We got off at the little village about half a kilometer from the sacred sight of Apollo's temple, and after we gorged ourselves at the small restaurant, we walked down to have a look at this wonderful place. There are still some beautiful, if battered works of art, but the the statues of the two brothers that dates back to 610 - 580 B.C. really intrigued me. The one who still have hands stands with clenched fists, and both of them look extremely innocent. They are the brothers Kleobis and Biton, the sons of the Priestess of Hera Kydippe. The story goes that the priestess wanted to visit the Heraion, and when her white oxen could not be found, her two sons yoked themselves to the ox cart and dragged her all the way to her destination. She was praised for her wonderful boys who so loved their mother, and because she was so proud, she asked the godess to reward her two boys. The poor boys died that night in their sleep, and as a token of the esteem for the boys, the Argives  commisioned the sculptor Polymedos to make a statue of each. I felt a lot of sympathy towards the two young men, as in my mind I could see the priestess giving instructions for the boys to be yoked in front of her cart, and then standing like a bally gladiator from Rome, cracking her whip over the heads of the suffering boys shouting "Yoo-Ha!" terrorising them and shouting at them to move their bally backsides! My opinion is that they were made to pull the cart and then died from exhaustion!
 Another interesting story is that of the beautiful young man named Antinous Claudiopolis, The only man who achieved immortality because of his beauty. This poor young man was loved by the Emperor Hadrian, and lived with Hadrian for a short time, then the gods revealed that Hadrian was dying, and his death could only be averted by someone who loved him so much as to sacrifice his life for him. Antinous loved the Emperor so much that he threw himself into the river Nile, and drowned. This selfless act was the result of his deification throughout the Roman Empire, and his cult was established at Delphi. All this happened between 76-138 A.D, long after the poor young men died after pulling their mum's cart! Sounds a bitty corny to me, but according to his statue, he was indeed beautiful After we had our fill of all this wonders, we went back to the village, where we found rooms for the night, and then we went for a nice meal, after which we became quite happy on umpteen glasses of ouzo!