What is the most famous holy place in ancient Greece?

Delphi (Δελφο?) is an important "Panhellenic Holy Land", that is, the only holy land common to all ancient Greek city-states. It is mainly dedicated to the "Apollon of Delphi" (Appollon pythien, hereinafter referred to as "Apollo"), and the famous Oracle of Delphi was promulgated here. Delphi is located in Phocis (Φωκ?) and is now included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The "Panhellenic Holy Land" is a complex structure external to city-state politics. It provides the only way for all Greeks to know themselves in a religious sense. It is said that the entrance to the Temple of Apollo is engraved with "Knowing You" Yourself" motto.

History of the place

The name "Delphi" is said to come from the dolphin (delphis): in Homer's poem, Apollo, in order to found a sect in this place, The image of this animal once attracted the Cretan voyagers to come as the earliest priests.

Archaeologically, the earliest signs of human habitation in the Delphi area can be traced back to the Paleolithic Age. A medium-sized village called "Pytho" (Pytho), which was also the old name of Delphi, was excavated on the site of the Holy Land around 1400 BC. It was abandoned between about 1400 BC and 800 BC, and it may have been during this period that the Holy Land seen today began to develop, with the first altars and the first temples appearing, which may have been based on those of Delphi and ancient Greece. The tradition is that it was placed on a natural seam in the ground, allowing the extraction of natural gas (Strabo: IX, 3, 5).

Especially during the period from the mid-8th century BC to the mid-7th century BC, the worship of Apollo gained a high reputation because he was the patron saint of the colonial enterprise that was in full swing at that time.

In 373 BC, an earthquake severely damaged the architecture of the Holy Land and played a decisive role in its fate. It was in the second half of the 4th century BC that, while undergoing arduous restoration, Greece experienced political turmoil, and the Holy Land gradually declined. There has been no new construction in the Holy Land since Roman rule in the 1st century AD.

In 392 AD, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I issued an edict banning pagan beliefs, marking the end of the worship of Apollo. The ruins of the Holy Land were occupied by a village in the early AD and were rediscovered in the 15th century.

The Oracle of Apollo

Main article: The Oracle of Delphi

The Holy Land of Delphi (the theater in the foreground, the Temple of Apollo in the middle ground, in the distance The mythological origins of the sanctuary at Delphi (the temple of Athena can be seen everywhere) are worthy of a book, and it is said that he himself founded it after the temple at Delos. When he came to Delphi, it was guarded by a giant python, Python, who was born from Gaia (the earth) and guarded an oracle belonging to Themis. Apollo hoped to use his oracle to guide people, so he shot Python with his bow and replaced the holy place.

This myth depicts Apollo as a conqueror/founder, which explains why he became the patron saint of colonial activities and why his worship spread throughout the colonies. At the same time, this placed the oracle at the heart of the Holy Land.

The sanctuary at Delphi was actually "oracular," where the words of the gods came down to mortals through the Pythia (the prophetess of Delphi). The priestess was traditionally an uneducated young virgin (later evolved into an older woman, but still dressed as a maiden), who sat on a tripod propped in the ravine where the oracle was produced (?δυτον / Adyton?), below is the crack that produces the natural gas. Pythia holds a phiale (a flat dish used for pouring sacrifices) and a laurel (the sacred tree of Apollo).

The consultation of the oracle in the Temple of Apollo was originally an annual one, beginning on the seventh day of the month "Bysius" in the Delphic calendar (between February and March in the Gregorian calendar). Luo Festival. This then evolved into a year in which (legend has it) ceremonies were held on the seventh of each of the nine months that Apollo lived there, and this day was named "polyphthoos?" (the day of many questions).

There are some rituals that need to be performed before the inquiry. They are completed by the prophetess with the cooperation of two priests. The latter served the temple throughout his life and had five "hosioi" (holy people) who performed rituals and two male prophets, one of whom assisted Pythia and translated her prophecies into a language that ordinary people could understand. . The divine language was usually translated into verse, using hexameter lines. We still don't know if the prophetess could have been seen, as there are no reliable witnesses on the subject.

