THE CENTER OF

THE WORLD

By: Kelly Orr9/24/13 to

Delphi1500 BCE. – 392 AD.

GEOGRAPHY It is in the territory of Phocis The town it self is located on the side of Mount

Parnassus Delphi is located right next to the Gulf of Corinth so

they had some sea access They had a lot of land because of the government’s

power Delphi has a usual Mediterranean climate with hot,

dry summers and mild, wet winters

GOVERNMENT During 8th c. B.C. Delphi became internationally

known for Pythia the priestess who sat on a tripod and muttered incomprehensible words that foretold the future.

No decision was made with out first asking Pythia Delphi thought that before they prepared for

anything and before they did anything that they had to ask Pythia

The four main governments of the time were Dictatorship, Democracy(created by Athens), Monarchy and oligarchy

Ancient Delphi was governed by aristocrats who were members of a 12 member federation known as the Amphictyonia whose main task was to unify the small city-states, so Delphi was an oligarchy

The Amphictyonia had a lot of land and had great influence on a few things for other city states

FOOD SOURCES They were farmers and like most Greek

city-states their main crop was olives They also fished and traded with other city

states Like others they made a lot of money off of

shipping olive products and wheat overseas Their main meats were sheep, cow, chicken

and turkey They ate fish, meat, poultry, eggs, olives,

wheat and many other foods too because they had many natural resources and they could trade with other areas

RELIGION The people of Delphi believed that when Apollo

slayed the dragon that had been guarding the oracle that he built a shrine there where his sacred flame was never supposed to go out

The main god of Delphi was Apollo The sanctuary of Delphi was part of the

Amphictyonia alliance which protected the site from many invaders and it protected the site form the people who lived around it

The Oracle of Delphi was so important that the people who lived there thought that they had to be living at the center of the world

ARCHITECTURE The first temple was built in the 7th century

BCE and was a replacement for other temples which were smaller

Both temples the old one and the new ones were both in Doric style

The theatre there was so big it could hold 5,000 people

And the stadium was so big that it could hold 7,000 people

Delphi had over 20 treasuries for all of their gold

The main style for all of the major buildings in Delphi was Doric

The best structure in all of Delphi was the tholos in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, its columns stand at 13.5 meters tall

SOCIAL STRUCTURE The social structure was generally broken up

into 3 different classes in most cases, slaves, free people (who owned slaves), and upperclassmen (nobles, royals, dictators, rich people, etc.)

The 12 rulers of Delphi were the main people in charge and therefore they were at the top of the social pyramid

THE ARTS Delphi was known for their intricate

almost life like statues of people They made huge joyful paintings to

hang on their walls and in their temples They also had a huge market where all

kinds of art was sold Their art was Doric style

WRITING The ancient Greeks were the first European

civilization to use and alphabet for their writing

There were three major dialects in ancient Greece, Aeolic, Doric and Ionic

However mostly all Greeks spoke the same language and used the same style of writing

They recorded their writing on blocks of stone that were cut away from rocks

TECHNOLOGY An amazing feat for Delphi back then was the huge

13.5 meter columns at the tholos in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia

The people of Delphi were also able to carve out a huge theater in the side of Mount Parnassus

Another huge feat that Delphi had was that they were able to make 1.80 cm tall statues that had incredible detail and were almost life like

At first the people of ancient Delphi simply stuck their arrows in a toxic plant that was growing near their village but overtime they got more advanced and made metal weapons made from bronze and other metals

The people of Delphi also used terrace farming and a complex irrigation system to water their crops

LEGACY Delphi was known for all of its

oracles ,people who told the future.(However, the oracles were only like that because Delphi was built on top of a natural gas line, so basically they all inhaled to much ethylene gasses)

According to mythology, Zeus sent out two Eagles from the ends of the universe to find the center of the world and the found Delphi

For many centuries it was considered the best cultural and religious center and symbol of unity for the Hellenic world

THE END!!!

Thanks!!!