10 Establishing the Oracle at Crissa/Delphi (281-299)

Swiftly you crossed the foothills, moving ever faster, and

came at last to Crissa, on the slopes of snow-capped Parnassus.

The Delphic Temple at Crissa

[Picture it in your mind as you would have seen it then:]

a rounded shoulder of the mountain,

exposed to the harshness of the West Wind.

Above:

on all sides, the looming bulk of mountain stone.

Below:

an open space between, rolling down the slope.

The ground:

rocky and jagged.

…but nevertheless…

There,

the king,

the-purifying-light, 285

ordained his long-desired temple to be built.

[For he could see a future that is now but was not yet]

He said:

“here,

In this virgin land

I intend my temple —

which will be elegant and beautiful,

an oracle site for all humans–

to be built.

For eternity, multitudes will

–to honour me —

here bring cattle by the hundreds in perfect hecatomb.

Humans from all places

those

in the rich Peloponnese  290

in Europa (Northern Greece)

throughout the water-circled Aegean islands

will come here to seek my oracle.

For them: guidance which cannot be altered.

I will establish sacred law

by proclaiming oracles from my rich temple.”

After saying this Apollo, the purifying-light,

marked out the boundaries of the precinct that would be —

wide, very long, and without break–.

And so it was.

[For humans, many ages passed

but for Apollo, future, past, and present are as one].  295

In another age, it was

Trophonios and Agamedes

the heirs of Eriginus,

heroes most beloved by the immortal gods

who first laid down the marble foundation

who then constructed the temple

ever-famous

worthy of its peerless reputation

both in the time before and the time to come

[though it was of the greatest antiquity, it was made]

not of wood — as other elder temples — but of stones

so skillfully set together that no gaps can be seen.

[And finally died young and beautiful;

After their service,

Apollo granted their pious wish for “what was best”

letting them pass, full of unparalleled glory, untarnished]–^[1]]

[In the present, it is]

the people who neighbor Crissa

-- an uncountable number --

who continue to support and maintain the precinct;

As they did then and as they always have,

since the first.