I promised the gods when I was on top of Mount Olympus that I would learn both ancient and modern Greek before I consulted the famous Oracle at Delphi for some tips about where to go next on my walking adventure around the Mediterranean Sea.

But all I could mutter during yesterday’s séance with the world’s most reputed seer, who’s been known as the Pythia or the Delphic Sibyl in the soothsaying biz during the last few millennia, was “Good Morning” and “Thanks for seeing me!” in Greek and six other languages.

And besides asking her to determine where I should take my next steps while collecting anecdotes and kilometers for the 2012 sequel to “The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean,” I also wondered whether I should, at 62, discontinue my zany quest and start playing bridge and/or golf.

Practicing my multilingual introductory spiel at Delphi's Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia.

That wasn’t the only embarrassing faux pas I committed on the first Sunday in September at the spot in Greece that Zeus and his gang considered the center of a flat earth.

I also came armed with questions posed by a few well-meaning friends who wanted a response from the Pythia/Sibyl about some personal and political issues. Would a female pal fall in love, or even make love, anytime soon? Should another female friend start waxing her legs? Would Greek resolve its debt problem? Would Sarah Palin (this one from my right-wing mother) win the presidency? Would Stanford get to the Rose Bowl? Would China ever get out of Tibet?

I wasn’t sure that the Pythia/Sibyl, who resembles Vanessa Redgrave in her early 60s but is far too intimidating to ask out for a chai, even had a clue about current affairs, romantic or otherwise. However I told these “Follow The Idiot” fans that I’d try to get them some answers before dealing with my personal logistical conundrum.

But it turns out, according to a priest I met who “translates” messages conveyed by the Oracle’s trance-induced utterances and paroxysms, that the Pythia/Sibyl doesn’t really make predictions about love, elections and football games. Instead she prefers to simply give advice, either coherently clear or atrociously ambiguous, from atop her rock near the Temple of Apollo (her inner sanctum in Apollo’s sanctuary was destroyed by an earthquake centuries ago) while warning every visitor that taking photos of her will produce very bad omens. In fact, there’s not a single representation of her, in stone or bronze or paint, in the nearby museum.

“The Rock of the Sibyl.”

The Sibyl wasn’t at all bothered by my lack of decent Greek and didn’t waste more than a minute considering my query, though for a sec I thought she might send me on a mission to MedTrek around Crete, where Zeus was born, rather than direct me on an adventurous walk around The Peloponnese, where the early books in “The Odyssey” take place and which is constantly alluded to in Homer’s “The Iliad.”

“The Idiot might prefer to proceed to the northernmost spot of the Mediterranean Sea on the Peleponnese Peninsula and calmly walk counterclockwise towards Athens until his appointment with the monks at Mount Athos in October,” she instructed me with slightly somber seriousness. “Don’t be surprised if you have some enjoyable interactions with Athena, Telemachos, Nestor, Helen, Heracles and other characters and gods from the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey.’

“Should you give up your MedTrek?” she continued. “That’s like asking whether I should quit being an oracle. Our midlife projects stimulate, intrigue and define us. We should both keep at them while we’re physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually able to. You’ll know when it’s time to stop.”

“And it might not be dumb to stay at the Tzaki Hotel in Rio tonight,” she concluded, referring to a small community north of Patras in the northwestern Peloponnese. “They’ve got wi-fi and glorious sunsets.”

Naturally I followed her instructions and, after getting a last shot of Oracelville before heading downhill from Delphi to Rio, I’m kicking off my MedTrek around The Peloponnese this morning @

http://maps.google.com/mapsf=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=38.28613,21.76117&ll=38.28613,21.76117&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

A look down on Oracleville from above Delfi.

Text and Photos: Joel Stratte-McClure

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."