Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi

[Music] sitting here overlooking the sanctuary of Apollo at Deli makes it really clear to me why the Greeks believed that the Gods dwelt on a mountain well we have this glorious view I feel on top of the world it makes sense the Greeks practiced their religion in places called sanctuaries that became complexes of many buildings this is one of the most important pth helenic sanctuaries what that means is that it was not controlled by one city state but it was a place that Greeks came from numerous City States from all over Greece therefore pan helenic

across Greece the sanctuary at Olympia is another example of a pan helenic Sanctuary now of course in that case Greeks from all over came to compete in athletic games but Olympia also had an oracle that is a priestess who had a connection to the gods but here at Deli this was perhaps the single most important Sanctuary because here although there were games there were musical competitions and there were sporting competitions this was the place with the single most important Oracle that is with the Priestess who could help decide major political and even private issues the

Priestess here at Deli the Oracle was called the Pia and she made her pronouncements she answered questions from the temple that we're looking at now when she did this she was seated behind a curtain we believe she was Seated on a tripod and over a kind of Chasm that went into the Earth and according to Traditions that go back at least to the 9th century this was a way that she connected directly to the god Apollo right a way that Apollo could speak through her and so we're in a space that is entirely sacred to

the god Apollo so according to the ancient reports we have the way this would work is somebody High stature with significant wealth or political power would come with a very specific question often a yes or no question they would give it to one of the priestess's assistants and that would then be read to the Priestess who was behind a curtain she would make a pronouncement which would then be interpreted so that it could be understandable by the assistant priests so as a panh helenic sanctuary as a sanctuary for all Greeks this was a place where

one could really show off the wealth and the power power of your city state the primary way that city states could do that was by building treasuries now treasuries were often small buildings they weren't peripteral that is we normally think about a greek temple as having columns all around it instead they had columns in the front and they were mostly storehouses for objects that were being offered dedicated to the god it's important to remember I think that Greek religion was transactional that people gave gifts to the gods and in turn the god Gods favored them

this might be booty that was taken in war it might be the result of some other kind of good fortune but there's no question that that transactional aspect was important you wanted to give as much as you could to the sanctuary of Apollo in order to stay in Apollo's good graces and so when visitors came to the sanctuary they walked up what was called The Sacred way and they passed by numerous treasury buildings built by numerous Greek city states what the Greeks called the polus now you can imagine how competitive this was because each city

state was showing off against the other right and we can look down at the reconstructed treasury built by the city state of Athens that's a great example just beside it we believe that there had once been a huge pile of booty that they had taken from the Persians at the Battle of Marathon right which they won against Great odds and so you really could understand why they would thank the gods for that victory it's one of the larger treasuries and it's in a very prominent place just below the Athenian treasury is a smaller treasury which

was according to reports the most lavishly decorated of all of the treasuries here this belonged to the small island of synos in the south of the agnc and the cians were especially wealthy because they had gold and silver minine so they could afford to build a really lavish treasury the treasuries are stacked up over each other it's such a steep space well you wound your way back back and forth to go up to the very top of the sanctuary where we see the theater well most sanctuaries had a theater the most famous probably the theater

at epidor which was an important Sanctuary for healing this is a good reminder that theater was connected to religious practice and it's interesting to note too the form of the theater we have the actors on the bottom and the seats rising up above built into the hillside imagine sitting in that theater looking down past the actors to this amazing view of the temple and the valley Beyond [Music]