Modern historiography research is based on ancient Greece, which may be traced back to the tradition of Delphi, to find the origin of the language spoken by Pythia in the ceremony. A theory that has been circulating is that she was paralyzed by inhaling the gas diffused in the formation. However, this theory has been questioned by many because the excavations of the French Academy of Athens did not find the legendary cracks under the Temple of Apollo, and they It is thought that the geology of the local shale also prevents the gas from escaping.

But a newer study shows that the Delphi ruins are indeed located at the intersection of two faults, and that the rich asphaltic limestone underground may produce ethylene substances during crustal movements, and the latter has a nerve-paralyzing effect on humans. These details coincide with Plutarch’s historical records, providing the possibility of a new explanation [1].

The operation of the oracle has gone through many changes throughout history. According to one of the most authoritative witnesses, Plutarch, who was once a priest of the temple, in his time ( There was only one prophetess in the temple in the 1st century AD, and she received requests once a month; in earlier times when the ritual was at its peak, three priestesses were required to take turns to cope with the long queue of requests. In another temple of Apollo, the oracle reached the seer's spirit simply by thought, which made it possible for him or her to exercise greater freedom.

In the Christian era, John Chrysostom believed that Pythia was a woman possessed by the devil, which penetrated the prophetess from deep under the tripod.

What needs to be added is that in Greek mythology, Delphi is the center of the world. Therefore within the "Adyton" stood a conical stone pillar called Omphalos (meaning "navel of the earth"), supported by two golden eagles, symbolizing this status. Legend has it that Zeus once sent two goshawks in opposite directions to measure the earth, and the place where they met was Delphi.

Every year, when Apollo left, there was naturally no oracle, which resulted in countless believers waiting for the oracle to reopen every year. The priests of the temple therefore had the right to arrange priority for participation in the ceremony (∏ρομαντε?α / promanteia). Participants first offer appropriate gifts to the gods, and then the priest pours some cold water on a goat. If it does not shudder, it is considered a bad omen and the ceremony will not proceed; and if the worshiper is accepted, the goat will be dedicated, and he can enter the temple to ask questions to the prophetess. Of course, whether the question is answered or not depends on the will of the god.

The Cult of Dionysus

Parnassus, by Adria Mantegna (1497) During the winter months, Apollo would Leaving the sanctuary of Delphi to purify himself in Hyberil, his place was thus taken by Dionysus at Delphi. The latter appeared for three months in winter and was the object of worship of the omophage Thyades (possibly equivalent to Maenads) in a cult on Mount Parnassus. There is also a tomb of Dionysus in "Adyton".

The status of this god gradually changed due to his relationship with Apollo. Initially he was lower than the sun god, but later, because of his identity as the equal god, he gradually integrated into the god of Apollo. Sex, the two become inseparable. Therefore, while the reputation of Delphi spread far and wide, the Dionysian sect also obtained Panhellenic faith.

The composition and structure of the Panhellenic Holy Land

The main feature that constitutes the Holy Land is its altar (bomos?), which is the core part of the Holy Land and allows people to practice the sacraments.

A temple is a building that preserves images of gods, where it is believed that the gods reside regularly. In Delphi, the temple of Apollo had a special status, because the statue of the god only occupied a secondary position in the holy place, giving way to the presence of the oracle. According to legend, the temple was built on a volcanic fault, which led directly to the depths of the earth. It was through it that Apollo could communicate with mortals; the Oracle of Delphi revealed the language of the gods through the intermediary of Pythia. Giving to the world is the most important function of the temple.

