The History of the Oracle at Delphi

Delphi and her cults that resided there spark a fascination which is not matched at any other Hellenistic site. The towering precipices, the dark deep crevice ravines, the enigmatic caves, and the bubbling springs of water combined, bestows a romantic allure and a feeling of awe of which no portrayal can satisfactorily describe.

The temple at Delphi was the home of the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo who interpreted visions for visitors. However, in the beginning it was the home of the worship of Gaia and her children before she appointed Themis to be the guardian. After this, Apollo came to Delphi and slew the Python, a gigantic serpent appointed by Gaia to guard the site. According to one ancient author, “[Apollon] made his way to Delphoi, where Themis gave the oracles at that time. When the serpent Python, which guarded the oracle, moved to prevent Apollon from approaching the oracular opening, he slew it and thus took command of the oracle”. Another version claims that Apollo slew the serpent in order to avenge his mother, the Titan Leto, who had been pursued by Python during her pregnancy.

Slaying Python gained Apollo the possession of the temple. The gigantic serpent rotted away (there are sources which claim that Python was created out of the slime left behind after the Great Deluge) and Apollo named the oracle and the festival of the god the Pythia and Pythian in its honour.

Apollo then brought his twin sister, Artemis, and his mother to the site and later Athena, who were all placed with the Chthonians, and were all worshipped here to various degrees. Apollo was the deity that took the foremost position in the religious concepts at Delphi.

The slaying of the Python has been suggested that it may reflect the Greek conquest of the region after 2000 BCE. The establishment of the Pythia and her priests may have simply taken over a pre-existing religious institution.

The Pythia was the oracle who could tell the future. Anyone wanting to know their destiny made their way to the sacred temple and made offerings of a sacred cake and a goat or sheep before consulting the Pythia.

The Pythia would sit on a tripod, a bowl on three legs and burn bay-leaves and barley-meal (instead of fragment incense as what is commonly believed). After this she descended into a vault, drank of the holy spring, chewed some bay-leaves, and mounted on to the tripod, holding in her hand a branch of bay leaves. She then fell into a deep trance-like state in which she received answers from Apollo. According to Aristophanes, “the voice of the Pythia, concentrated by the curved vault of the oracular cell, would rise into the adytum through an opening in its floor, and there would be heard by the priests”.

As she spoke, her words were written down by a group of priests who then interpreted them and the relayed the answer to the supplicant. If the messages that the Pythia received were negative, then she would refuse to speak.

Sometimes the answers the Pythia gave were ambiguous. For example, when Croesus, the emperor of Lydia consulted the oracle in regards to campaigning against Persia, was told that he would defeat a great empire. Croesus went to war and, unfortunately, destroyed his own kingdom. More often than not, the answers the Pythia gave were extremely obscure and open to any meaning.

The importance of the site can hardly be exaggerated. From as early as the third millennium BCE, Delphi was considered a sacred site and drew visitors, many of them rulers, from all over the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The Pythia was mostly depicted in art as beautiful young women. In later times, due to the seduction of the Pythias, no woman was appointed to this position until she had reached 50 years old. In the early years of the temple there was only one oracle but during the Classical period, the height of its importance, there were three Pythias. One scholar states that “she was probably chosen for her susceptibility to possession, and even if the fumes that surrounded her were non-hallucinogenic, they might well have served to trigger an ecstatic state, in combination with her chewing of equally "harmless" laurel and bay leaves”.

However, her importance, both as an oracle and as a social focus, began to wane in the third century BCE, due to the Greek civilization expansion and outside influence. During the time when Xerxes was invading Greece “the Pythia committed the fatal blunder of advising the Greeks to submit to Persia - a mistake which cost the oracle very dear”. There are two instances that Herodotus claims that the Pythia was bribed.

In later decades, Emperor Theodosius closed all of the oracles in the name of Christianity. Indeed, according to Lucan and several other Roman writers, the oracle stopped continuous functions from approximately 50 BCE on, as she had long since lost the status it had held from the 6^th through the 4^th centuries BCE.

Bibliography:

Fairbanks, Arthur (1906) Herodotus and the Oracle at Delphi, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, the Society for the promotion of Hellenic Studies.

Littleton, C. Scott (1986) The Pneuma Enthusiastikon: On the Possibility of Hallucinogenic “Vapors” at Delphi and Dodona, Ethos, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological association.

Maurizio, L. (1995) Anthropology and spirit Possession: A Reconsideration of the Pythia’s Role at Delphi, the Journal of Hellenic Studies, the Society for the promotion of Hellenic Studies.

Middleton, J. Henry (1888) The Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the Journal of Hellenic Studies, the Society for the promotion of Hellenic Studies.