Delphi

Delphi was an important ancient Greek religious sanctuary sacred to the god Apollo. Located on Mt. Parnassus near the Gulf of Corinth, the sanctuary was home to the famous oracle of Apollo, which gave cryptic predictions and guidance to both city-states and individuals. In addition, Delphi was also home to the PanHellenic Pythian Games.

Mythology & Origins

The site was first settled in Mycenaean times in the late Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC) but took on its religious significance from around 800 BC. The original name of the sanctuary was Pytho after the snake, which Apollo was believed to have killed there. Votive offerings at the site from this period include small clay statues (the earliest), bronze figurines, and richly decorated bronze tripods.

Delphi was also considered the centre of the world, for in Greek mythology Zeus released two eagles, one to the east and another to the west, and Delphi was the point at which they met after encircling the world. This fact was represented by the omphalos (or navel); a dome-shaped stone, which stood outside Apollo’s temple and which also, marked the spot where Apollo killed the Python.

Apollo’s Oracle

The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was famed throughout the Greek world and even beyond. The oracle – the Pythia or priestess – would answer questions put to her by visitors wishing to be guided in their future actions. The whole process was a lengthy one, usually taking up a whole day and only carried out on specific days of the year. First the priestess would perform various actions of purification such as washing in the nearby Castalian Spring, burning laurel leaves, and drinking holy water. Next an animal – usually a goat – was sacrificed. The party seeking advice would then offer a pelanos – a sort of pie – before being allowed into the inner temple where the priestess resided and gave her pronouncements, possibly in a drug or natural gas-induced state of ecstasy.

Perhaps the most famous consultant of the Delphic oracle was Croesus, the fabulously rich King of Lydia who, faced with a war against the Persians, asked the oracle’s advice. The oracle stated that if Croesus went to war then a great empire would surely fall. Reassured by this, the Lydian king took on the mighty Cyrus. However, the Lydians were routed at Sardis and it was the Lydian empire which fell, a lesson that the oracle could easily be misinterpreted by the unwise or over-confident.

PanHellenic Games

Delphi, as with the other major religious sites of Olympia, Nemea, and Isthmia, held games to honour various gods of the Greek religion. The Pythian Games of Delphi began sometime between 591 and 585 BC and were initially held every eight years; with the only event being a musical competition where solo singers accompanied themselves on a kithara to sing a hymn to Apollo. Later, more musical contests and athletic events were added to the programme, and the games were held every four years with only the Games being more important. The principal prize for victors in the Games was a crown of laurel or bay leaves.

The site and games were managed by the independent Delphic amphictiony – a council with representatives from various nearby city-states – which levied taxes, collected offerings, invested in construction programmes, and even organised military campaigns in the Four Sacred Wars, fought to redress sacrilegious acts against Apollo perpetrated by the states of Crisa, Phocis, and Amphissa.

Architecture

The first temple in the area was built in the 7th century BC and was itself a replacement for less substantial buildings of worship, which had stood before it. The focal point of the sanctuary, the Doric temple of Apollo, was destroyed by fire in 548 BC. A second temple, again Doric in style, was completed in c. 510 BC with the help of the exiled Athenian family, the Alcmeonids. Measuring some 60 by 24 metres, the facade had six columns whilst the sides had 15. This temple was destroyed by an earthquake in 373 BC and was replaced by a similarly proportioned temple in 330 BC. This was constructed with porous stone coated in stucco. Marble sculpture was also added as decoration along with Persian shields taken at the Battle of Marathon. This is the temple which survives, albeit only partially, today.

Other notable constructions at the site were the theatre (with capacity for 5,000 spectators), temples to Athena (4th century BC), a tholos with 13 Doric columns (c. 580 BC), stoas, stadium (with capacity for 7,000 spectators), and around 20 treasuries, which were constructed to house the votive offerings and dedications from city-states all over Greece. Similarly, monuments were also erected to commemorate military victories and other important events. For example, the Spartan general Lysander erected a monument to celebrate his victory over Athens at Aegospotami. Other notable monuments were the great bronze Bull of Corcyra (580 BC), the ten statues of the kings of Argos (c. 369 BC), a gold four-horse chariot offered by Rhodes, and a huge bronze statue of the Trojan Horse offered by the Argives (c.413 BC). Lining the sacred way, which wound from the sanctuary gate up to the temple of Apollo, the visitor must have been greatly impressed by the artistic and literal wealth on display. Alas, in most cases, only the monumental pedestals survive of these great statues, silent witnesses to a lost grandeur.

