Ethereal and eerie.
Delphi was not on the original plan. However, when I realized Chaeronea was halfway there it seemed like a good idea to combine the two. Then I had tried to read another, grating Lindsay Davis novel partly set in Delphi, but found I dreaded turning the page so I quit. I almost always finish what I start to read, but not this time. See Delphi and Die died at about page thirty for me. But see the author’s home page for details http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk/seedelphianddie.htm
All I know about Delphi is that it was the proximate cause of more than one Sacred War among Greek states, and that it was location of the a treasury until Athens stole it to fund the Acropolis. It is in no man’s land away any city-state and that made it neutral ground rather like Canberra in this respect.
Any that intellectual knowledge of the Delphi fades against the timelessness of the place terraced into those steep slopes, even as it is now in ruins.
Climbing up and down the vague goat steps there was hard in that hand rail free environment, but we did it. But best all was the museum which captured some of the essence of what it might have been like. It is airy and light and free almost of gravity. Best of all were the carved ivory faces of Apollo and Athena in the museum; they were astounding.
Still more the story that French archaeologist found them, in 1939 just before more looters came, buried under paving stones where they had been secreted hundreds of years earlier by someone to hide them from ancient plunderers and to keep them on the site. To that someone who buried them, thank you. Athena is there, too, but I could find any pictures of her on the web. More generally see.
http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2507 Though made of ivory the faces are now black from the soot of a fire. Cleaning them would destroy them so they are displayed thus transformed. No photographs were allowed and we dutifully complied here as always. But here as always we noticed others who did not comply.
The road there from Athens led through ski country. We learned that the rich and frivolous keep snow houses in these mountains for the skiing. It is always good to know how the other half of .00000005 lives.