The oracle at Delphi

Written by a Year 10 student at Queen's Gate School, studying Ancient History, Ancient Greek and Latin

What really went on at Delphi? The famous oracle of Delphi is a subject which has interested me for a long time. Having been active for over a thousand years, Delphi has a very long and interesting history. I recently read some of Michael Scott’s Delphi A History of the Center of the Ancient World and watched his documentary Delphi: The Bellybutton of the Ancient World, which both inspired me to write this. I hope to shed some light on the inner workings at Delphi and the process by which the Pythia would come up with prophecies. I hope you enjoy reading!

The modern-day town of Delphi is found west of the archeological site which it gets its name from. This site consists of the ruins of the ancient temple to Apollo, and the remains of many smaller monuments. When these ruins were excavated by French archeologists in the nineteenth century, there were still people living on top of the ancient sanctuary! They had to move to allow the excavations to go ahead. Delphi is an ancient sanctuary which, at its prime, covered over one hundred acres. It is nestled on the slope of Mount Parnassus, in the Pindus Mountains in central Greece. The earliest remains there suggest that it was once a town. However, due to it being such fertile land near waterways and major trade routes, it grew to be an important place. It soon became famous for its oracle of Apollo, and from 800 BC onwards it attracted visitors.

Most of the information we have on Delphi comes from Roman sources, and by the time of the Roman Empire, the sources agree that Delphi was no longer at its prime anymore. Though we do have archeological evidence to help us understand what went on at Delphi in the classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, it does not help us when it comes to the early centuries of Delphi’s history. According to literary sources, this was when it was most active, in the seventh and late eighth centuries BC. It is quite hard to use these literary sources to work out what questions the oracle was asked and what her responses were as the authors were writing long after the questions were asked, and most were also writing their stories for a specific purpose with their own narratives. Most of our information comes from Plutarch, who was a Greek priest at Delphi, writing in the first century AD. He too, like the Roman sources, makes a point of saying that by his time Delphi was not the political arbiter that it had once been.

The actual ‘oracle’ of Delphi was a priestess called the Pythia, but there were also male priests at Delphi.  According to Plutarch, the Pythia had to be a Delphian and was chosen from one of the “soundest and most respected families to be found in Delphi’. However, this did not mean that she had to come from a wealthy family. Plutarch’s Pythia had “always led an irreproachable life, although, having been brought up in the homes of poor peasants, when she fulfils her prophetic role she does so quite artlessly and without any knowledge or talent.”

Once a Pythia was chosen, she would dedicate herself to gruelling exercise and chastity. At some points in history, possibly around the fourth century BC, the Pythia was even given a house to live in which was paid for by the sanctuary. From the moment she was selected onwards, she would serve Apollo for life.

One would think that there was only one Pythia, but surprisingly Plutarch talks about how once upon a time – when Delphi received many more visitors – there were three Pythias; two actively working and one on standby. However, by the time he was writing, there were enough visitors for a single Pythia to handle.

We do not know much about individual Pythias, but Diodorus Siculus does tell us that from the first century BC the Pythia had to be a young virgin. However, he also tells us that when Echecrates of Thessaly came to consult the oracle, he fell in love with the Pythia, so he carried her off and raped her. After this incident, the Delphians decreed that the Pythia should be a woman of fifty or over, but that she should continue to wear the traditional dress of a maiden to honour the original prophetess. This meant that married women with children could become Pythias, but they would have to leave their old lives behind to truly dedicate themselves to Apollo.

It was fairly hard to find a time to consult the Pythia though. She was only available on the seventh day of the month and only nine months a year. This is because for the three winter months of the year it was believed that Apollo went to stay with the legendary race of people who lived at the edge of the world: the Hyperboreans. While he was away, his half-brother Dionysus would rule over the temple instead. Furthermore, the reason that she was only available on the seventh day of each month was because the seventh day of the month Bysios (equivalent to March/April) was when Apollo came back after staying away for the winter, and it was also considered his birthday. Consequently, she was only available for consultation nine days a year.

On the few days when consultations would happen, the Pythia would start her day by bathing in the Castalian Spring near the sanctuary and she would drink the holy water of the Cassotis. Once purified, she would return to the temple with her retinue where they would burn an offering of laurel leaves and barley to Apollo.

However, before the day could go ahead, they needed to make sure that Apollo was content with being consulted. To do this, the priests would sprinkle a few droplets of cold water on a goat, possibly at the sacred hearth in the temple. If the goat shuddered, then that would be interpreted as Apollo being happy to be consulted and the goat would be sacrificed on the altar outside the temple so all could see that the consultations were going ahead.

