[原创]Journey into the Past: Part G-3 Delphi[雨巷寻香]

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[原创]Journey into the Past: Part G-3 Delphi

(Written by Yeti at the http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=26&id=18642&star=1#18642 2005-11-30 10:47:00)

“Master, master! Come quickly”, said the shepherd.

“What is it? Why are you in such a panic?”

“ The sheep, some of them are lying unconscious on the ground.”

“Let’s go and have a look.”…

…”There seems to be some kind of strange vapor emanating from the ground where the sheep lie. We should inform the local authorities.”

…(Later)

“My fellow citizens”, declared the local priest, “this vapor is a gift from the Earth Goddess Gaia, as a favour to the god Apollo. This place is blessed with the divine power of prophecy. We must build a temple on this site. The most beautiful and gifted virgin among you will be chosen as the seer-priestess, and we shall call her Sibyl.”…

That might very well have happened some 2700 or more years ago (1). For a long time archeologists had suspected that hallucinogenic fumes from volcanic rocks, seeping through fissures on the ground, were what put the soothsayers—the Oracles—of Delphi into a trance in which they derived their deliverance.

(1) Some archaeologists believe that the site was already there in 1200 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) (Some scientist prefers BCE to the more religiously basis dating of B.C. (Before Christ.)

(See footnote 2)

Nestled high up on Mount Parnassus, about 350 km North East of present day Athens, Greece, lies one of the riches and most influential cities in European antiquity. It was powerful and influential not because of its military might. It was rich not because there was gold or marble to be mined. It was rich and power because of the Oracle of Delphi.

For close to a thousand years, from the lowly farmer, to the rich and the powerful, people came to Delphi trying to get a glimpse into their uncertain future. According to legend, the seer (Sibyl) would retreat to a chamber and sat on a rock: the Sibylline Rock. There she would breathe in vapour from the ground, and went into a deep trance. Hours or even days later, she would emerge, stood on a rock outside the Temple of Apollo (my camera malfunctioned and I lost the picture I had of the rock) to give her prediction, often in a strange tongue. A special interpreter would translate what she said. Answers were usually ambiguous or in the form of riddles. (Not very much different from what you would get in Buddhist temples nowadays.)

Some of these ambiguous answers have passed down as legends. One of them was about the Lydian King Croesus, who asked if he should mount a military campaign against the Persians. He was given the answer that “a great empire would be destroyed.”(3) Thinking that the Persian Empire would be the one devastated, King Croesus mounted an offensive against King Cyrus of Persian. But it was King Croesus who was defeated and his own empire was the one that was lost. (3)There are several slightly different versions of what the Oracle has spoken.

At the foot of Mount Parnassus, at the “entrance” to road leading to the sacred sanctuary is the temple of Athena.

1. Our picture

2. Picture taken from the Web (Right click on the image to read the source of the image.)

At the entrance to the Temple of Apollo—the main temple were the Oracle of Delphi is located, were large single room buildings (now all demolished due to earthquake and plundering by invading armies) known as Treasuries. These are buildings that housed offering from various people, kings, or city-states. It was this very riches that attracted the invading hoards. A serious of mishaps (fire, earthquakes), and plundering by foreign invaders, finally did it in for Delphi. The place was deserted and swallowed the earth.

3. Our picture

4. Picture taken from the Web. Looking down from the Amphitheatre. The structure below is the Temple of Apollo. I was too tired to claim all the way to the top, but Fairygodma, in much better physical condition, did.

In 1891, excavation began and the treasuries, the Temple of Apollo (what was left of them), as well as a large amphitheatre high up on the mountain, were uncovered. Many statues and artifacts were also recovered and removed from the site and housed in the Delphi museum set up to the left of the excavation site. It you should visit Delphi one day, you should leave time for the museum, or you would miss most of what you have come for.

The following three pictures are found from the Internet.

5. Artist's visualization of the Temple of Apollo. The main building is the temple. The smaller structures below are the treasuries.

6. The Museum

7. One of the artifacts on display in the museum (From the site harpy.uccs.edu)

For more: http://harpy.uccs.edu/greek/delphimuseum.html

Footnote 2.

Scientist believed that volcanic fumes escaping from crack near the chamber of the Sibylline Rock was the hallucinogens—as had been described in ancient texts. After no evidence of a chasm or escaping gases were found during a 1927 excavation, some archaeologists deferred to the second plausibility for the hallucinations: the inhalation of fumes from burning bay leaves. In 1981,Dr.Boer, a geologist from the United States, under contract from the Greek government intending to study the geological stability of the region, found the fault lines running straight through the middle of the Temple of Apollo. Further investigation revealed that hundreds of years ago, there were indeed fissures on the ground where the Temple once sat. Intoxicants such as ethylene were also found in the water supply near by. This confirmed the myth that it was these fumes that caused the hallucinations. Of course, in those days, people thought these were gifts from the Earth Goddess Gaia.

For more about our trip to Greece and Turkey in 2004:

Greece-Turkey Trip (Some of the uploaded picture were lost when Rainlane purged its image files.)

Athens

http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=26&ID=12415

Meteora (by Fairygodma)

http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=26&id=12692

Ephesus (by fairygodma)

http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=26&id=12787

House of Virgin Mary

http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=14118

A close call on our way to Pergamon.

http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=15106