Before the temple was built, its site was carefully surveyed so that it could be seen from any corner of the holy site, i.e. a ?πιφ?ν?στο? τ?πο? (the most prominent place). The Temple of Apollo at Delphi is located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus with a peak of 2,459 meters. From this height, you can overlook the entire central Greece. The hillside is very steep, and not far below there is another temple dedicated to Athena Pronaia ("Athena before the temple"), who watched over (and "preceded") this sacred place.

Visitors enter the Holy Land of Delphi from the "Sacred Road". The so-called Sacred Road is a road lined with various monuments on both sides, including more than twenty memorial buildings dedicated by various city-states, most of which are A treasury (trésor?) in which offerings (ex-voto) to the gods were displayed. These offerings were made either out of piety or for political purposes. In these chapels used for prayers, there is usually a special place to store objects representing divinity; and another kind of storage place for prayer objects is a trench, excavated on the ground of an "open space", that is to say, it is located in a ditch. within the sacred area.

The Holy Land also has a stadium, a racecourse and a gymnasium, which are the venue for the quadrennial Jeux Pythiques. This game is comparable to the Olympic Games. It is also an important festival with influence throughout Greece and is held according to a very strict religious calendar. However, the splendor of today's games has been completely overshadowed by the Olympic Games.

For the organization of festivals, especially the management of Panhellenic holy places, Greeks usually form an "Amphictyonic League", a federation of neighboring city-states, for joint management. The Neighbor League of Delphi, known as the "Great Neighbor League", was the most important peer organization in Greece. It had been organized since 590 BC and included a dozen city-states. It was this alliance that financed the construction of holy sites and oversaw the renovation or reconstruction of temples, as was the case at the end of the 6th century BC.

Just like a modern tourist attraction, the small city where the Holy Land of Delphi is located has maintained its prosperity due to visitors from all over Greece since the 6th century BC.

Temple of Apollo

The ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Pausanias mentioned in his writings that six Apollo gods were built at this address. The temple may have originally been a thatched house built with laurel branches. The latter two were probably also built with less durable materials, and archaeological excavations have found no trace of them. The fourth temple was built with ash mounds by Trophonios and Agamedes and was destroyed by fire in 538 BC. The fifth and sixth temples have a similar layout and are also the best known. The former was built of stone in the Archaic style, some parts of which were reused in the base of the sixth temple.

The columns of the Temple of Apollo (Phase 6) that remain to this day are the sixth temple, built in the 4th century. Its layout is rectangular, with a length and width of 60.32 meters and 23.82 meters respectively. There are six Doric columns on the front and rear sides, and 15 stone columns of the same style are arranged on each side. Its architect, Spintharos of Corinth, deliberately imitated the previous example. This version appears relatively simple, which may be due to the economic conditions at the time of reconstruction.

The sacrificial altar is located in front of the temple and was rebuilt in the 20th century with the help of the city of Chios. Because the ancient altar was a gift from Chios, it may have been for the reconstruction of the fifth temple that was destroyed by the earthquake in 373 BC.

Other ruins

The Holy Land of Delphi also has many other monuments, some of which are more spectacular than the Temple of Apollo, and most of them are of a prayer or commemorative nature. Therefore, the site covers an extremely long area; it should be pointed out that not all of these memorial buildings exist from the same period, and many of the buildings in the modern presentation of the site have been repainted.

Similarly, in order to explain the evolution of the area occupied by the site, the topography of the site must be taken into account (the layout of the sacred site can be divided into three steps: theater, temple, other buildings). Also taken into consideration are natural disasters (fires, earthquakes, etc.) and political events that significantly affect the level of worship and construction projects.

The buildings are very unevenly distributed in space, with some areas densely packed and others very empty. The size of the buildings also varies quite a bit, but most are medium in size, probably due to cost and space considerations.

At the same time, it is also necessary to pay attention to the space requirements for the various liturgies on the religious calendar, especially certain public celebrations (such as "religious lectures"/Panégyries?); various ceremonies and music competitions And the staging of a play may have its own needs for architectural arrangements.

