Delphic Oracle

Definition: The great Panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi was home to the Delphic Oracle. It was also the site of the Pythian Games. The first stone temple there was built in the Archaic Age of Greece, and burned in 548 B.C. It was replaced (c. 510) by members of the Alcmaeonid family. Later it was again destroyed and rebuilt in the 4th century B.C. The remains of this Delphic sanctuary are what we see today.

Delphi is best known as the home of the Delphic Oracle or the Pythia, a priestess of Apollo. The traditional picture is of the Pythia, in an altered state, muttering words inspired by the god, which male priests transcribed. The Pythia sat on a great bronze tripod in a spot above a crevice in rocks from which vapors rose. Before sitting, she burned laurel leaves and barley meal on the altar. She also wore a laurel wreath and carried a sprig.

The oracle closed down for 3 months a year at which time Apollo wintered in the land of the Hyperboreans. The Delphic Oracle was not in constant communion with the god, but produced prophecies only on the 7th day after the new moon, for 9 months of the year.

Sources on the Delphic Oracle and the Pythia:
Portrait of a Priestess

Neil Asher Silberman, John K. Papadopoulos, Ian Morris, H. A. Shapiro, Mark D. Stansbury-O'Donnell, Frank Holt, Timothy E. Gregory "Greece" The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Brian M. Fagan, ed., Oxford University Press 1996.

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