DR. J'S ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE CLASSICAL WORLD
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Dr J's Audio-Visual Resources for Classics

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Castalian Spring

Corycian Cave and Environs

Marmara at Delphi

The Delphi Museum Gallery

Mount Parnassos

Up the Sacred Way

The Stadium at Delphi

The Temple of Apollo

The Theater at Delphi

 

Dr. J's Illustrated Castalian Spring

purify.jpg (3930 bytes)Suppliants who came to seek the advice of the oracle ritually washed their hands and hair at the Castalian Spring before entering the sacred precinct. Murderers had to wash the whole of their bodies (please note I wash my hands only!)
IMG0054MID.jpg (8566 bytes)The archaic (590-600 BC) fountain house of the Castalian Spring. Surrounded by benches, the marble-lined basin collected the mountain spring water via its bronze lion-head water spouts.
IMG0056MID.jpg (11279 bytes)The picture on the far left shows the point where the gorge Arkoudorema divides the Phaedriades...site of the famed den of the Python slain by Apollo. The smaller photo on the left is of the fountain house which dates to Pausanias' Hellenistic times. Local folklore says that wIMG0055.jpg (4024 bytes)ater from this spring has mystical healing properties.

 

IMG0057MID.jpg (10193 bytes)The basin of the Hellenistic era Fountain House, carved into the rock (all that algae covers a basin full of water). The niches were originally used to house votive offerings to the nymph Castalia, later as Christian shrines. The large niche on the right became a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

 

 


copyright 2001 Janice Siegel, All Rights Reserved
send comments to: Janice Siegel (jfsiege@ilstu.edu)

date this page was edited last: 08/02/2005
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