An Athens Delphi mythology tour leads out of the capital and up to the old sanctuary of Apollo beneath Mount Parnassus, where the myths and the ruins meet. Anyone planning further days around the country can browse the home page for more tours in Greece.
The sections that follow cover what is included, how far and how long the drive runs, the myths of Apollo, the Python and the Pythia, the monuments of the sanctuary, the museum with the Charioteer, the town of Arachova on Mount Parnassus and the questions travellers ask.
What does an Athens Delphi mythology tour include?
An Athens Delphi mythology tour is a guided trip from Athens. It covers the myths of Delphi, the museum and the village of Arachova. One operator’s Delphi day trip adds a coach, a licensed tour guide and hotel pick-up.
Operators list different inclusions, so read the list for your Athens Delphi mythology tour. One operator’s Delphi day trip includes these items.
- A guided tour of the Delphi archaeological site and the Delphi museum
- The services of a licensed tour guide
- Transport by air-conditioned bus
- A stroll through the village of Arachova
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off
- Entrance fees, only if you select that option
Entrance tickets deserve a second look on any Athens Delphi mythology tour. That operator asks you to buy your own tickets before the tour date if you book without entrance fees. For the museum, it asks you to select a time slot from 1 to 2 in the afternoon.
Other listings differ. One listing of a Delphi and Arachova day trip leaves entry out and offers tickets with lunch as an upgrade. A different listing names headsets for clear commentary at the site. A small-group trip names a minivan and a limit of 15 guests. Ask which setup your Athens Delphi mythology tour uses.
Languages and pick-up points differ too, so check both before you choose an Athens Delphi mythology tour. One listing names pick-up from 4 central Athens stops, a virtual reality device and commentary in 10 languages. Another names a tour guide who speaks English or Spanish.
A private tour from another operator brings a tour leader who speaks English, plus a private vehicle with air conditioning. It adds a licensed English-speaking tour guide at Delphi. Its lunch is included, but drinks are not. Entrance fees are not included by default, though that operator can arrange them on request.
How long is the drive from Athens to Delphi on an Athens Delphi mythology tour?
On an Athens Delphi mythology tour, the drive from Athens to Delphi covers 182 kilometres, according to one operator. The same operator puts the drive at about 2 hours 30 minutes. The Athens visitor bureau calls Delphi a road trip of two and a half hours.
One operator describes the route in stages. Its coach travels through the plains of Boeotia, a region with an agricultural tradition. It passes Thebes, the birthplace of King Oedipus. Near the town of Livadeia the coach stops for a break, then climbs toward the slopes of Mount Parnassus.
Delphi sits on Greek National Road 48. Amfissa lies to the west on that road, and Livadeia, the capital of Boeotia, lies to the east. A travel wiki mentions hairpin turns on the drive. The wiki gives about 3 hours for the scheduled long-distance bus ride from Athens.
Day length is the next number to check on an Athens Delphi mythology tour. Another operator describes a standard Delphi day trip as 9 to 10 hours, with around 6 hours of driving.
A private tour that stops in Amfissa runs about 12 hours. It adds a walk in an abandoned village, a visit to a tannery and a village lunch. That operator can shorten the tour on request, and a shorter day can mean dropping a stop.
That operator says the return time depends on the departure time. With an 8 in the morning start, it puts the return at around 7:30 to 8 in the evening. Ask for the meeting time, the stops and the return time of your Athens Delphi mythology tour.
What are the myths of Apollo, the Python and the Pythia at Delphi?
The myths behind an Athens Delphi mythology tour begin with Apollo and the serpent Python, whom he slays at Delphi. He then takes over its oracle. His priestess, the Pythia, gave his answers to kings and peasants from across the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. They asked about marriage, crops and war.
Apollo is the god of prophecy, light, music and healing. Python is a serpent that lives at Delphi, which the Greeks saw as the centre of the earth. In one version, a jealous Hera sends Python after Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis. Four days after his birth, Apollo chases the serpent to Delphi and shoots it with arrows.
