The Oracle

The door to the small balcony was left open and the light of the full moon came flooding into the room. A few fair weather clouds featured on the otherwise blue sky, the shadows of the bannister and the chair produced pitch-black lines on the floor, so that the whole scenery would have given a perfect background for a Magritte painting.

Right below the balcony, there was a sheer drop of several hundred meters into a gorge, which was lined by a Sea of olive trees. A small stream at the bottom of it led all the way South towards the brightly illuminated harbour of Itea and to the Gulf of Corinth.

Driving through the night, along narrow unlit roads, across the mountains, I had arrived late at the hotel and yet, I was up again early to witness a spectacle that had drawn people to this place for thousands of years: seeing the first rays of the sun illuminating the temple of Apollo, the home of the Oracle of Delphi.

What makes this place so special, are not only the ruins of some of the world’s once most spectacular buildings (especially if seen with the eyes of a shepherd or a sailor over two thousand years ago….), but also its location and its orientation towards the celestial bodies of the Northern hemisphere.

The whole religious complex is South-East facing and once the sun has risen above the saddle of Arachova in the East, the temple is flooded with light, while the land below remains in darkness. No wonder that the ancient Greeks considered this place to be the centre of the world I thought and it reminded me of the similar effect at  the equally spectacular site of  the monastery of the Black Madonna of Montserrat in Catalonia.

What a great way to start the day !

Sadly the restricted area with the temples didn’t open before 8 am, but that was still early enough to beat the crowds and to meet today’s inhabitants of the site, who appeared to be completely ignorant about the importance of this place for human civilisation.

Unfortunately as well, there was no opportunity to consult the oracle on the future journeys of the Blue Vet, so that it remains a matter of ‘wait and see’ if you want to find out…….