Day Three and Four: Corinth, Delphi, Kalambaka

Let’s start with yesterday. Yesterday morning we drove to Corinth which is about an hour or two away from Athens. It was a quaint town with high mountains, long seas, and gorgeous views. It was rather unbelievable, seeing what beautiful landscapes the Lord God has made for his very special creatures: us. That’s when I first felt the pangs of envy. Oh how I wanted to see those landscapes and those buildings in their glory days. Not to live in that time, mind you, as I fully enjoy my twenty first century upbringing with computers, internet, running water, and medicine. But oh how fun it would be to see those sights instead of the reconstructed attempts of our historical circles!

Anyway. That’s beyond the point.

The Corinthian ruins were spectacular. As I said before, all the relics found in the site were taken out and so they gave us free roam all throughout the Theater of Corinth. It really was just a bunch of old stones some carved and others with writing, but my five year old imagination went wild! I felt like an explorer or perhaps a queen as I passed through the brush and around the city with glee. How amazing it was! I also got a new found joy in my old passion of being an archaeologist, but I think it’s a little too late for that. Plus I’m not very fond of the whole school thing, and I’m pretty certain being an archaeologist takes a lot of school and a lot of science classes (the latter I’m not very fond of either).

Besides being able to be an “explorer” that morning, I really enjoyed two things. First, at the Corinthian site, an inscription was found in nearly perfect condition. The translation essentially says that “Erastus in his aedileship laid the pavement at his own expense.” This Erastus is also found in multiple passages of the New Testament. It is believed that these two names are the exact same person. How cool it was to see an inscription made by a believer in the first century, who had been in direct contact with the Paul!

Another favorite was, against like in Athens, how Paul talked to the Corinthian Church in a relatational fashion. He even tells his recipients (perhaps in another letter) that he speaks plain to them, giving them milk, because they are but infants! This was shown in how Paul refers to the Christian Church as a body with many members. It is obvious, within the letters and going through the museum, that the Corinthians had a very keen self awareness of the body and all of its parts. In fact there are some temples in which the citizens would make castings of certain body parts and present them as offerings in order to be healed of some ailment which, for the Corinthians, was normally related to sexual diseases as their patron goddess was Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was served by 1,000 prostitutes. While it is evident that Paul was far stricter and dealt harshly with his Corinthian brothers, he still made sure to talk with them about the gospel in a relatable way.

I love these applications.

Well, anyway, the site was beautiful. We also visited one of Apollo’s temples, saw Aphrodite’s temple a top the Corinthian Acropolis (“high place”), and visited another excavation site for the city of Corinth (which we didn’t get to roam around as we pleased, unfortunately). But in order to get to bed super early tonight because I think I’m getting sick and to conserve space for my professor, I’m going to move onto Delphi.

After visiting the site, going out for lunch (my friend and I split a pizza!), and shopping around the town, we were off to Delphi. It was nearly a four hour trip which was mostly spent taking pictures of the outlying country and listening to music. We didn’t think of playing cards on the bus until today. By the time we got to Delphi it was after dark, so we ate some dinner and headed out into the city with the girls (Rachel, Paige, and Tiffany) in order to take some pictures and look at the tiny town. It was incredibly cute. I’m certain I will like every town in comparison to Athens; oh how I do not like the city. It’s official. Anyway! Onto today’s adventures (:

Today we had a wake up call at 6 am, in which my roommate, Tiffany, and I slept through and woke up at 6:30am. Breakfast at 7 then on the bus at 7:45am in order to reach the Delphi excavation site at 8. For those of you who are unaware, Delphi is the major religious center of the Grecian world as it held the major temple of Apollo and his Oracle. The Oracle of Delphi would travel into a cave under the temple and garble indecipherable words in response to inhaling too many fumes from the earth (scientists have apparently discovered that it was ethyl) and the priests would interpret the words as prophecies. There are many legends of ancient kings coming to the oracle in order to receive tokens of good words in order to head off into battle while others “misinterpret” the priests’ interpretations and end up dead. In any case Delphi was absolutely enthralling. The ruins were in great condition, compared to the first site of Corinth, and there were tunnels! These tunnels, at one point in time, led and connected under the city. Unfortunately, because of the earthquakes in the 3^rd century after Christ, much of the Delphi tunnels were buried. We only found two tunnels, both of which we thoroughly climbed through and had a blast. It was the greatest thing ever, pretty much. I adored that city; although, to be honest, I can’t quite discern if Delphi or Corinth was my favorite. While Delphi was pretty cool, the story behind Corinth and its relation to the church (especially in reference to the inscription and Paul’s relation) probably keeps it at the top of my list so far.

After being rushed through the Delphi museum by our guide, Vula, we were back in the car for another four hours in order to arrive at Kalambaka which holds five great Orthodox Monasteries atop some pretty tall mountains. Oh they were beautiful. I can’t even describe to everyone how utterly fantastic those buildings were. While the inside of the chapel made me a little uncomfortable (as icons, gold, incense, and expensive furniture adorned every wall and inch of ceiling), it was neat to be able to enter their place of worship and find some correlations between the protestant faith and theirs. I don’t agree with a lot of their theology, but to be honest that is never going to change. It was simply interesting to hear the differences and experience how they relate to Christ and the heavenly realms. My least favorite part, however (although it could be argued as the most interesting), was the ossuary. It was a small room within the monastery we visited that held shelves upon shelves of all of the skulls of the monks who had died over the past century (or whenever the monastery was built). Originally they buried the monks, but, obviously, they ran out of room over the years. So, instead of making another gravesite, they unburied all the monks and placed their skulls on shelves.

The symbolism ties with the resurrection on judgment day. The Orthodox monks are very, very passionate about the resurrection, much more so than we are to be certain. However, they twisted the belief into thinking that they would not have their own bodily resurrection without their body still, somewhat, able to be found on earth. Therefore, their skulls must be preserved in order that when Christ returns they would have their resurrection as well. Or, at least, that’s how Vula explained it. Either way I didn’t like it, and it was gross.

After getting kicked out of the monastery at 4pm sharp, we trailed back down the mountains and we are now staying in a little hotel in the town. I’m swamped and not feeling well. So it’s definitely time for bed. Thank you all for your prayers and for the love you have shown me! I miss you all and cannot wait to see you all soon.

Love y’all.