Last week I spent a few days in glorious Athens enjoying the incredible history, the Acropolis and other amazing sights, the wonderful food, culture and of course meeting the Greek people. Needless to say I didn’t try the local wines, beers or spirits but enjoyed instead drinking copious litres of water at sensible prices as opposed to London. The most I paid was 40p for a bottle of water and that was at a posh outlet in the city centre! I also noticed that despite being out and about late each evening I didn’t see many drunks. Not so the Greeks of old it seems!
One day trip I made was to the site of the famous Oracle at Delphi. This is where the rulers of Greek cities would go in ancient times to consult said Oracle, and to receive advice on what major decisions to make. The picture shows me at the temple of Apollo in Delphi which was finally closed down in about 400 AD but which dates from 500 BC, the site having been used as a base for the Oracle since some 2,000 years before that!
It appears that the Oracle was in reality an aged lady of the day with ‘seeing’ powers who would sit in the temple and screech and wail unintelligible ramblings. These would be interpreted by highly paid priests who would then offer ambiguous advice to the leaders who had gathered to consult. Things like ‘if you go to war one side will lose’, or ‘if you invade so and so a kingdom will be lost’, without saying which kingdom of course. It also appears that the aged Oracle lady actually sat over a fissure in the rock above which the temple was built and through which ethanol fumes would emanate. Ethanol you will doubtless know is what we call alcohol and so the old lady with the amazing ‘seeing’ powers was in reality, out of her brain on booze fumes!
I can remember many times sitting in the pub and talking incoherent rubbish after much wine and cider and probably also trying to give sound advice to whoever was unfortunate enough to be in earshot, I am just grateful no-one thought to stick a bloody great temple on my head.
One day trip I made was to the site of the famous Oracle at Delphi. This is where the rulers of Greek cities would go in ancient times to consult said Oracle, and to receive advice on what major decisions to make. The picture shows me at the temple of Apollo in Delphi which was finally closed down in about 400 AD but which dates from 500 BC, the site having been used as a base for the Oracle since some 2,000 years before that!
It appears that the Oracle was in reality an aged lady of the day with ‘seeing’ powers who would sit in the temple and screech and wail unintelligible ramblings. These would be interpreted by highly paid priests who would then offer ambiguous advice to the leaders who had gathered to consult. Things like ‘if you go to war one side will lose’, or ‘if you invade so and so a kingdom will be lost’, without saying which kingdom of course. It also appears that the aged Oracle lady actually sat over a fissure in the rock above which the temple was built and through which ethanol fumes would emanate. Ethanol you will doubtless know is what we call alcohol and so the old lady with the amazing ‘seeing’ powers was in reality, out of her brain on booze fumes!
I can remember many times sitting in the pub and talking incoherent rubbish after much wine and cider and probably also trying to give sound advice to whoever was unfortunate enough to be in earshot, I am just grateful no-one thought to stick a bloody great temple on my head.
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