DELPHI INSPIRES MODERN SPIRITUALITY
From the plain of Phocis, the traveler ascends the smiling meadows watered by the banks of the Pleistos to plunge into a winding valley enclosed between lofty mountains. At every step the road becomes narrower and the country more imposing and desolate. At the end, a circle of rugged mountains, crowned with wild peaks, a veritable storehouse of electricity, over which storms often raged. Suddenly, far above, beyond the dark gorge, the city of Delphi appears, like an eagle's nest on a rock surrounded by cliffs and dominated by the two peaks of Parnassus. From a distance the bronze Nikes are seen glistening in the light, as well as the bronze horses, the innumerable golden statues, which are lined up along the sacred path and are placed like a guard of heroes and gods around the Doric temple of Phoebus Apollo.
The Magic of Delphi
This was the most sacred spot in Greece. Here the Pythia prophesied and the Amphictyonians gathered. Here the various Greek peoples had built around the sanctuary chapels containing valuable offerings. Here, processions of men, women and children coming from afar ascended the sacred path to greet the god of Light. From time immemorial religion had consecrated them Delphi in the worship of men. Its central position in Greece, its rock, protected from profane hands and easy to defend, had contributed to this result. The place was designed to evoke the imagination, as a unique quality gave it great prestige. In a cave behind the temple there was a cleft in the rock from which issued a cold, faint mist, which was said to produce a state of inspiration and ecstasy. Plutarch relates that, in bygone times, there was a shepherd who, when he sat by this cleft, began to prophesy. At first, they thought he was crazy, but when his predictions came true, people started looking into it. The priests occupied the spot and dedicated it to the deity. Hence the institution of the Pythia, who sat above the cleft on a tripod. The vapors rising from the abyss caused convulsions and strange seizures, giving her that clairvoyance seen in some sleepwalkers.
The navel of the Earth
Aeschylus, whose assurance is not without weight because he was the son of a priest of Eleusis and an initiate himself, tells us in Eumenides of, from the mouth of the Pythia, that Delphi was first dedicated to Earth, then to Themis (Justice), then to Phoebe (the mediating moon), and finally to Apollo, the Sun-god. In temple symbolism each of these names represents long periods, embracing entire centuries. The reputation of Delphi, however, dates from the time of Apollo. Zeus, according to the poets, wishing to find the center of the Earth, sent two eagles flying from the east and the west, and they met in Delphi. Whence comes this prestige, this universal and undisputed authority which made Apollo the pre-eminent god of Greece, but now his glorified name is inexplicable to us?
The story is silly on this important point. If you ask orators, poets and philosophers, they will give you only superficial explanations. The real answer to this question remained the secret of the temple. Let's try to understand it.
Read more about Pythagorean philosophy and the desymbolization of the Delphic World in the book by the classical author Eduardos Syrre (Edward Schuré), "Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries”, which is released in the first Greek translation by Daidaleos publications.