The Pillars of Creation

One of the most famous photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1995 was aptly named the “Pillars of Creation”.  It illustrates star-forming pillars of billowing dust and gas pointing to where “Stars are created from Chaos".  The picture we see depicts what that cosmic neighborhood looked like 7,000 years ago, as this is how long it takes to cross the intervening distance at the speed of light.

The Andromeda Galaxy is two million light-years away, thereby making it the nearest galaxy to ours. It is bigger than our Milky Way, as it contains at least one trillion stars, twice the number of stars our galaxy has.  The Andromeda Galaxy and our own Milky Way will likely merge in about four billion years in a cataclysmic and chaotic event, of death and birth of a myriad of solar systems, in our amazing and bewildering Cosmos.

Andromeda (Ἀνδρομέδα) means “ruler of men” in Greek.  She was the daughter of the King and Queen of Ethiopia.  When the vain Queen boasted that her daughter, Andromeda, was more beautiful than the Nereids, Poseidon became enraged. Consequently, he sent a sea monster, Cetus, to ravage the land of Ethiopia.  Andromeda was stripped and chained naked to a rock based on an oracle from Delphi as a sacrifice to appease the infuriated Poseidon. painting by Paul Gustave Dore (1869)

Perseus, the founder of Mycenae, was returning home and happened upon the chained Andromeda. He then sets her free and marries her. Andromeda follows her husband, first to his native island of Serifos, and from there they proceed to Argos, and they became the ancestors of the family of the Perseidae and thus according to the legend, Perseus is the ancestor of the Persians.  painting “La deliverance d’ Andromede” by Pierre Mignard (1679)

Ancient Corinthian vase depicting Andromeda, Perseus and Cetus.  Inscriptions are in archaic Greek alphabet, running to the left and using letters such as E instead of H, and reverse B and V instead of Y.

Delphi

The site of Delphi (Greek: Δελφοί) is located in central Greece, along a slope of mount Parnassus.  The name Delphoi comes from the root delphys (δελφύς) that means "womb" and indicates the veneration of Gaia at the site.

According to Greek mythology, when Zeus wanted to know where the navel of the Earth (Gaia) was, he sent two eagles to find it.  When their path crossed over Delphi he determined that the center of Gaia was there.  A conical stone is present at the point where the crossing occurred and Earth’s umbilicus (ομφαλος) is located.

Pythia, the Delphic oracle, officiated in the temple of god Apollo.  The priestess took her name when Apollo slew a python "the dragon" to prevent him from raping Gaia.  Apollo spoke through his oracle that was an older local woman who had led a blameless life.  Pythia sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth. When Apollo slew the Python, its body fell into a mountain fissure and fumes arose from its decomposing body. Intoxicated by the vapors, the oracle would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit and prophesied thru her. People consulted the Delphic oracle on everything from important matters of States to personal affairs.  

In the Temple of Apollo, an eternal flame burned after the battle of Plataea, at which time the Greek cities extinguished their fires and procured new fire when needed from the hearth of the Earth, Delphi.  Although City-States in Ancient Greece cherished their independence customs such as the eternal flame or the games point to their common Hellenic traditions. 

Every four years, at Delphi, athletes from all over the Greece competed in the Pythian games to celebrate the slaying the dragon by Apollo.  According to legend Apollo walked to Delphi from the north and stopped at Tempe, a city in Thessaly to pick laurel (bay tree) a sacred plant. In commemoration of this legend, the winners at the Pythian games received a wreath of laurel picked at Temple.

From the entrance of the site, continuing up the slope almost to the temple itself, are a large number of statues, and numerous treasuries. These were built by the various Greek city-states to commemorate victories and to thank the oracle for her advice, which was thought to have contributed to those victories. They are called "treasuries" because they held the offerings made to Apollo; these were frequently a "tithe" or tenth of the spoils of a battle. The most impressive is the Athenian Treasury, built to commemorate the Athenians' victory at the battle of Marathon in 490 BCE.

Tholos is a circular temple that is located approximately half a mile from the sanctuary and was devoted to Goddess Athena Pronoia (Ἀθηνᾶ Πρόνοια, "Athena of forethought").  It was constructed between 380 and 3h60 BCE and consisted of 20 Doric  columns in its exterior and 10 Corinthian columns in the interior.  Three of the Doric columns have been restored, making it the most iconic building at Delphi.