#delphi – @nickkahler on Tumblr

I'll vent the spirit of Delphi within me, unveil the heavens, unlock the decrees of the mind sublime. I'll utter great mysteries, never explored by our fathers' intelligence, mysteries long concealed in the dark. My will is to traverse the stars on high, to abandon this clogging abode on earth, to ride the clouds and to stand on the shoulders of mighty Atlas, gaze down from afar on men who are helplessly straying at random, empty of reason, trembling and troubled by fear of their ending, and so may embolden their hearts by unrolling the scroll of fate!

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 8 CE

nickkahler

Muses, what was its fashion, shown By the skill in all arts Of the hands of Hephaestus and Athena? Of bronze the walls, and of bronze Stood the pillars beneath, But of gold were six Enchantresses Who sang above the eagle. But the sons of Cronus Opened the earth with a thunderbolt And hid the holiest of all things made. They were angry at the sweet voice, Because strangers perished Away from their children And wives, when they hung Their lives on the honey-hearted words

Pindar, "On the Temple of Apollo at Delphi," Greece, c. 460 BCE