The Oracle of Delphi

The Oracle of Delphi, the temple of Apollo, the omphalos – all this and more engulf me in its mystery and myth as I walk the hillsides of Mount Parnassus one hot August day a few years ago.

One is struck by the aesthetic of ruins and nothing else. No encroaching city.  No sound of traffic. Nothing but silence. A handful of tourists.  A deep melancholy keeps threatening me but the blazing sun won’t let it take hold.  Why so few tourists? It’s too hot.  Way, way too hot.

One can hear the birds, the wind travelling up the mountain, feel the dust in our teeth. Just a couple of hours west of Athens and it feels like a millennia away from the city. Ruins tossed up and down a hillside. No traffic, no city noises at all. No city.

It’s been a few years since I was there. It’ll be a year soon that we’ve followed guidelines and stayed home.  If you, like me, are dreaming of where your wonder lust will lead you when life opens up again, perhaps Delphi will be in your dreams.  It will be in mine…