Walking Backwards. Mark Frutkin

spending a night in a sleepy hotel in a nameless Greek village, we continue the now-painful drive the next morning. Michael and I are happy to arrive alive in Delphi. We thank Victor for the ride but tell him we’re going to continue our trip to Athens by bus. Victor roars off in a huff and, although we see him at the school over the next several months, he never speaks to us again.

      Glad to be rid of him, Michael and I explore the expansive ruins of Delphi. The location of Delphi, at latitude 38o28’, is one of the great sites of the world. As I peer out from the hillside to which the ancient ruins cling, on the slope of Mount Parnassus, I note that the view takes in two long wide valleys that meet in a T. This meeting point is where Delphi was built. If you look down the single leg of the T, the Gulf of Corinth is visible on a clear day, shining tens of kilometres away in the distance at the end of the valley.

      Delphi, dedicated to Apollo, god of prophecy and patron of philosophy and the arts, is where the Delphic Oracle made her ambiguous pronouncements and prophecies at the behest of visitors from throughout the ancient world. It is said that even Homer himself once visited. Delphi was considered the omphalos, or navel, of the world, the centre of the Earth, and the stone that represents the navel was said to be the first thing that emerged from the waters after the great flood of ancient times.