{"id":3022,"date":"2013-08-05T20:12:33","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T01:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=3022"},"modified":"2025-05-08T13:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T18:00:40","slug":"the-womb-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2013\/08\/05\/the-womb-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Womb of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 5, 2013
\nThe Womb of the World
\nIf you are in the port of Itea, Greece, I can confidently say two things about you: first, you\u2019re on a smaller cruise ship, because it\u2019s a small\u00a0port; and second, you\u2019re likely to be there to visit the \u201cwomb of the world,\u201d the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.\u00a0 The famous oracle is located only about 12 miles (and up almost 2000 feet) from the ocean there, but\u00a0nearly 120 miles and 3 hours from Athens.<\/p>\n

For nearly 900 years, Delphi was the center of the Greek world, alternately called the womb, or the navel of the world.\u00a0 Part of the reason for its prominence is that the oracle at Delphi correctly predicted one of the Persian king\u2019s defeat\u2014ironically, in a cryptic response to the Persian king.\u00a0 He sent a delegation to ask what would happen if he invaded Greece.\u00a0 He was told a great empire would be defeated; he did not realize it would be his, but then, he didn\u2019t ask the right question.\u00a0 The serpentine column that one of the grateful city
\nstates erected in Delphi in honor of that victory (the site became a kind of \u201cbragging place\u201d where the disunited Greek city-states\u2014the inconclusive 30 year Peloponnesian war between the various city states resulted in an exhausted stalemate– could in peace construct things to\u00a0boast about their wealth) now graces Istanbul, because Constantine
\nbrought it there in 330 as part of the decoration for his city.\u00a0 What better to display the might of the New Rome than a victory column celebrating the Greek victory over its greatest rival\u2014Persia.<\/p>\n

The Athenians were the richest city-state, and consequently, had the most ostentatious buildings, including one that touted the victory at Marathon (which doesn\u2019t mention any contributions of the other city states).<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the location generates energy because it lies on a fault line, and has suffered from a number of serious earthquakes . The \"\"<\/a>temple of Apollo, one of the most solemn places in ancient Greece, is also located over an area that generates a number of gases, one of which produces clear thinking if inhaled, and scientist believe it was this gas, rationed out to the women who did the predictions, which helped the reputation of the oracles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Track star?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Delphi\u2019s prominence lasted until the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius ordere\"\"<\/a>d the destruction of pagan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

places, though for a time, there were Christian symbols in the area.\u00a0 Never a \u201ccity,\u201d Delphi nonetheless had an arena that seated about 5,000, and a track that accommodated 20,000 people, both in reasonably good repair today. There\u2019s also a wonderful museum, piecing together what they have found, including one of the 38 bronze statues believed to have been at Delphi, and a horde of gold bracelets and jewelry and ivory that was damaged in a fire, but could not be thrown away because it represented Greek gods, and thus was buried, only\u00a0 to be rediscovered in 1939.<\/p>\n

We stayed in Itea for about 6 hours, and I think there were three things to do today: one was to shop in Itea,\u00a0 where the banks closed about 2:00, and there were few stores other than cafes open (the interesting
\n\"\"<\/a>Orthodox Church closed its doors at 2 also); second, swimming in the Ionian sea, which was fun because it\u2019s very saline, and floating took no effort at all; and third, today we watched air planes attempting to put out a forest fire in the area.\u00a0 There were five them that skimmed the sea to pick up water and return to fight the fire.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think you can count on that happening every day, however.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re on our way to Athens, where this part of our journey will end.\u00a0 We \"\"<\/a>sailed through the Corinth Canal on the way, a 4 mile cut through solid rock that had been a dream since the 7th century BC, and was actually started by Nero.\u00a0 It was only in the 1890s, however, that the project was seriously begun and completed.\u00a0 In May, when I went with my students to the Peloponnese,\u00a0 we crossed over it from above.\u00a0 At places, the top is almost 300 feet high, and it is a small passageway, but it saves going all the way around Greece to get from the Adriatic to Athens.<\/p>\n

I think the oracle said we would be in Athens by midnight tonight! I hope she\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 5, 2013 The Womb of the World If you are in the port of Itea, Greece, I can confidently say two things about you: first, you\u2019re on a smaller cruise ship, because it\u2019s a small\u00a0port; and second, you\u2019re likely to be there to visit the \u201cwomb of the world,\u201d the Temple of Apollo at … Continue reading “The Womb of the World”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-mediterranean-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3022"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8956,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3022\/revisions\/8956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}