery, the smaller of the two we would visit the next day.

Our guest house was wonderful, with a walk-out porch. This picture was taken from our porch. We spent the evening admiring the view and watching the stars come out.