From Marathon to Delphi and Mount Olympus

Only 40km from Athens, you find the small town of Marathon.

Why is it important that the distance is 40km? Well, because of the "original" marathon, of course!

After the Greek army had won the Battle of Marathon against the Persian invaders in 490 BC, Pheidippides, a Greek messenger, ran all the way to Athens to deliver the message that would be his last: "We have won!", he says and dies!

This is the legend, anyway, and depending on the source, it holds up more or less.

This is the area where the battle took place

Under this burial mound, or tumulus, the ashes of the fallen Greek soldiers are burried.

So, originally, the distance of the Marathon race (held in Pheidippides` honor for the first time just before the first modern Olympics in 1896 in Greece on the original route) was 40km.

In the following years, the distance at different races varied somewhat between 38km and 43km.

Only in 1908, when the Olympics were held in London, the distance was officially set at 42.195km.
The reason being that the organizers wanted the race to go from Windsor Castle to the Olympic stadium, a distance of 42.195km.

The town itself is rather unremarkable, but the museum dedicated to the race is quite impressive.

It is fair to say that my human had more fun here for 2€ than at the Acropolis for 30€!

You all know the name, here is his story

The Olympic torch is different every time; never thought about it.

The great Emil Zatopek; he started and won in the 5.000m and 10.000m races and then decided on a whim to run the marathon as well, his first ever. He won that, too!

Ababe Bikila ran the 1960 marathon bare-foot and won in 2h 15min and 16 seconds!

By 1964 he had shoes and won again, the first Olympic athlete to ever do so

Munich born Frank Shorter, son of a US Military doctor, won the marathon in his city of birth.

Roberta Gibb snuck into the Boston marathon in 1966 and finished. She did so again the year after and was stopped a few meters from the finish line and denied to cross it.

Please pay attention to 1957!

We spent the next three days on the second largest island of the country, Euboea, after Crete.

You can reach Euboea via two bridges, of which the older one spans the most narrow strait in the world, which is only 40m wide.

The island is 175km long and boasts 678km of coastline.

220.000 people live here, around a third of them in the main city Chalkida.
There is some tourism, but nothing compared to most other Greek islands.

Which is just how we like it!

The promenade of Chalkida

Jet ski meeting

My human did some hiking around the island, enjoying the peace and quiet in the mountains.

Not exactly sure what is being collected here...

On the way up Drifys mountain

Dirfys, 1743m, the highest mountain of the island

Agali Gorge; a piece of false advertising

Lots of wildlife around, dead and alive

Some kind of mountain goat?

You just will have to believe that this is a wild pig and its pigletts

We left the island and made some distance, moving towards Delphi.

Before we got there, we stopped over in the small, picturesque village of Arachova for a little walk around.

We found a perfectly secluded spot to spend the night a few kilometers up in the foothills of the Parnassos mountain range.

Arachova

A slightly shy but curious little fox (with socks)

The range was associated with Apollo in the ancient times and as the home of the Muses. Parnassos therefore became known as the home of poetry, music and learning.

As for modern times, it is one of the major ski resorts in the country with 16 ski lifts, 25 ski runs and 15 ski routes with a total length of 36km.

The mountain is also riddled with hiking trails.
My human has made the experience more than once that skiing mountains aren`t the nicest hiking areas. For one thing, there is very little foliage, for obvious reasons, and often the routes follow the ski runs, which doesn`t really make for nice hiking.

So instead, she chose a different area to go for a hike up to the Corythian Cave.

The cave has been a sacred space since the Neolithic era, named after the mythological nature spirits, the Corythian nymphs.
It was primarily used for worshipping Pan, the God of the wild, but was also thought to be the ritual home of Dyonisus.
And of course, Zeus was imprisoned in the cave by the monster Typhon. But you knew that.

Not so much wildlife today, just the herd of cows one would expect

To finish of our pursuit of old stones in Greece, we drove down to Delphi the next day to have a look at the archeological museum and the excavations.

Both are a lot smaller than the ones in Athens, of course, but they obviously have something going for them: the Oracle of Delphi!

The Sphinx of Naxos used to stand on a 10m high column; 560BC

The Twins of Argos, 6th Century BC

The Colum of the Dancers; what it looked like on the right, bottom and top bit on the left

As per the legend, Delphi, in ancient times known as Pytho, was a sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the mayor oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world.

The Pythia was known as a spokesperson for Apollo. She was a woman of blameless life, chosen from the peasants of the area.

Sent into a kind of trance by the vapors of unknown substances, the Oracle would rave, probably a form of ecstatic speech. This was then translated by the priest of the temple into elegant hexameters.

And this was the way they made decisions about invading countries, raging wars, founding colonies, choosing the coming leaders, etc.

The Roman Agora

The theater

This is what the ancient Temple of Apollo might have looked like

And this is what is left today

Athena`s temple complex was unfortunately closed

The ancient Greeks considered the center of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi (navel).

Fun fact, Delphi shares the same root with the Greek word for womb.

Both are replicas, but this is where the original Omphalos stood, the center of the world!

The town of Delphi itself is slightly unremarkable but for the fact that it was created as a home for the population of Castro, which was previously located on top of the excavation site.

From Delphi we made our way to Litochoro, the gateway to Mount Olympus!

Here you can find the Olymp-Nationalpark-Information-Center, first port of call for all who are interested in climbing to the home of the Gods.

Very doubtful that we will have visibility like this tomorrow (photos at the info center)

Mytikas, 2918m high, is the highest peak of the range, which boasts 55 peaks over 2000m in 500m².

The twelve gods who lived on Mount Olympus were the Olympians: Hera, Poseidon, Dionysus, Demeter, Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Ares, Artemis, Apollo and Athena.

Here a little genealogy:

Tomorrow, my human will embark on a search for all those Gods, or, at least, some nice views on the way up and possibly even from the summit.

But, as you know, luck isn`t always with her when it comes to that.

No matter what, though, one thing is for sure: she won`t go hungry during the trail!