Socrates’ Quest: The Agnostic
Spirit
I am very conscious that I am not wise at all.
SocratesIf you had to choose a site for the greatest oracle in the ancient
world you would be hard pushed to beat Delphi. Sitting
both confi dently and precipitously on a ledge below the
Phaedraides – the ‘Shining Cliffs’ – in central Greece, it looks
like the vertiginous utterances must have felt to the people
who sought Apollo’s word there for over 1000 years. Today, a
wide road, built for coaches, brings visitors up from the plain
of Thebes. Its sleepy meander seems oblivious to the calamitous
events that took place beneath the tarmac: ‘there is no road
away from Delphi’, said Seneca, refl ecting on Oedipus’ attempt
to fl ee the oracle’s curse by the same route, only to kill his father
on the way. But after an hour or so, you turn one fi nal bend,
and suddenly the telltale signs of broken pillars and a ticket
offi ce emerge from the cypress trees.
All that remains of the Temple of Apollo itself are the foun-
dations and a handful of resurrected columns that tantalisingly
indicate where the portico and its famous inscriptions – ‘Know
Thyself’ and ‘Nothing in Excess’ – once stood. The most recur-
rent feature on the site is that of the treasury building, mini-
strongholds built by Greece’s competing city-states to show off
their wealth and strength. These may be thought of as spoilers,
unromantic reminders that religion and politics merged with
one another for the ancients, or that most of what so moved
them has been lost. But a visit to Delphi will not disappoint.
Go at the end of the day, as the sun sets behind Mount
Parnassos and throws yellow light onto the stones. Below is a