Greece Part 2: Monasteries on pillars, the 300 Spartans, and the oracle at Delphi

Cindy was keen to see the monasteries perched on pillars of rock in Meteora. Above, in the distance, you can see two of them. 

One of the tourist attractions in Greece is the monasteries of Meteora. We traveled there by bus from Athens. 

 

We hiked up to the monastery. Many take a bus.  

Twenty-four monasteries were established atop the natural rock pillars of the area, mainly in the second half of the 14th century. At the time, the area was subject to invasions by Ottoman Turks. The monks sought refuge from the chaos. Six of these monasteries are still active and open to visitors.

Over thousands of years, shepherds, hermits, and the just plain antisocial have carved out refuges in the soft sedimentary rock around Meteora 

 

 More cave shelters carved into the mountain rock. 

 

Above, our G-Adventures itinerary. 

A modest memorial at Thermopylae

In the almost 2,500 years since King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans fought to hold off the invasion of Greece by the Persians, the landscape has changed dramatically. The Persians found their road to conquest led through a bottleneck with impenetrable mountains on one side and the sea on the other. It was only when a traitor showed the Persians a hidden trail through the mountain that they were able to attack the Spartans from behind and overwhelm them. 

Since then, the sea has retreated by more than a mile. The battlefield memorial includes a modest statue of Leonidas erected in 1955, and there was little at the site to recommend a long visit.

 

 

The rake-bearing maintenance worker appears indifferent to the spear wielded by King Leonidas, above him. 

We stopped to take a few photos, hopped on the bus and headed to Delphi. I attempted to be clever by capturing the statue of Leonidas, spear in hand, echoed unheroically by a maintenance worker, rake in hand. But the dark green backdrop behind the statue made it hard to appreciate the visual jest.

Mount Parnassus and the oracle of Apollo

The Delphi archeological site lies on the slope of Mount Parnassus

England's poets loved to talk about the inspiration of Apollo, the god of music, poetry and the arts. And Delphi, on Mount Parnassus, had a temple dedicated to him. Delphi was also the site of a revered oracle and was celebrated in mythology as the center of the Earth, or "omphalos" in Greek, which is also the word for navel. 

Our Delphi guide startled me when she connected the words Delphi, womb, navel, and "omphalos". 
 

The guide we hired at Delphi reminded us that the name shares the same root as the Greek word for womb. So Delphi connected womb, navel, and the center of the Earth. These words and images of human reproduction rang my bell. At the time, I couldn't explain my excitement. It brought me back to my study of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses." Stephen Dedalus, a main character who is steeped in myth and literature, hears the word "omphalos" and imagines an endless string of umbilical cords running through generations of navels, like telephone lines, connecting all of us back to a shared origin. 

But I digress. 

Possibly the world's oldest theater

This site inspired other literary connections as well. Classical Greece developed models of drama that we follow today, and Delphi was the site of possibly the world's oldest outdoor theater, nearly 2,500 years old.

Archeologists are still making discoveries at Delphi, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes this ancient theater (above) and the reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians (below). 

 Now it was on to Nafplio, a resort town for the well-to-do, and some tourists, for some relaxing days by the sea.