Before an Athens Delphi mythology tour, it helps to know the second version. In an old hymn, Apollo looks for a place for his shrine and sees that Python threatens the people. He kills the serpent and claims the oracle. In the myth, Zeus then orders Apollo to purify himself and sets up the Pythian Games as penance.
Pythia was the title of the woman who served Apollo as his oracle at Delphi. In one account, priests turned her words into verse. One celebrated answer went to Themistocles. He asked how to defend Athens against the Persians. She replied, “Trust in your wooden walls.” He built up the fleet, and it won the sea battle of Salamis.
The ancient writers who describe the Pythia disagree. Treat each account on an Athens Delphi mythology tour as one version. One story says fumes seeping from a chasm sent her into a trance. Scholars who doubt this say the sources show her speaking clearly. The place where she spoke has not been found.
Which monuments does an Athens Delphi mythology tour visit at the sanctuary?
At the sanctuary, an Athens Delphi mythology tour visits the Temple of Apollo and the Athenian Treasury just below it. The theatre and the stadium lie above the temple. One operator also names the Athenian Stoa and the Polygonal Wall among its stops.
On an Athens Delphi mythology tour you walk the same Sacred Way that pilgrims once climbed. It twists up the hillside towards the temple. Along it you pass the bases of treasuries. These buildings held the gifts that Greek city states and colonies gave to Apollo. Athens, Corinth, Boeotia and Thebes were among the givers.
Builders used Parian marble for the whole Athenian Treasury, carvings included. It sits on the Sacred Way, so visitors on an Athens Delphi mythology tour walk right past it. Its thirty panels, called metopes, show the labours of the heroes Theseus and Herakles. The ancient traveller Pausanias wrote that spoils from the Battle of Marathon paid for the building.
The ruins you see on an Athens Delphi mythology tour are the remains of a fourth century BC temple. According to Greek writers, five temples stood at Delphi in turn, starting with a laurel hut. Laurel was Apollo’s sacred tree. Carved panels on the fifth showed gods and heroes beating monsters, an echo of Apollo’s fight with Python.
Above the temple lies a small theatre, and above that the stadium. Here the Pythian Games took place, one round every four years. It had room for about 6,500 spectators. No other ancient stadium in Greece survives in better shape. Anyone on an Athens Delphi mythology tour who climbs to the stadium reaches the top of the site.
What is in the Delphi Museum, and who is the Charioteer?
The Delphi Museum keeps the objects dug up at the sanctuary. Its star is the Charioteer, a life-size bronze chariot driver from the fifth century BC. An Athens Delphi mythology tour includes the museum, which lies just south of the main entrance to the ruins.
The museum is organised in fourteen rooms on two levels, and the Charioteer has a room of its own. One listing says the original statues, offerings and artifacts link the myths of Delphi to real historical events. That link suits an Athens Delphi mythology tour well.
An Athens Delphi mythology tour meets the Charioteer, also called Heniokhos, the rein-holder. The bronze is 1.8 metres high. A chariot, horses and child attendants once stood beside him in one large group. Polyzalus of Gela, a Greek colony in Sicily, dedicated it to Apollo. His chariot had won a race at the Pythian Games. Nobody knows the sculptor’s name.
He wears a long, sleeved tunic, and his fingers still curve around the reins. He is shown after the race, in the victory parade. His eyes are inlaid glass, which is rare in a Greek bronze. A great earthquake in the fourth century BC buried the statue in debris, and that saved it.
Travellers on an Athens Delphi mythology tour can also see the Sphinx of Naxos. The island of Naxos gave it to the Temple of Apollo. The statue is 2.22 metres tall. Together with its column and base, the monument topped 12.5 metres.
The Athenian Treasury at the site carries copies of its metopes. An Athens Delphi mythology tour finds the originals in the museum. They show Theseus and Herakles. Frieze sections from the Treasury of the Siphnians show the Trojan War and the Judgement of Paris. A cup called the Cylix of Apollo shows the god playing the lyre.
What are Arachova and Mount Parnassus like on an Athens Delphi mythology tour?
