Delphi

Delphi was the site of the temple and oracle of Apollo, the quadrennial Pythian Games, and a theater of Dionysus.

Date: c. fourteenth century b. c.e.-390 c. e.

Category: Historic sites; religion and mythology Locale: On the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Central Greece

Summary Greek tradition suggests that Delphi (DEHL-fi) was an ancient oracular site where a holy stone called the omphalos, or “navel,” located in the temple of Apollo, marked the center of the earth. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes how Apollo captured the oracle from the goddess Earth by defeating the monster Python. The shrine was also considered a place of purification where those inflicted with blood guilt, such as the mythical Orestes, who committed matricide, could seek physical and spiritual cleansing.

From about 1100 b. c.e., the shrine was administered by a Panhellenic association called the Amphictyonic League. Delphi’s greatest oracular influence occurred as the city-states of Archaic Greece devised law codes and established colonies. Such issues were both easy to affirm and conducive to the oracle’s good reputation. Two famous law codes, those of Ly-curgus in Sparta and of Solon in Athens, were both closely associated with Delphi. Even Croesus of Lydia is said to have consulted the oracle.

Representatives of cities (or, less frequently, private individuals) made inquiry of the Pythia while she sat on a tripod in Apollo’s temple, but only on the seventh day of each nonwinter month. Women were not permitted to consult the oracle directly. The typical response was probably not a riddle but a simple yes or no to a policy question previously deliberated by a city; moreover, replies were almost always affirmative. Those who accept as genuine some of the longer responses traditionally associated with the oracle speculate that the Pythia induced self-hypnosis or inhaled narcotic fumes emitted from a chasm in the earth, but that is unlikely.

The temple of Apollo, destroyed by fire in 548 b. c.e., was rebuilt under

Delphi.

(Library of Congress)

The direction of the great Athenian family of Alcmaeonids. The temenos, or sanctuary, was filled with about twenty treasuries erected by individual city-states as well as numerous commemorations of military victories and individual accomplishments. One noteworthy monument was the Portico of the Athenians, built to display plunder captured from the Persians in the Battle of Marathon (490 b. c.e.).

Pythian Games were held at Delphi in honor of Apollo from antiquity. After 582 b. c.e., the games occurred in the third year after the Olympic Games and were considered one of the four sets of Crown Games. Events included musical as well as athletic events. A stadium was located above the temenos on the slope of Parnassus. Apollo possessed the shrine only during the summer months. In winter, Delphi belonged to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, and a theater dedicated to the god was located just to the north of Apollo’s temple.

Significance Delphi was a major Panhellenic shrine for almost two thousand years. Despite plundering by the Persians, the Gauls, and the Romans, Delphi continued to serve as an oracular site until it was closed in 390 c. e. by the Christian emperor Theodosius the Great.

Further Reading

Broad, William J. The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Delphi. New York: Penguin Press, 2006.

Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985.

Golding, William. The Double Tongue. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.

Morgan, Catherine. Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century B. C. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Valavanis, Panos. Games and Sanctuaries in Ancient Greece: Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia, Nemea, Athens. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004.

Thomas J. Sienkewicz

See also: Croesus; Delphic Oracle; Homeric Hymns; Lycurgus of Sparta; Marathon, Battle of; Solon; Solon’s Code; Sports and Entertainment; Theater of Dionysus.