Driving in Greece and especially around Athens is not a prospect that I relish. Chaos is the best way to describe it narrow streets, double parked cars, cars, people and animals cutting across you. Massive cars confronting you head on when there seems to be only room for one car. Yet here I am about to do the unthinkable! The plan is to complete a round trip looping through the Pelopponese reprising the tour I went on in 1982.
Legend has it that Zeus sent out two eagles one from the east and the other from the west. Where they met, at the foot of Mt Parnassus is a massive cleft in the mountain range and it became the omphalos, the navel of the world. Initially the item was guarded by the terrible serpent, Python. Apollo killed the python and a temple was built dedicated o him in the 8th century BC. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, the Delphic oracle, a priestess who was named Pythia came forth with ambiguous pronouncements regarding the future. Her fame encouraged rulers and ordinary people from far and wide to come for a consultation.
Today this is an evocative site perched high along the mountainside. We enjoy a peaceful and interesting couple of hours here especially as this is now low season and tourists are less plentiful.