Demise

In 480 BC the Persians attacked the sanctuary and in 279 BC the sanctuary was again attacked, this time by the Gauls. It was during the 3rd century BC that the site came under the control of the Aitolian League. In 191 BC Delphi passed into Roman hands; however, the sanctuary and the games continued to be culturally important in Roman times, in particular under the Emperor Hadrian. The decree by the Emperor Theodosius in 393 AD to close all pagan sanctuaries resulted in Delphi’s gradual decline. A Christian community dwelt at the site for several centuries until its final abandonment in the 7th century AD.
The site was ‘re-discovered’ with the first modern excavations being carried out in 1880 by a team of French archaeologists. Notable finds were splendid metope sculptures from the treasury of the Athenians (c. 490 BC) and the Siphnians (c. 525 BC) depicting scenes from Greek mythology. In addition, a bronze charioteer in the severe style (480-460 BC), the marble Sphinx of the Naxians (c. 560 BC), the twin marble archaic statues – the kouroi of Argos (c. 580 BC) and the richly decorated omphalos stone (c. 330 BC) – all survive as testimony to the cultural and artistic wealth that Delphi had once enjoyed.

The Pythia – Priestess of Ancient Delphi

The imposing archaeological site of Delphi sits over 1800 feet up on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus, about 6 miles inland from the Corinthian Gulf, central Greece. The ancient temple complex of Delphi, which dates back at least 2700 years, was known throughout ancient Greece and beyond as the home of the celebrated oracle of Apollo, the Greek god of prophecy, music, healing, and light.
One aspect of the ancient Oracle at Delphi, which has fascinated scholars, scientists and laymen alike, is the nature and cause of the trance state attained by the sanctuary’s priestess (or Pythia). Could it have been caused by the laurel leaves, which the priestess is supposed to have chewed? The waters of the nearby Castalian Spring? Or the vapours rising up from an underground cavern?
It is widely known that laurel leaves are not hallucinogenic, and until recently it was thought that the Pythia’s supposed frenzied state could not have been induced by toxic gases rising from cracks in the ground because excavations had found no traces of such fissures.

However, in 2001 an interdisciplinary research team of scientists, led by geologist Jelle Z. de Boer of Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, discovered evidence of the presence of ethylene, a potential hallucinogen, in the ancient temple’s local geology and nearby springs. Thus the team have argued that ethylene intoxication was probably the cause of the Pythia’s divinatory trances. Whilst this new research presents fascinating possibilities for the origin of the Pythia’s trance state it also leaves a few questions unanswered.

The first is that if the enquirer and the priestess were face to face at ancient Delphi, as some researchers have suggested, then why was it only the priestess who was affected by these toxic gases? Another point is that the quest to find what exactly put the priestess of Apollo at Delphi into a trance ignores the fact that her altered state may well have been self-induced, perhaps to give the impression of objectivity when answering enquiries.
Another idea associated with the Pythia’s supposed toxic high is the misconception that the Pythia rambled incoherent gibberish when in her trance, which had to be interpreted and reshaped into prophecies by the priests. In his book The Delphic Oracle, Its Responses and Operations, with a Catalogue of Responses (1981) American classical scholar Joseph Fontenrose (1903-1986) challenged this notion.

Examining ancient sources and separating literary artifice from the Pythia’s genuine responses to enquiries, Fontenrose found that these answers were made in clear and precise prose, and the priestess herself was represented in these texts as speaking lucidly and in her own voice. Indeed, Apollo-induced possession was the literary norm in Classical Greece.

The most relevant example being Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba of Troy, who, like the Pythia, is described as being ‘possessed’ by Apollo, while she uttered her oracles in a kind of frenzy. The only difference was that Cassandra’s prophecies were destined never to be believed. Perhaps then, the only influence on the Pythia’s state was the affect of the pneuma (the ‘soul’ or ‘vital spirit’, often associated in antiquity with a vapour), not as a toxic gas, but as the divine wisdom or breath of Apollo.

Oracular statements from Delphi

In 403 BC, Lysander, the Spartan victor of the Peloponnesian War was warned to beware:
Also the dragon (serpent), earthborn, in craftiness coming behind thee.
He was slain from behind in 395 BC by Neachorus, who had a serpent painted upon his shield.

In 336 BC, Alexander the Great visited the Delphic Oracle wishing to hear a prophecy that he would soon conquer the entire ancient world. To his surprise the oracle refused a direct comment and asked him to come later. Furious, Alexander dragged Pythia by the hair out of the chamber until she screamed “You are invincible, my son!”
The moment he heard these words he dropped her, saying, “Now I have my answer”.

Visit the Archaeological Museum of Delphi
Delphi Archaeological museum is one of the principal museums of Greece and one of the most visited. It is operated by the Greek Ministry of Culture (Ephorate of Antiquities of Phocis). Founded in 1903, it has been rearranged several times and houses the discoveries made at the PanHellenic sanctuary of Delphi, which date from the Late Helladic (Mycenaean) period to the early Byzantine era.
Organised in fourteen rooms on two levels, the museum mainly displays statues, including the famous Charioteer of Delphi, architectural elements, like the frieze of the Siphnian Treasury and ex votos dedicated to the sanctuary of Pythian Apollo, like the Sphinx of Naxos.
Visitors are also catered to by an entrance hall, a cafeteria and a gift shop.

Images:

Athena Pronaia Sanctuary at Delphi
Treasury of The Athenians at Delphi
Sphinx of Naxos

Source: www.ancient.eu and en.wikipedia.org