ARROW - 163. Chapter 163

The boys entered the ruins of the temple of Apollo. There was a place in front of the altar where people could leave an offering. I wondered what they did with the money. I watched as the boys dropped a coin in the offering box.

“Did you ask a question?”

Ivan said he asked if this will be a good year for crops. “He is a farmer. We need to take him to see his grandfather’s resting place so he can tell him he has the farm they talked about.”

“We can squeeze in a quick three-day trip before school starts.”

I thought that would be a great idea, now I’ll have to find the time.

I wasn’t aware that one of the boys had asked Arnaud a question as Arnaud was telling them about the origin of the name.

“The name Delphi came from the name of a serpent that lived here. The serpent’s name was Delphyne.and she was killed by Apollo.”

"Was it the serpent in the cave with the oracle?"

"No, but because Apollo killed it, the Temple of Apollo was built over the place where the oracle lived.'

"So we are standing over the home of the oracle."

"Yes, Louis." He walked away smiling. I gave him a hug.

We headed to the Delphi Archeological Museum.

The museum contained artifacts associated with ancient Delphi. It included the Charioteer of Delphi, Kleobis, and Baton, golden treasures found beneath the area called the Sacred Way, and the Sphinx of Naxos. There were fragments of reliefs from the Siphnian Treasury. As I expected walking through the museum, the boys had questions.

“Uncle Arnaud, chariots were Roman. Why are they here?”

“This area was known by the Romans. When we leave there are some words that mention a Roman called Gallio.”

I looked at the pamphlet, the statue was found in the Sanctuary of Apollo in 1896. I showed this to the boys and of course, it led to more questions.

Arnaud took over. “The Romans were aware of Greece and the people living here. They fought the Greeks and occupied this land along with other lands that bordered the Mediterranean Sea. I’ll bet you would find artifacts from Rome in a lot of the lands around the Mediterranean Sea.”

I knew that would open their minds and they will have more questions. Colin was right, I’ll soon have a library at home.

“Arnaud, this place is known worldwide, why?”

“It has been mentioned in the writings of most ancient writings found in countries surrounding Greece, Scientists have found an interesting fact about the Delphi, it is the belly button of the earth. The oracle of Apollo was well known.”

That was interesting when you think of the navel of the earth in comparison to the navel of our body.

Walking the area, Arnaud stopped at a site of an ancient theater where rituals to the gods were held. Our next stop was at an ancient stadium where athletic events were held to honor the gods. “This stadium hosted the Pythian games and other events of the oracle. Ronnie, you would be playing a Greek version of football here.” The boys laughed at that. Of course, Ronnie assumed a line position and the boys took photos.

The following site was the Sanctuary of Athena Pronea. “That is the Tholos which could be seen from people coming to Delphi from the east. Next to it is the Gymnasium."

"Uncle Arnaud, what does Pronea mean? We know that Athena was a goddess."

"Pronea means 'the one before' In this case, the Temple of Athena was the first Temple one would see before the Temple of Apollo. Did you know that Athena is the sister of Apollo and part of her duties was to protect Apollo?"

The next building was the treasury of the Athenians which was constructed 600 years BC and contained offerings to the oracle of Delphi and the god Apollo.

The boys were getting thirsty so Arnaud led us to the Castilian Spring where the people believed the water cleansed the souls of those who drank the water, they said they didn’t feel different.

The next building we visited was called the Stoa. The ionic building was constructed in 478 BC to contain the trophies of the Athenians from their sea battles.

The boys were getting hungry, “I have eaten at this restaurant before and the food is very good.”

We were standing in front of a restaurant called Phivos. Walking in they smiled when they saw us. We had to wait while they rearranged their tables. The boys smiled as they could smell the food. If it was half of good as the smell, we would have an excellent lunch.

Instead of a written menu, they had photos of the food. The boys looked at me, I told them to order what they wanted. I reminded them they had to eat everything they ordered. Colin looked at me like I was crazy. Colin and I agreed to split a main course. It turned out we also split our salad and a serving of stuffed grape leaves.

An hour later, we were ready to leave. Colin paid leaving a nice tip for the wait staff. The boys were rubbing their stomachs but I knew if we were home they would be hitting their beds for a nap.

The bus station was close to the restaurant and it was late in the afternoon, I asked the boys if they were ready to go back to the hotel, take a nap and then do more walking around in Athens. They were for it until one of them saw a bookstore. So we headed there and bought a few books on the gods of Greece and the Delphi. They had several books dedicated to the various sites we had seen. I asked them if they had a book on the history of Ancient Greece. They had two, I leafed through them and bought both.

Now we were ready to go back to our hotel.