DELPHI, ORACLE OF

The Oracle of Delphi, or the oracle of Apollo situated at Delphi, north of the gulf of Corinth, and a site that was regarded as the navel or center of the earth, was the oldest and most influential of Greek sanctuaries.

Its role as a kind of international court of reference in political as well as religious affairs, public and private, was important especially in the period from the 8th to the early 5th century b.c. It gave sound advice that was usually couched, however, in obscure or ambiguous language. Well informed as an international center on conditions in the Mediterranean world, it could indicate good sites for Greek colonies and could help to settle disputes between Greek states. In the religious sphere, it promoted the hero-cult, the healing cult of Asclepius, and the worship of Dionysus—but in a tempered form. On the moral side it gave the Greeks the basic precepts "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much."

Politically, it never regained the prestige it lost when it advised against resistance to Persia, but it continued to be consulted on religious and moral questions during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The oracle announced its own decline to the Emperor Julian, and it was suppressed by Theodosius the Great in a.d. 390. The inquirers, after a purification and sacrifice, approached the oracle in an order normally determined by lot. A male prophet or priest then presented the question of the inquirer to the Pythia, or medium, at first a young woman, but later an elderly one, seated on a tripod and in a state of trance. He interpreted the utterance of the Pythia and delivered the answer, ordinarily in hexameter verse, to the inquirer. There are various theories on how the trance was induced; but, apart from the Pythia's unquestioned belief in the power of Apollo and strong emotional suggestion, no other explanations are completely satisfactory. The traditional view that it was produced by inhaling vapors at the site has been disproved by archeology.

See Also: oracle; divination.

Bibliography: w. k. c. guthrie, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. m. cary et al. (Oxford 1949) 261–262. h. w. parke, A History of the Delphic Oracle (Oxford 1939). h. w. parke and d.e. w. wormell, The Delphic Oracle, 2 v. (Oxford 1956). k. prÜmmer, Religionsgeschichtliches Handbuch für den Raum der altchristlichen Umweld (2d ed. Rome 1954) 415–419.

[t. a. brady]