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Tours: The Oracle of Delphi
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Discover the marvelous oracular site of Delphi and learn about its importance.
On their journey to the Temple of Apollo, pilgrims walked this sacred path up Mount Parnassos. The summer sun beat down hot on their backs.
Along the way, they took in the magnificent monuments, treasuries, and statues that adorned the road.
These landmarks were tokens of people's reverence of the Oracle's benevolence.
All were dedicated to Apollo, and most were offered by cities to commemorate military victories.
The monuments represented not only their donors' piety, but also their power and wealth.
The sanctity of Delphi has endured to the present day, and visitors still take this very same route.
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One of the largest contributors of information on Delphi is the French School at Athens, an institute that has been researching the site since 1860. Its work has led to a very deep understanding of Delphi and its evolution over time.
One of their main challenges early on was that the iconic site laid under meters of sediment – sediment located in the very much-inhabited village of Kastri.
Through the school's efforts, 1000 villagers were completely relocated. With the village emptied, a railway was built to help remove excavated materials, allowing researchers to rediscover the sacred site.
One of the most impressive dedications to Apollo came from the Knidians, a Greek population that colonized the island of Lipari, north of Sicily.
The story behind this dedication is notable.
The Knidians were at war with the Etruscans in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Seeking a good omen, the Knidians consulted the Oracle, and followed her advice, they successfully captured twenty enemy ships.
To thank Apollo, they offered the god the same number of statues as ships seized.
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Today, only fragments of this monument remain, so the best record we have of it comes from the ancient writer Pausanias.
According to him, the Knidians and Liparians also wanted the dedication to mark the triump of "Greek-ness" over what they called "barbarism".
Next to the Naxian Sphinx stood a simple structure to display offerings from the Athenians, most of which were spoils of war.
In particular, these offerings - called "ex-votos" - were prows of sunken Persian ships.
The Athenians built the portico after their navary victory over the Persians in 478 BCE.
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The Athenian Portico celebrated a victory over the Persians at the very end of the Greco-Persian Wars.
The portico was a sign of Athens' increasing power. The power it held over the rest of Greece left many other cities unhappy - including Sparta. Eventually, the rivalry between Sparta and Athens would escalate into a full-blown conflict known as the Peloponnesian War.
Once arriving before the temple, pilgrims wishing to consult the Oracle had to first pay a tax. This tax gave them the initial right to approach the altar of Apollo and make an animal sacrifice to the god. But before proceeding to the Pythiam the preliminary ritual had to succeed. If the animal reacted favorably and showed signs of acceptance to the god, it was sacrificed, and the pilgrim would be allowed to enter the temple to question the Pythia. Learn More: The altar of Apollo was a lrge marble table. Before the sacrifice began, a fire would be lit on the table. The sacrificial animal - usually an ox - was then stunned with a mallet. The animal's skin was given to the priest, while its flesh was divded into two parts: the bones and fat, which were offered to the god, and the meat, which was distributed amongst the people who brought the animal, then grilled and eaten.
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