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April 2000
Sterea Ellada
David Aaronson2005-09-24 20:38:29
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Sterea Ellada or 'central Greece' covers most of Greece between Thessaly and the Peloponnese. Crossing to the northern coast of the Gulf of Corinth, we spent much of the morning driving along the water through the vacation resort towns of Nafpaktos and Galaxidi. Most of the towns were situated along natural harbors with brilliant blue water. The color of the water tended to approximate that of the flag, a color the Greeks call 'galano'. Having no word for the much darker shade of water found elsewhere in the world, they had to borrow the western European word for it as best as they could, ending up with 'mple' (blay). We ate lunch along with a British boys' school at a nameless stretch of waterfront beach.
Not far from the coast high up on the slopes of the massive Mount Parnassus is the ancient site of Delphi. Called 'the navel of the world' by ancient Greeks, it was supposedly the site where two eagles, released at either end of the world by Zeus, came to meet. A tortuous switchback road leads up through the tourist-filled modern town and divides the ancient site in half. Below the road, much of the site is still being uncovered although the temple of Athena, and the Tholos temple (pictured here) (1) are visitable. The Tholos was originally a circle of columns and its original purpose is unknown. Perhaps most affiliated with Delphi is the site of the oracle. The oracle was located at the mouth of a cave from which various unhealthy subterranean gases would spew forth. A priestess would breathe in these fumes and then respond to a question, usually in some sort of gas-induced gibberish. A priest would then 'interpret' this into a more straightforward sort of response. Despite learning how it all really worked we were willing to give it a try because we wanted to ask the oracle an important question about our dog.
On the way to the main site lies the Castalian Spring where one was
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See photographs from:
Greece Gallery
