Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi
About
Seat of the Pythia, the trance-speaking priestess whose cryptic verses steered Greek colonization, war, and politics for over a thousand years. The temple standing in 117 CE dated to about 330 BCE, the third rebuild after fire and earthquake destroyed its predecessors. The priest Plutarch served on staff here around this time, later writing candidly about the oracle's fading but still-real power. Pilgrims still climbed Parnassus to question Apollo the year Hadrian took the throne.
What happened here
You come with a question, and the form of the question matters as much as the answer. There is a fee, a preliminary sacrifice, and a wait — sometimes days, sometimes only on certain days of the year. The consultation itself is controlled: the enquirer rarely meets the speaker directly, and the response arrives through an intermediary, in verse or in writing, and often ambiguously enough to survive being wrong. Cities consult about colonies, wars and plagues; individuals about marriage, illness, travel and lost property. The sanctuary grows rich on the gifts of those whose answers came out well. Sceptics are common and say so openly. By this century several famous oracles are quieter than they were, and people notice.
In ancient writing
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.24
The maxims cut in the forecourt, the stone called the navel of the earth, and the inner room where the prophetess gave her answers.
- SIG³ 801d, letter of Claudius c. 52 CE
Marble fragments found by the temple preserve a rescript of the emperor Claudius naming 'Lucius Junius Gallio, proconsul of Achaia' — the same Gallio before whom the apostle Paul was brought at Corinth.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →