GREECE CENTRAL GREECE FOKIS DELPHI SPRING

At the foot of the twin Phaedriades ("Shining Rocks"), where the modern road from Delphi to Arachova takes a sharp turn, lies the Castalian Fountain. It is not only a nice, shady place to sit and listen to the soft murmur of the waters. It is also the oldest place of cult in Delphi. Somewhere in the cleft between the Phaedriades must have been the cave of Python, and here, at the spring coming out of the rocks, the goddess of Earth, Gaia, was worshipped. After Apollo slayed the serpent Python, the god himself purified in the water of this spring. Later all pilgrims coming to Delphi first had to purify themselves in the Castalian Fountain, named after a nymph attending Apollo.