A Day at Delphi

(ATHENS, GREECE) Wednesday Dec. 16, we took a day trip to Delphi. Our driver was named Mike and he was excellent. Along the way--it was about two and half hours outside Athens--we stopped at the new Olympic stadium, an olive oil factory, a cheese store, a touristy place in this skiing village where we bought a pair of gloves and a statue of Hermes. At Delphi, the main attraction is the Temple of Apollo where oracles would breath in fumes and make with the prophesies. As I said in my previous Athens post, this reminds me on when Steeve Reeves went to the Oracle at Delphi and she told him something about not displeasing his father Zeus. He was to stay on earth for a while. Then it rained and Steeve got all those gorgeous muscles soaking wet and... but I digress.

There was also the temple of Athena and a museum with the finer pieces and statues found at the temple. The temple was set in a mountain and it meant a long climb up. Afterwards, as it was getting dark, one of Jerry's therapist colleagues wanted to see the crossroads where Oedipus killed his father Laius. Mike was not familiar with the spot, but he found out from another driver named George where it was. Evidently, once in 15 years someone had asked to see it. There is no sign or plaque or anything to mark the legendary encounter. There was a memorial to an accident victim (pictured). There are dozens of these along the road from Athens to Delphi. Simple boxes mounted on poles with pictures of the victim, flowers, icons, etc. They are like folk art and I took a picture of the one by the Oedipus crossroads. If I were a professional photographer I would go to Greece and take pictures of all these home-made memorials.

One more thing about Hercules: I used to watch the TV cartoon series in the 1960s and it totally departed from the classic myths. In this version, which came on Sundays on this cheesey local Philadelphia kid's show hosted by a clown named Lorzeno,Herc has a magic ring which gave him his super strength and an annoying sidekick--a centaur named Newton. There was also a girlfriend named Helena, an evil wizard named Daedalus, and a witch named Wilhelmina who has a parrot. None of these elements occured in ancient Greece, except Daedalus was a kind inventor who was the father of Icarus.