Arachova is a mountain town about 970 metres up the southern side of Mount Parnassus. Delphi is 8 km to the west. An Athens Delphi mythology tour adds it to the ruins and the museum.
A traveller on an Athens Delphi mythology tour sees small houses climbing the hillside and cobbled streets. One operator adds stone-built houses and shops with handmade textiles and local cheeses. The town is known for black wine, rugs and woodcut crafts. Its Formaela cheese carries a protected designation of origin.
Winter skiing on the range starts above all from the resorts around Arachova. The Parnassos Ski Centre lies north of the town. Its 19 runs cover 36 km in all. The base is at 1,600 metres and the top at 2,250 metres.
The mountain is made of limestone and spreads across Boeotia, Phthiotis and Phocis. Liakoura, the top peak, stands 2,457 metres high. Delphi sits on its southern slopes, so the sites on an Athens Delphi mythology tour share one mountain.
The mountain that an Athens Delphi mythology tour visits was sacred to Apollo and Dionysus in ancient Greek religion. The Muses lived on it, so the Greeks linked the mountain with poetry, music and learning. Deucalion’s flood myth says the survivors followed the howling of wolves up the slope and built Lycoreia.
The official Athens visitor bureau calls Arachova a year-round destination. Winter brings snow, but the sheltered town gets less than places of the same height on the northern side. Summers are warm with pleasant nights. Hikers use the town as their base for the mountain trails. The town marks its patron, Saint George, on 23 April.
What else do travellers ask about an Athens Delphi mythology tour?
Why was Delphi, the goal of an Athens Delphi mythology tour, called the navel of the world?
Omphalos is the Greek word to know before an Athens Delphi mythology tour. It means “navel”, and it names a religious stone object. Ancient Greeks held that the world’s centre lay at Delphi, and a stone monument marked the spot.
One myth says the stone is the one Rhea wrapped in cloth, pretending it was Zeus, to trick Cronus. A knotted net pattern covers the Delphi stone, which has a hollow centre. How the ancients used it is uncertain, because the site was destroyed in the fourth century CE.
What are the Delphic maxims, such as “know thyself”?
The Delphic maxims are moral sayings inscribed on the Temple of Apollo. Three stood at the entrance: “Know thyself”, “Nothing in excess” and “Give a pledge and trouble is at hand”. If your Athens Delphi mythology tour reaches the temple, that entrance is where these words stood.
Tradition names the Seven Sages of Greece, or even Apollo, as their authors. In fact, they were probably popular proverbs. Plato mentions them in six of his dialogues. A further 147 maxims, recorded by Stobaeus in the fifth century AD, stood somewhere near the temple.
What is the Castalian Spring at Delphi?
At Delphi, the Castalian Spring sits in a ravine between the Phaedriades cliffs. Contestants in the Pythian Games and pilgrims stopped there to wash and quench their thirst. The Pythia and the priests washed there too before giving an oracle. Roman poets drew poetic inspiration from its waters.
If your Athens Delphi mythology tour passes the spring, look for its two old fountains. The archaic one dates to the sixth century BCE and has a marble-lined basin with benches. The Roman one is from the first century BC and stands about 50 metres higher.
What are the Tholos and the Athena Pronaia sanctuary?
The Tholos is a circular temple that belongs to the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia. That site lies under a mile to the east of the main ruins at Delphi. Check what your Athens Delphi mythology tour covers.
Vitruvius names Theodorus Phoceus as the architect. Twenty Doric columns stood around the outside, and three have been rebuilt. Carved panels on the outer wall showed battles with Amazons and Centaurs. The building dates to the fourth century BC.
Where is Delphi, and is it a World Heritage Site?
Delphi, the destination of an Athens Delphi mythology tour, lies in Phocis, a regional unit of Central Greece. Phocis covers 2,120 square kilometres and reaches from the western flank of Parnassus to the Vardousia mountain range. Its seat is Amfissa.
UNESCO lists the Delphi precinct as a World Heritage Site, a listing made in the late nineteen eighties. It points to the great influence of Delphi in the ancient world. The monuments that major Greek city-states built there demonstrate the unity of the Hellenes.