Hollins Goes To Greece

      Today we left Athens to head to Delphi along the ancient road. On the way we stopped at the ancient and modern town of Eleusis to look at a site for ancient cult rituals from 1400 BC on. In the time of the ancient Greeks this site contained a well fortified temple, a well for purification, two great gates, a cave, and several other buildings. The festival held there in spring held three ritual stages; purification, initiation, and higher initiation. The ritual took place over nine days and at the end the participants were revealed a mysterious object that is still unknown to this day.            

      This festival came about when Demeter’s daughter Persephanie was picking flowers in northern
Greece with a friend when she was taken to the underworld by Hades. Demeter was pained with grief at the loss of her daughter and for nine days she wandered the earth looking for Persephanie. This resulted in famine for all of Greece. The nine days of ritual signify and mimic what Demeter went through during her period of grieving. There is speculation that hallucinogens or alcohol of some sort was involved in this ritual. Today this site is basically in ruins and its hard to imagine that buildings ever existed here. The well and cave are still noticeable but only the foundations remain of the temple and other buildings.            

       For lunch we stopped in Lavadia to have a picnic lunch at the site of the old oracle. The site of the oracle and the springs surrounding it were the most beautiful we have seen so far on this trip, or so we thought… then we got to Delphi. The Greeks referred to Delphi as the naval, or center, of the ancient world. Thetemple of Apollo was closed but we still had plenty to do. We first stopped at the Castillion springs that were used by ancient travelers to purify themselves before entering the temples. We all took a moment to drink the water to renew ourselves for the rest of the day. After exploring the springs at the foothills of Mt. Parnassus we went on the gymnasium. In ancient times the gymnasium contained a track, places for wrestling and athletic practice, and public baths. In the spirit of the ancient games that once took place here, Samantha and Kristy felt compelled to give the gymnasium one last hoorah as they raced around the track. We are unsure of the outcome, but the Nike gods definitely would have been proud!       Below the gymnasium was the most recognizable site at Delphi, the Athena Pronia. This structure, built in fourth century BC, was never a temple but may have been set up for votive offerings before entering the temple of Apollo. It is a circular building known as a tholos or round structure. On both sides there are lesser temples for Athena and treasuries offered by different city states. Unfortunately, in ancient times a giant boulder came down the mountain and crushed one of the Athenian temples where it still lies today. On our way to the hotel our gentleman bus driver, Dmitri, impressed us by backing the bus up two blocks of a narrow street just so that we would not have to walk our bags up the street. After settling in we found ourselves at a delicious taverna. After using our best Greek and our Hollins girl charm, the owner of the taverna took pity on us and offered us free desert.                      Today had beautiful weather and everywhere we went we were greeted with smiles. Tomorrow we are headed to the temple of Apollo at Delphi and the museum containing all the ancient artifacts. Hopefully the oracle will give us good signs but until then… Brynn Hoffman and Rebekah Holden