Description
This photograph depicts the eastern columns on the front-side of the temple dedicated to the god of the sun, medicine, music, and prophesy, Apollo. It was in this famous shrine that the god's oracle - or, Pythia - would deliver Apollo's messages to those seeking his council, and it was above these columns where two of the most famous Greek maxims were inscribed: "know thyself" and "all things in measure." Located on Mount Parnassos, these ruins are part of the third great temple to occupy this site, and it lasted from 330 BCE to 390 CE, when it was destroyed by the orders of the new Christian emperor, Theodosius I. The Temple of Apollo was one of the few "panhellenic" shrines in the ancient world, and as such, belonged to all Greek peoples.