Cleanse yourself befor entering the sanctuary.
In Greece, the Phaedriades ("the shining ones") were the pair of cliffs, ca 700 m high on the lower southern slope of Mt. Parnassos, which enclose the sacred site of Delphi, the center of the Hellenic world.
Strabo, Plutarch and Pausanias all mentioned the Phaedriades in describing the site, a narrow valley of the Pleistus (today Xeropotamos) formed by Parnasse and Mt. Cirphis. Between them rises the Castalian Spring. Even today, at noontime, the rock faces reflect a dazzling glare.
The Castalian Spring in the ravine between the Phaedriades at Delphi is where all comers to Delphi, the contestants in the Pythian Games and especially suppliants who came to consult the Oracle, stopped to wash their hair.
Two fountains fed by the sacred spring survive. The archaic (early 6th century BCE) fountain house has a marble-lined basin surrounded by benches. There is also a Hellenistic or Roman fountain with niches hollowed in the rock to receive votive gifts. The Castalian Spring predates all of classical Delphi: the archaic guardian of the spring was the serpent or dragon Python, killed by Apollo in its lair beside the spring.
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