The prayer objects stored in the Temple Square

In the open space (?Aire?) of the Temple of Apollo, on the ground level with the square in the 5th century BC, there are Two trenches, which may have been dug because there was no other place to place personal offerings, or they may have been the foundations of a burned-out structure in ancient times. A considerable number of "ex-votos" were excavated in this ditch in the 20th century.

These sacrifices are the imprints of the most glorious period of the site, which dates from about the 9th century BC to the 5th century BC. Among them were many bronzes: this alloy was already quite rare in the 8th century BC, so it became a precious material and was donated in large quantities at Delphi in the form of statuettes and tripods.

These bronze statuettes, dated between the 9th and 8th centuries BC, were made using the "lost wax casting method". The general process of this disappeared technology is: use wax to make a prototype, make a mold based on it, melt the wax and take it out, then pour the melted bronze into the shape, and finally break the mold to take out the finished product. In this process, both the prototype and the mold are disposable, so each finished product is unique. These small statues show that there were no images of gods at that time. They generally showed men, women and warriors, the latter of which were men sitting on chariots or horses; their shapes are the same as those on painting materials. Very similar.

Many sacrificial offerings in the form of bronze tripods (on which Pythia often sat) were also found. Originally, the tripod was used symbolically to hold a small pot for cooking sacred dishes. Sometimes the tripod and the pot are presented together, sometimes separately. Some small pots had handles (called "protomes"), often in the form of legendary creatures, such as griffins. These legendary elements are an oriental image derived from Babylonia, copied by Greek craftsmen in the "Orientalization" trend of the time.

Other valuable tributes deposited include:

A small ivory sculpture showing an upright male god (Apollo?) holding a spear in one hand and a spear in the other. One hand was placed on the head of a beast he had tamed. This is also an iconography borrowed from the East. This god is of considerable size and is surrounded by a small circle on the base part with typical Greek decoration: winding river (seventh century BC);

A representation of the Oder of Ithaca An image of Hyus blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus;

An image of "kouros" (plural form of "kouroi", boy): a standing naked young man with his left foot slightly forward ;

Some wood-gilt (or ivory) sculptures, including:

Griffin (head and wings of a raptor, body of a lion);

Sphinx (the Sphinx originated from Eastern culture and was transformed by the Greeks into a female image. She had a woman's head, wings and a feline body; people gave her the power of prophecy);

The remains of a life-size silver bull.

Later contributions (after the fifth century BC) depict body curves and clothing more delicately and realistically.

Prayer memorial buildings

At the foot of the holy land, there is a path leading to the temple. On both sides of this narrow "sacred road" are placed occasional A collection of patchwork-style memorial buildings designed primarily to house offerings to a god, to express gratitude to him or to commemorate festive events.

From the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC, people built three types of medium-sized buildings:

Treasure house;

Prayer column;

Sculpture library.

Treasure Houses

Treasure Houses are medium-sized buildings built on holy sites. Their distribution is not planned and they are built by each city-state during festive festivals. They serve as "prayer halls" that store various sacrificial items and artworks used to praise the glory of the city-state. Treasure houses have been built in various holy places in Greece, and Delphi is the place with the highest concentration of treasure houses, with about twenty. Many of the offerings stored in the treasury have been lost, but the charm of the building itself is still valuable.

The earliest treasuries, such as the Corinthian treasury built under the tyrant Cypselus about 600 BC, were all simple rooms. However, from 530 BC onwards, vestibules with two Ionic or Doric pillars became fashionable.

The most famous treasure houses are:

The Treasure House of Sifnus (about 525 BC), built by the residents of Sifnus Island. This is a veritable treasure box building, with Ionic style decoration and sculptures taken to the extreme: the frieze is continuous, with a theme carved on each facade, the most vivid of which shows The Olympian gods sat discussing the fate of Troy, while in front of them the Greeks were fighting hard.

