The Oracle at Delphi

The ruins of the Oracle of Apollo lie at the foot of Mount Parnassos, approximately one hundred miles southwest of Athens, Greece. The Oracle is still a popular tourist spot and a town of hotels and terraced town houses has grown up around the site.

The origin of the Oracle is hidden in the tangled threads of Greek mythology and history. It is said that Zeus sent out two eagles in different directions. When they met at Delphi, he then knew that this was the center of the earth.

In the Sixth Century B.C., a magnificent temple was erected at Delphi to honor the Earth Goddess, Gaea. This mother goddess was always accompanied by the huge spiraling serpent, a python named Delphyne, and from the name of the snake came the name of the temple: Delphi.

While still an infant, the god Apollo killed the python and claimed Delphi as his own.

In this place I am minded to build a glorious temple to be an oracle for men and here they will always bring perfect hecatombs, both they who dwell in Peloponnesus and the men of Europe and from all the wave-washed isles, coming to question me. And I will deliver to them all counsel that cannot fail, answering them in my rich temple. - Homeric Hymns

In the early years, the priestess was chosen from the young and beautiful virgins of the surrounding area, but as the years progressed, it became common practice to select an older woman to assure continuing virginity. Again, from Gaea's snake, came the name for the priestess: Pythia. The Pythia sat on a tripod or three legged stool in a fissure in the rock. There it has been suggested that she breathed in hallucinogenic fumes that permitted her to see into the future. Another legend claims she chewed the leaves of the laurel tree to achieve her abilities. Whatever the case, the woman would froth at the mouth and the words she emitted were so garbled and unclear that special priests were appointed to decipher and pass on the prophecies.

As priestesses, women...fulfilled public duties in various official cults; for example, women officiated as priestesses in more than forty such cults in Athens by the fifth century B.C. Women holding these posts often enjoyed considerable prestige, practical benefits such as salary paid by the state, and greater freedom of movement in public. - Martin

According to the first Greek historian, Herodotus, the most famous prophecy ever to come from the mouth of the Pythia at the Oracle of Delphi was given to the Emperor Croesus of Lydia. He sent many fine gifts to Delphi - cattle

Go To Page: 1 2