Walking with the Gods

Today we had our first day trip to a place outside of Athens. We took a three hour bus ride up to Delphi with a stop at the Hosios Loukas Monastery on the way. The whole day was amazing and we say some incredible sights while on our day trip.

But first a little history:
Hosios Loukas Monastery was founded by the Venerable St. Luke in the 10th century and is situated near the town of Distomo on Mount Helicon just north of Athens. St. Luke is famous for predicting the Roman conquest of Crete and the monastery houses his body that has been preserved since his death in 953.

Delphi was founded as the spot where the god Apollo slew Python, a serpent deity who guarded the naval of the world: the spot the Greeks believed was the center of the Earth and was marked with a stone called "omphalos" or naval. The ruins of the shrine of Apollo at Delphi are where the famous Oracle of Delphi was said to commune with Apollo and make predictions as to ones future. Delphi is also the location of the Pythian Games one of the precursor games to the Modern Olympic Games.
Here is the Stadium where the Games were played:
Okay now that we have that out of the way here we go. We visited two places today that have been touched by the Gods: the monastery and the shrine to Apollo. One is a god of ancient Mythology and one is God of the Christian belief. And the places we went to were completely different in almost every aspect except for one: you can tell that the people who inhabited both sites had a strong belief in the god that they were worshiping. From the intricate illustrations of Jesus on the monastery's ceiling:

to the columns which are all that remain of the temple of Apollo:
You can tell that the people who worship these gods do so wholeheartedly. They spent time to make these houses of worship beautiful and incredible and it shows in the results of their work. Nearly 3000 years have passed since Delphi was established yet people from all over the world still come to visit if for different reasons than they did 3000 years ago. The work and man hours that it took to drag the stones up the side of the mountain were not spent just because they had nothing else to do. They were honoring their god. I mean this place is not exactly close to the bottom of the mountain.


The same can be said for the monastery. The designs and work that went into creating a place to worship and honor God are readily available to see:
While both sites have faded with time the reason they were built is still very much apparent: to walk with their god.