The oracle of
Delphi
The Oracle of Delphi played an important role in antiquity, not only in real life but also in the heroic myths. Prophecies determined the fates of heroes and heroines. Our visitors will also arrive in Delphi at the end of their heroic journey, and will then receive their own personal oracle in the Temple of Apollo.
Image: Arthur – stock.adobe.com
Delphi – the navel of the world
As legend would have it, Zeus, the father of the gods, once launched two eagles from both ends of the earth, one flying east and one flying west, in order to determine the midpoint of the world. The eagles met in Delphi, thus identifying the oracle site as the centre of the world. The point where the mythical eagles met was marked by a sacred stone, the so-called omphalos (“navel”). It stood in the Temple of Apollo and marked Delphi as the spiritual and geographical centre of the world.
This omphalos is based on the original sacred stone, which was located in the inner sanctum of the Temple of Apollo and was covered with a woollen net fabric. Here the woollen fabric is recreated as a relief.
Omphalos from Delphi, marble, 4th century BC (?), Delphi, Archaeological Museum
Image: Chabe01/ Wikimedia Commons : Omphalos, Delphes Omphalos, Delphi
From the earth to the light – the mythical founding of the Oracle of Delphi
Delphi is located in the region of Phocis (modern-day Fokida) in central Greece, on a steep slope at the foot of Mount Parnassus above the Gulf of Corinth. The earth is very seismically active here and many springs issue from its depths. Earthquakes and landslides are not uncommon.
It is as if the power of the earth and the power of the light are both manifested in Delphi. This potent place has made a deep impression on people ever since ancient times. It was once chosen as the location for worshipping the ancestral mother of all life – the powerful earth goddess Gaia. She is said to have been the first to have presided over the Delphic oracle.
Image: Holger Uwe Schmitt/ Wikimedia Commons: Delphi
Later, Apollo, the radiant god of light, took over Mother Earth’s sanctuary. According to one version of the myth, Apollo killed the dragon Python (Gaia’s son, who had been the guardian of his mother’s oracle) and installed himself as master of Delphi.
Archaeological evidence of people worshipping an earth goddess at Delphi (in the form of female idols) dates back to the 13th century BC.
Mycenaean idols from Delphi, clay, painted, 13th century BC, Delphi, Archaeological Museum
Image: Zde/Wikimedia Commons: Idole, Delphi
Finds of male statuettes, thought to depict Apollo, serve as evidence that Delphi became a shrine to him from around 800 BC onwards.
Statuette of Apollo from Delphi, bronze, around 620 BC, Delphi, Archaeological Museum
Image: Zde/Wikimedia Commons: Apollo, Delphi
Apollo
God of light and prophecy
Apollo was an eternally youthful god with many facets. He was the god of healing, music and the arts. His epithet Phoebus (meaning “shining one”) identifies him as the god of pure, divine light. As the god of prophecy, he was master of the Oracle of Delphi. He addressed personal problems as well as religious and political questions, and provided advice in all kinds of situations. His answers, however, were always ambiguous. As Apollo Loxias, “the ambiguous one”, he never explained, only suggested and indicated. The questioners had to interpret the oracle for themselves.
As the god of music as well, Apollo is a gifted kithara player. Here he is shown with this ancient stringed instrument in his left hand and a sacrificial bowl in his right. His long curly hair is crowned with a wreath of laurel, his sacred plant.
Anointing oil flask (lekythos) from Athens, clay, around 480 BC, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, Inv. Lu 41
When Croesus, king of Lydia, asked the oracle whether or not he should go to war against the Persians,
the answer was:
“If you cross the Halys, you will destroy a great empire.”
Croesus was pleased, assuming that the great empire he was going to destroy was Persia. He crossed the River Halys, which formed the border between Lydia and Persia, and suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Persians. He had misinterpreted the oracle: it was his own empire that he destroyed by crossing the Halys.
The Pythia
Apollo’s mouthpiece
“The woman of Delphi sits on the sacred tripod,
and sings out to the Hellenes
whatever Apollo cries to her.”
Euripides, Ion 91–93, translated by Robert Potter
The Pythia sits on a tripod in the Temple of Apollo. In one hand she holds a bowl, in the other a laurel branch. In front of her, a bearded man waits to receive his oracle.
The name inscriptions place the scene in the realm of myth: the Titan Themis (who according to one version of the myth was her mother Gaia’s successor and Apollo’s predecessor) pronounces an oracle for Aegeus, the legendary king of Athens, who has come to consult the Pythia about his desire for a male heir.
Drinking bowl (kylix) from Athens, clay, around 440 BC, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Antikensammlung, Inv. F 2538
Image: Zde/Wikimedia Commons: Pythia, Berlin
The Pythia sat on a tripod vessel with a lid when she pronounced her oracles. This was how the tripod became the symbol of Apollo’s art of prophecy.
Tripod from Corinth (?), bronze, around 750 BC, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, Inv. BS 554
The Pythia was Apollo’s prophetess – he spoke to people through her. Her name is derived from “Pytho”, the old name for Delphi. The Pythia was selected from among the women of Delphi and remained in her role as “the voice in the centre of the world” for the rest of her life. Only a few Pythias appear in the historical record.
How the oracle operated
We do not know exactly how the Oracle of Delphi operated. Many ancient written sources mention the oracle, but there is no coherent account of the ritual involved. Was the process such common knowledge among the people in antiquity that the ancient authors did not feel the need to describe it? Or were they reluctant to write about divine secrets? We cannot know. But we do have a vague idea of what the Delphic oracle ritual might have entailed.
Before pronouncing an oracle, the Pythia would take a ritual bath in the sacred Castalian Spring, while priests sacrificed a goat in order to ascertain whether Apollo was ready to communicate. If the signs were favourable, the Pythia would enter the temple. In the inner sanctum, the adyton, she would sit on a tripod vessel, drink inspiring water and chew on laurel leaves. Then she would fall into a prophetic trance (in Greek mania) and Apollo would come to her. The god spoke through her, and the priests wrote down the prophecy she uttered.
People wishing to consult the oracle also had to have a ritual wash in the spring first. After that, they would join the queue outside the temple, perform some sacrificial rituals, pay an oracle fee and wait for their turn to enter the adyton and ask the Pythia their question.
How exactly the Pythia entered her trance is Delphi’s most pondered mystery. Written sources tell of mysterious emissions from the earth – a sweet-smelling pneuma that was thought to have prophetic power. Were there really vapours that emanated from the earth beneath the temple? Or was there something like a supernatural “oracle breath”? Did the Pythia take mind-altering drugs or use spiritual practices to put herself into a trance?
Neither the ancient sources nor modern archaeological or geographical research can give us a definitive answer.
