Posted: Mon 25 Aug 2008, 03:29
An ancient tradition tells that when Zeus wanted to see where was the centre of the earth, left two eagles to fly, the one to the east and the other to the west. The two eagles met itself at Delphi and they sit on a stone, the navel of the earth, defining it as a centre of the world as the centre of the world.
With this tradition ancient Greeks wanted to emphasize the particular importance that Delphi had not only for Greece but also for entire the ancient world. Indeed, Delphi being the most important place of Apollo's worship and the headquarter of the most famous oracle and most important amfjktyonic of the ancient world, is one of the sacred archaeological places of Greece.
In its heyday Delphi claimed to be the centre of the world, showing as proof (like other cities so situated) the earth's petrified navel, a domical boulder that stood inside the temple of Apollo. The position of Delphi was remote and inconvenient, its natural wealth was negligible, the scenery was not abnormally grand (if indeed the early Greeks had much taste for rugged grandeur) and there were other oracles in central and southern Greece. Anyhow by the seventh or later eight century B.C. its oracle of Apollo was pre-eminent in Greece, answering equitably and humanely the problems of private inquirers and also (as far as was prudent) religious and political questions put by the great states, and it became regular to ask the god's blessing on any expedition to found a new city overseas.
The reputation of the sanctuary, wealth, the tribute offered by the thousands of visitors but also the great prestige and the role of the Oracle around the world, were enough to cause conflicts and war to enforce control to the oracle and plunder the rich treasures.
So at the beginning of the sixth century the Delphians were able to procure their independence under a guarantee from the Amphictyonic Council, appointed by most of the Greek powers that mattered.
Throughout their lifetime Delphi lived many adventures and wars, the best known of which is the 4 "holy" called wars: the first was between 600-590 BC the second 448-446, the third 356-346 and the fourth 339-338 BC. These wars were caused by interference of Phocaeans, Amphissaeans, or Krissaions surrounding cities of Delphi, against the sovereign rights of the Oracle, but eventually in all cases the amphictyones managed to impose their willingness restoring their enemies into order. In these wars always helped the oracle the powerful forces of the area (Sicyonians, Thessaly, Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Aetolian League, Macedonia) with the profit of course to have the god favourable and ally in their affairs.
Even after 479 B.C., when the oracle had unluckily backed the Persians and scepticism was growing, the sanctuary continued to flourish and, though the Phocians melted down many of its treasures in the mid fourth century and the Romans looted works of art in the first centuries B.C. and a.d., there were always new benefactors for a sanctuary so hallowed by tradition.
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