The earliest account of the foundation of the oracular site can be found in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. According to this myth, the god was looking for a place where he could establish his main sanctuary and was directed to Delphi, which was already sacred to Gaia. This significance to the earth goddess was because according to another myth Zeus had sent two eagles flying in opposite directions to find the navel of the Earth (omphalos); as chance would have it, that place was Delphi.

Apollo slayed the giant serpent Python, who was guarding the local spring, and established his own oracular cult as well as games to commemorate his victory. The names of both the high priestess of the sanctuary (the Pythia) and of the games (Pythian Games) were linked to the name of Gaia’s serpent. Apollo then turned into a dolphin and commandeered a ship of Cretan sailors, bringing them to Delphi to become the first priests of his new cult.

For further discussion of Apollo and Delphi, see chapter 12.

A Panhellenic Sanctuary

Delphi was the seat of the main oracle of Apollo. The fame and prestige of the sanctuary surpassed all other oracular sites in the Greek world, and emissaries and private citizens from all around the Mediterranean and beyond went to consult the oracle for all sorts of matters of war and peace. As a sacred site, Delphi was a “panhellenic sanctuary.” Panhellenic sanctuaries (such as Delphi, Eleusis, and Olympia) were considered inviolable during war and politically neutral (although they did not always abide by this tradition). City-states and kingdoms alike would send delegations before starting or joining wars, founding new cities, and establishing new cults, but also to ask for counsel in times of famine and plagues. Pilgrims were supposed to pay for the initial consultation; many also dedicated votive offerings to thank the god if their wishes were granted, or after exceptionally positive events such as military or athletic victories.

The Pythia

The person who mediated between Apollo and his worshippers was a priestess called the Pythia. Until the 3rd century BCE she was a young unmarried woman, but after a military officer kidnapped the sitting Pythia, it was decided that from that moment on the office would go to a woman older than fifty years old chosen among the local clergy of Apollo. The god residing in the sanctuary and giving answers was thought to be Apollo for the first nine months of the year; during the last three, he would leave Delphi to retire among the Hyperboreans, and Dionysus was left in charge of the place.

The Pythia would purify herself on the seventh day of the month, which was sacred to Apollo. If the results of a sacrifice were favourable, she would then take her seat on the sacred tripod next to the stone symbolizing the omphalos, and receive the pilgrims. She listened to their questions from the adyton, the most sacred part of the temple in which she communicated with the god. The responses were notoriously cryptic and ambiguous, and the Pythia would deliver them in a state of trance induced by the presence of Apollo. It has long been suggested (although never definitely proven) that the altered mental and physical state of the priestess was due to the use of psychotropic substances, such as the smoke from oleander leaves being burned on a brazier located in an underground chamber, or to fumes containing ethylene or other natural hallucinogenic gases coming out from the chasm over which the adyton was built.

The Pythian Games were one of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece alongside the Olympic, Nemean, and Isthmian Games. From the second half of the 6th century BCE they were held in honour of Apollo at Delphi every four years, in the summer of the second year after the Olympic Games.

The first day of the festival was dedicated to religious ceremonies to ensure the favour of the god; the other four days featured competitions of art, dance, athletics, and horse racing. All male Greek citizens could participate, and women were allowed to compete in certain events. The prize for the winning athletes was a laurel wreath made of branches from the sacred trees from the sanctuary of Apollo in Tempe, Thessaly.

The site of Delphi had been inhabited at least since the late 14th century BCE. The first traces of a sacred place dedicated to Gaia date from the 8th century BCE, while the cult of Apollo seems to have taken over during the following century, when the sanctuary was formally established.

Delphi was managed until the 2nd century CE by a sacred council of representatives of several city-states called the Delphic Amphictyonic League. However, although founded as a neutral institution, the leadership of the league was taken over by different city-states on several occasions, resulting in power struggles and three wars for the control of the sanctuary – which was often damaged or sacked as a consequence.

The site was damaged, rebuilt, and expanded several times during its long history, which spanned from the 7th century BCE to the 4th century CE when the Roman emperor Theodosius outlawed all pagan cults and decreed all temples be closed. Most of the remains still visible to this day date from the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods.

The site extends beyond the limits of the sanctuary itself, although this was the center of the cult. The first precinct pilgrims would meet was that of Athena Pronaia (Athena ‘in front of the temple’), just to the southeast of the entrance. Moving forwards towards the sanctuary, the next stop would be the Castalia Spring, where pilgrims had to ritually purify themselves with the sacred waters before accessing the precinct of Apollo.

The main entrance to the sanctuary was on the southeastern corner. From there, the sacred way wound uphill; along its sides were dedications from cities and private citizens alike. These could take all sorts of shapes: sculptures in stone and metal, columns, altars, inscriptions, and buildings. Several poleis used a tenth of the spoils won in important battles to build small structures shaped like prostyle temples, the so-called treasuries, in which they would also store other votive offerings. A point of particular interest along the sacred way was the Siybil rock, the boulder from which the first priestess of Apollo allegedly sat to deliver responses when the cult was first instituted.

The center of the sanctuary was the temple of Apollo, which signalled the end of the sacred way. In front of it was a large altar made almost entirely of black marble donated by the citizens of Chios. Above the temple were more treasuries and buildings, and in the northwestern corner of the sacred precinct was the theatre, first built in stone in the 4th century BCE.

Even higher on the hill but outside of the sanctuary walls was a large stadium built in the 4th century BCE to host some of the athletic competitions of the Pythian Games. An earlier stadium may have been located downhill from the sanctuary, in the plain of Krisa, alongside a hippodrome.