Watching a BBC documentary about the ancient Delphi (love of foreigners in ancient Greek history is amazing) which has been referred to the "serpent column," I had the opportunity to write about this monument and its importance for Greece.

After the battle of Plataea , which was the last battle in the second campaign of the Persians, the Greeks showed the superiority of their war against the Persians. The battle of Plataea with the battle of Mycale is not as well known as the Battle of Thermopylae, Marathon or Salamis, perhaps because they were both known acts of bravery or smart strategies, although no doubt there would be. This battle, however, marked the end of the war, the victory of the ancient Greeks against the "barbarians." The Persians, after this battle is not xanaepitethikan ever in central Greece and tried in other ways (diplomacy, espionage, bribery, etc.) affect it. The end of military operations led to the edge of Athens in the 5th century BC known to all our achievements in world history.

After the battle of the Persian arms had gathered the Greeks as booty after the sack of Delphi, they decided to build a monument, a golden tripod with 3 bronze snakes as brackets, 8 feet in height and can devote the Apollo Delphi. Herodotus describes:

Symforisantes no money and now the tenth developments Delfoisi God, from the tripod is th chryseos commissioned on trikarinou ofios chalkeou epesteos Anchises of the altar

(Herodotus knew that there was a cluster of three snakes and not one only)

The monument is mentioned many ancient writers such as Demosthenes, Plutarch and Pausanias.

What makes it unique is the fact that the base (on the snake) is written and the 31 city-states fought against the Persians. It is the first monument of what we know suggests that the "Greekness" of these ancient cities, the joint education, culture, religion, language and their common struggle against the "barbarians." Even more impressive is the fact that apart from big names like the Athenians, Spartans, etc., there are smaller cities like engraved Tinos, Kythnos, Lefkada and others. Even when Pausanias the Spartan quarterback tried to qualify and write the name of the column over the Spartans did not let their king to reap such a collective act.

The prominent position at Delphi impressed visitors and remained there until the entrance of Christianity in ancient Greece. Constantine the Great, emperor of Byzantium in 324 AD after almost 8 centuries brought to Constantinople, the hippodrome.

The Act also had a symbolic importance and wanted to show that the influence of ancient Greece had expired and the center of all decisions now taken from the Empire City. The transfer represents for us the gradual modern scholars (and mostly violent) weakening of the oracle of Delphi, the ancient Greek spirit generally. The transition from the Apollonian light showering the ancient Greek civilization in the new religious obscurantism.

Today only a portion of the base of the trunk. The Fourth Crusade, the Crusaders stole the golden light from the top and at the end of the 17th century and fell three heads (probably due to prolonged stay in the external environment) and one of them survives in the archaeological museum of Istanbul.

Abandoning a monument of great importance in ancient Greece (since "certifies" the unity of the Greek nation for the first time ever, a unity that was seen in the operation of city - state for the first time since the end of the Persian Wars) Turkey, which is fenced with a gate, buried in earth and partly ruined by the rain to eat the last traces of the names of cities are engraved on it, is not only unpleasant but is archeological crime. The rescue and transportation of the Greek region should have the same (if not greater) importance to the return of the Elgin marbles, given the disregard for the maintenance and gradual destruction of the relentless time.

Reconstruction of the gold tripod of Plataea (Eleni Anagnostou)

the three-headed snake in 1582

The position of the track

the three-headed snake today

One of the heads as preserved in the archaeological museum of Istanbul