Follow Greek Investment Immigration and Greek Travel guides: You can take a bus from the B (Liossion) bus station in Athens to Delphi, which is located 170 kilometers northwest of Athens and is the second sanctuary in Greece after Olympia.
In ancient Greece, during the period of confrontation between Sparta and Athens, there were two most important sanctuaries: one was Olympia, dedicated to Zeus and his wife Hera, and the venue for the ancient Olympic Games, where diplomatic activities took place, while Delphi was the place for oracles, dedicated to Apollo, the god of wisdom and reason. In Sophocles' famous tragedy "Oedipus Rex," there is a scene where the priests of Thebes consult Apollo for guidance when the city faces disaster. The process of seeking divine prophecy involved selecting a female priest around 50 years old during specific seasons, who would first bathe in the sacred spring and then inhale the steam from burning laurel leaves, allowing Apollo to possess her and deliver the prophecy.
According to ancient legends, this site was originally dedicated to the Earth goddess (Gis), whose guardian was the giant serpent Python (to this day, most European languages refer to pythons as Python). The sun god Apollo killed the giant serpent and quickly replaced the Earth goddess as the master of this sanctuary. This legend may reflect the transition from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal society.
In ancient times, people around the Mediterranean believed that Delphi was the center of the world and the center of spiritual culture. There was a stone here known as the "navel of the earth"—a stone that Zeus had thrown down from the sky to prove that this was the center of the earth. In the Delphi Museum, you can see this stone, a drum-shaped stone pillar engraved with diamond patterns.
The Apollo Temple we see today is the third building on this foundation. A temple from around the 7th century BC—estimated not to be a temple dedicated to Apollo—was destroyed by a great fire in 548 BC. In 531 BC, the Athenians funded the construction of a second temple on the ruins, which was a temple of Apollo and already in the Doric architectural style. The reliefs on the walls depicted the arrival of Apollo. This temple also collapsed in 373 BC, and the artifacts unearthed are collected in the Apollo Temple Museum. Although the second temple completely collapsed, history recorded its inscriptions, one of which even became a guiding principle of ancient Greek philosophy and Western philosophy as a whole: "Man, know thyself" (Gnothi seauton)! According to related legends, this phrase is closely associated with Socrates, and some even believe it to be his maxim, while more historians believe that Socrates merely frequently quoted this phrase.
The Apollo Temple rebuilt between 346 BC and 320 BC clearly exhibits post-classical style, which visitors can easily observe. Although this third building completely rose on the foundation of the second building and directly used the stone bases of the second building's columns, its grand and elegant architectural style reminds visitors that this is no longer the ancient era.
Like all sacred sites in ancient Greece, this Apollo sanctuary naturally could not lack an open-air theater and a stadium. The theater can accommodate 5,000 spectators, and the shape we see today was completed during the Roman period. The construction of the stadium was also finalized during the Roman period, accommodating 6,500 spectators at once. From the surrounding buildings of these sanctuaries, we can imagine the grandeur of seeking divine guidance in Delphi, where thousands of pilgrims from all over Greece came to pray for divine instructions. It can be imagined that at that time, the area not only had theaters and stadiums for spiritual elevation and physical fitness but also countless inns, hotels, restaurants, and other ancillary facilities.
Ruins of the Temple of Athena (Athenaeum)
In this sacred area, there is also a site of the Temple of Athena. This temple was likely built in the 4th century BC and is known as Athena Pronaia, meaning "Athena before the Temple (of Apollo)." It is a circular building, with the outer stone columns still in the Doric style, while the inner layer is Corinthian, indicating that this building also experienced collapse and reconstruction.
Delphi Museum
This is a relatively large museum. Although its collection is not as rich as that of the Athens Museum, each piece is exquisite, with various finely crafted statues on display, such as the lioness figure with Mesopotamian style, the harmonious twin brothers figure, and the female column figure, among others. Of course, the most vivid is the bronze statue of the charioteer atop the statue of Apollo, which often becomes a symbol of Delphi. In the third hall stands the Sphinx of Naxos, among others. The museum has more than a dozen exhibition halls, and the collection is very rich. A visit to Delphi should be planned for a whole day.