Delphi and the last day of the Tour

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Our cruise is now complete and we are now back at the port of Piraeus. Leaving the ship was like leaving family. Our friend Noel, the Australian, was leaving for his next and final tour, Italy. He will spend another two weeks touring before returning home. Suzie, the Philadelphia Lawyer, returnes home in the morning. So we decided to meet for a final dinner after our tour of Delphi. We boarded our bus, only 17 people, for the 3 hour drive to The Oracle. We stopped along the way for a coffee break and some shopping. Soon we arrived at our destination, the famous Temple of Apollo. The Delphos site is over 2500 years old, first mentioned in history 7 BCE. The facility was in full operation until 400 AD when Christianity was officially declared the state relegion. The site is amazing. Most of the site is in ruins but a few, very few, buildings have been restored, just to give you the flavor of what the site must have looked like. It seems that the site was carved out of the mountain, for in the background are the high hills of the mountain protecting the temple on three sides. The most famous part of the site is the Oracle of Delphi. Here for hundreds of years, rich and poor, king and slave, traveled perilous distances to ask a question of the great sear. She was always right. For instance a king came 1000 mile to ask if his wife woud give birth to a son. The oracle replied "a boy not a girl" since there was no punctuation in the oracles reply she could have meant "a boy, not a girl" or a boy not, a girl" either way she was right. All of the responses of the great oracle waas vague and so she was indeed always right! The oracle was, at first a young virgin who dedicated herself to Apollo. Once, however, a visiting prince met the oracle and fell in love so he plotted to kidnap her. He failed and since then the oracle was a 50 plus year old woman. The oracle sat in a cave below the Temple of Apollo, where she alone could go. Here was said to come vapors from the earth, most likely ethane or other earlthy gas with powers to knock you a little delerious. Anyway, she went to her spot to ponder your question and came out of the cave to give you your response, vague as it was. Always in writing and always without punctuation. The temple was a gold mine for anyone to ask a question had to pay a fee. You also had to pay a fee just to visit the temple. Ther ewere fees to stay overnight, fees to eat and fees to pay a fee. Each city state also had a treasury built on the site which held the donations from that city state made to the God Apollo. There were at least 20 such treasuries found so far. In any event the site was amazing but all too soon we were back on the bus and on our way to our hotel. We met Noel and Suzie for our final dinner and farewell and off to much needed rest. The tour was officially over, but Cathy and I have 4 more days to visit.

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