ANCIENT SITE OF DIDYMES

The impressive head of Medusa with its hair of snakes welcomes you. Originally, it decorated the frieze of the temple; its twin sister is in the basilica cistern in Istanbul. The sacred well is just below it. The pilgrims who wished to question the pythia, paid a sum varying according to the nature of the problem and sacrificed an animal to Apollo. Before the sacrifice, the priests sprinkled the animal with cold water from the well and, according to its reactions, decided whether the god wanted to answer the question asked. Then the pilgrim entered the sanctuary through a forest of 108 gigantic Ionic columns. Although only three of them have kept their original size, one can imagine the effect of this temple which was one of the three largest in the Hellenistic world - the other two being that of Artemis in Ephesus and that of Hera in Samos. Notice the rich decoration of the bases of the columns. After climbing a few steps, one descends to the pronaos, the vestibule of the sanctuary where the visitor formulated his question to the priest. The walls are preserved, but originally the vestibule was covered with an elaborate ceiling. The priest, after having crossed a room and a corridor, arrived at theadyton, interior court with a small room sheltering the statue of Apollo, and transmitted the message to the pythia. This one, after having tasted the water of the sacred source, chewed laurel leaves and entering in trance, was delirious in an often confused language.