The Athenian Treasure House at Delphi was founded in about 485 BC. It is a carefully selected site. It is located at the last turning of the Divine Road in front of the temple, so whether it is from the entrance to the Holy Land It can still be seen from the temple. It covers an area of ??6.5 meters by 9.5 meters and was built to commemorate the victory of the Battle of Marathon. Its decoration consists of stall decorations on Doric columns, showing different story scenes in Greek mythology: the front depicts the scene of the Greeks fighting Amazon; the left depicts the heroic deeds of Theseus, symbolizing Athens. , because the latter is the legendary first king of Athens and the founder of the city; on the right wall is a symbol of the heroic deeds of Hercules of the Peloponnese fighting the barbarians; finally, on the back wall It depicts the story of Hercules taking back the cattle of the giant Geryon. This was the political motive of the building, a representation of the Athenians' protection of Greece from the barbarians under Apollo's protection, a motive that approached the limits of what was called hybris in Greek morality, the attempt to transcend mere mortals. position to challenge the gods.

The most recent treasure troves are the treasury of Thebes (about 370 BC) and the treasury of Cyrene (350 BC-325 BC), so it can be concluded that this architectural trend began in Delphi Lasted less than two centuries.

Prayer Column

Since the 4th century BC, another form of sacrifice has become popular, probably out of consideration of saving space, namely votive columns and columns. Columns (either single or double) and uprights were used to hold the sacrifices high to show their value, usually bronze sculptures representing rulers.

The Column at Naxos, built around 575 BC, is one of the earliest such monuments. It is so tall that its top is even close to the ground level of the Temple of Apollo, while it itself is located at the foot of the building, the territory of the original Chongnic faith. In order to be visible from all corners, it has a long column and a spectacular Ionic capital, on which is a two-meter-high Sphinx ("Naxos"). of the Sphinx"). The beast may have guarded the tomb of Dionysus, patron saint of the people of Naxos. A small inscription on the pillar indicates that the Naxos may have gained priority (promenteia) in consulting the oracle as a result of this sacrifice.

The Dancer's Column, dated to 370 BC, is decorated with acanthe? and supports a novel finial: three young women supporting a tripod. Inside was placed Omphalus, the symbol of Delphi.

The Column of Rhodes, also known as the "Sun Chariot of Lysippus", was paid tribute between 325 BC and 300 BC. This column supports a gilded horse chariot with the Sun God sitting on it. Helios. This structure faced the Temple of Apollo.

Sculpture Group

In the lower part of the Holy Land, to the left of the entrance, there was once a very magnificent commemorative sculpture. Later, this sculpture was successively used by competing cities in different styles. Theme supersedes. Today we can still see two monuments that symbolize the beginning of this competition: the statue of Miltiades and the statue of Lysander, or "Nauarchia" (ναυαρχ?α / Nauarchia).

The Statue of Media was donated by the Athenians to commemorate the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. It consists of thirteen sculptures, sculpted by Phidias (the designer and builder of the Parthenon). The sculptures show Athena, Apollo, and Medea in the same scene, as well as ten victorious heroic characters and three Athenian consuls.

The Statue of Lysander is located next to the Statue of Media. It has a pedestal with a set of bronze sculptures placed on it. There are twenty-eight sculptures at the back representing all the people who participated in the Egos River. In this naval battle, Lysander led the Spartan navy to defeat the Athenian naval power with fewer enemies and more enemies. There are ten sculptures in front, showing the scene of "The Sons of Zeus" (Δι?σκουροι). The characters appearing are Castor and Pollux, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis and Poseidon. and Lysander with the wreath, a herald and the helmsman of the flagship.

The arrangement of the statues had very obvious political considerations, and it was hoped that they would be higher than the monuments of Mediate, and the purpose of the two was similar. Since Lysander did not want to be criticized as licentious, he placed the gods at the forefront, and Miltiades's sculptures show them in the same scene as mortals.