In the second Demon of Athens book, God of Sparta, many scenes take place at Delphi. I was fortunate enough to have visited Delphi in 2018 before I wrote the book.
I was always a bit suspicious of writers (envious, actually) who travelled to do research for their books. It seemed like a good excuse to have fun for a few weeks, especially if someone else was paying for it (super-envious!) However, my trip to Delphi showed me the folly of my ways.
The most helpful thing about the trip was that it gave me a sense of scale. I could see how the Delphi complex was nestled into the side of the mountain. I could feel the majesty of Mount Parnassus looming over the temple. I could see the valley below and the waters of the Gulf of Corinth in the distance (in the third picture you can see where Daimon would have disembarked at the port of Crissa / Krissa before walking up to Delphi.) All of these things were helpful when it came to putting pen to paper, so to speak.
The Delphi you see today is a little different from the Delphi of Daimon’s time at the beginning of the 4th century BC. Many of the most spectacular features didn’t exist at that time. The theatre had not yet been built, nor had the iconic Tholos a little bit farther down the hill. The present stadium was a Roman renovation. Even the Temple of Apollo was rebuilt after a major earthquake later in the 4th century.
Moreover, the ruins of Delphi completely vanished for almost 1500 years, buried under soil and rocks from landslides. It also didn’t help that locals robbed the stones to build their houses, particularly in the town of Kastri that was built on top of the ruins. The complex wasn’t excavated until the late 19th century, and all that remained in the dirt was scattered rubble. Much of what you see in Delphi today, such as the Treasury of the Athenians, was painstakingly reconstructed from the assorted blocks that were found. So, that is all to say that the visit to Delphi was fantastic, but teasing out the layers of one thousand years of history took a little more research. A book on Delphi by Michael Scott was my most valuable resource. For 4th-century reconstructions of Delphi and other places in ancient Greece, you could do a lot worse than Stephen Biesty’s Ancient World.
Also, here is a little bit of tourist advice. If you are visiting Delphi from Athens, consider hiring a van with a driver for the day. In 2018, our group of five paid 300 Euros to hire a new Mercedes minibus with a friendly driver who was at our disposal for the entire day. This was only marginally more than what you would pay to join one of the larger tour groups from Athens, but with many times the convenience. The main advantage is that you can arrive an hour or so earlier than most of the tour groups. When we arrived, we almost had the whole site to ourselves for the first hour, and this was at the beginning of May, which is quite busy for tourists. If you have time (we didn’t), you might even consider staying overnight in the small town of Delphi a little farther up the road from the temple complex. Ask at the front desk of your hotel (or your AirBnB host, or whatever.) In Greece, there’s always a sibling or a cousin involved in whatever service you’re looking for!
