Delphic oracle

Delphic oracle, most famous ancient oracle, believed to deliver prophecies from the Greek god Apollo. She was based in his temple at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus above the Corinthian Gulf. The oracle, who at first was called Pytho (the original name of Delphi) and later Pythia, reached the height of her fame between about the 8th and 4th centuries bce, when Apollo’s advice or sanction was sought by lawmakers, colonists, and founders of cults. The Pythia’s counsel was most in demand to forecast the outcome of projected wars or political actions.

According to tradition, the oracle first belonged to Mother Earth (Gaea) but later was either given to or stolen by Apollo. The Delphic medium was a woman over 50 who lived apart from her husband and dressed in a maiden’s clothes. Upon her death, a new priestess would be chosen, though the selection process is uncertain. Because the Pythia was said to communicate directly with Apollo, she was incredibly influential, so much so that several wars were waged over the oracle, with control of Delphi shifting between rival city-states. However, her power eventually began to wane, especially after Rome captured Delphi in the early 2nd century bce. The Delphic oracle’s last prophecy was reportedly delivered about 393 ce, when the Roman emperor Theodosius I instituted various laws to end pagan activity.

Consultations were normally restricted to the seventh day of the Delphic month, Apollo’s birthday, and were at first banned during the three winter months when Apollo was believed to be visiting the Hyperboreans in the north, though Dionysus later took Apollo’s place at Delphi during that time. According to the usual procedure, sponsors were necessary, as was the provision of a pelanos (ritual cake) and a sacrificial beast that conformed to rigid physical standards. The Pythia and her consultants first bathed in the Castalian spring; afterward, the Pythia drank from the sacred spring Cassotis and then entered the temple. There she apparently descended into a basement cell, mounted a sacred tripod, and chewed leaves of the laurel, Apollo’s sacred tree. The Pythia often went into an ecstatic state and would channel Apollo. Some have claimed that her altered condition was the result of gases—such as ethylene and methane—that were emitted from geologic fault lines underneath the temple. Whatever the cause, the Pythia would speak, intelligibly or otherwise. Her words, however, were not directly recorded by the inquirer; instead, they were interpreted and written down by the priests in what was often highly ambiguous verse.

The Delphic oracle’s prophesies ranged from wars to planting schedules. Among the more consequential predictions involved Croesus, the king of Lydia in the 6th century bce. When he sought the oracle’s guidance about a possible war with Persia, she said that he would cause the fall of a great empire. He thus initiated a confrontation with the Persians, but it was Croesus and the Lydian empire that were defeated.