The people wishing to consult the oracle – who would have all arrived several days before the consultation date – were now invited to cleanse themselves with water from the springs of Delphi. Next, they had to establish the order that they would consult the oracle in, and this was a meticulous process. Local Delphians were given the priority first, closely followed by Greeks from cities who were in Delphi’s supreme governing council called the amphictyony, then all other Greeks, and finally all the barbarians. Within these ‘sections’ there was a way to skip to the front though, called promanteia. This term literally refers to ‘the right to consult (manteion) before (pro) others.” Promanteia could be awarded as a way for Delphi to thank a city state for a particular action, or just to show the close relationship between Delphi and that city. A famous example of this is when the island of Chios was awarded promanteia for its dedication to a new altar to Apollo in the sanctuary. If two groups within the same section both had promanteia then whoever went first was decided by lot, as was the order for everyone else in the section after them.

Once the consultants had arranged themselves in the correct order according to these rules, there had to be a payment. They would buy a small sacrificial cake from the Delphians which would be burnt on an altar, named a pelanos, and this was essentially the price of the consultation. We do not actually know the price of these pelanoi, probably because it changed throughout the many years that Delphi was active. One surviving inscription that we have tells us of an agreement of the price between Delphi and Phaselis, a city in Asia Minor, from 402 BC. The price for a ‘state’ inquiry – by the city – was seven aeginetan drachmas and two obols (an obol was worth one sixth of a drachma). Whereas the price of a ‘private’ inquiry – by individual Phaselites – was four obols. This shows us that, interestingly, they charged ten times more for official business than for personal consultations. However, there were some who did not have to pay at all. For example, King Croesus of Lydia from Asia Minor, and the asclepiads (worshippers of the healing god Asclepius) from the island of Cos.

After all this had been done, it was time for the most boring part of visiting the oracle: waiting. All the consultants had to wait their turn. Apparently, a chresmographeion – a shelter in the shade – was built for them against the north retaining wall of the temple terrace for them to wait under.

When the consultant’s turn finally came, they would enter the temple, accompanied by a local Delphian acting as a proxenos (‘local representative’), if they were not from Delphi. There, they would perform another sacrifice on the inner hearth. The sacrifice, usually an animal, would be burnt and part of it was offered to the gods, a part to the Delphians, and another part ‘for the knife’. ‘For the knife’ probably means a part was given as a sort of tip or payment to the man actually performing the sacrifice. Next, the consultant would be encouraged by the priests to “think pure thoughts and speak well-omened words”. Finally, they would proceed to the next room where the Pythia was waiting to begin the consultation.

This room was called the adyton, and it was where the Pythia prophecised. It is disputed as to where the adyton really was within the temple, some say it was sunk into the ground of the cella (the main part of the temple), while others say it was a completely underground area, and some say it was simply part of the inner cella. Initial excavation so of Delphi provided no evidence for such a sunken place but the latest plan of the temple shows a square room walled off within cella, which may have been the adyton. It contained two statues of apollo (one in wood, one in gold), apollo’s lyre and sacred armor, and the tomb of Dionysus (although this may have also been the omphalos). Very importantly though, it contained the omphalos. The omphalos was a stone shaped like a beehive with a flat top, with flower-like patterns carved in relief on it. The Greeks believed that Zeus had once sent out two eagles from Mount Olympus in opposite directions and that they had met each other again at Delphi, effectively making it the navel of the Earth. The spot where the omphalos was placed was believed to be the exact spot the eagles met again, so Delphi was regarded as the centre of the world.

In this somewhat crowded room, the Pythia sat on her tripod beside a laurel tree and would deliver her prophecies. It seems that the consultant would stand in front of her, deliver their questions directly to her and hear her response themselves. However, Herodotus and Plutarch both name spaces within the cella where the consultants would sit at the time of consultation. Herodotus calls this room the megaron and Plutarch calls it the oikos, but it has not been identified archeologically.

There were other people in the adyton in addition to the consultants and the Pythia. It seems the priests of Apollo who had conducted the ceremony involving the goat earlier on were also present, as well as a group of women to keep the fire burning on the laurel-wood-only hearth. A group of people called prophetes is mentioned as well though, and in later sources individuals who are called hosioi. It is hard to work out who these may have been, as the sources are unclear, and it may have changed over time. However, if as Plutarch said the inquirers remained in the oikos, then perhaps they gave their question orally or in writing to the priests of Apollo who, with the hosioi, would ask it to the Pythia on their behalf. It is also unclear how they would deliver her response back to the consultants. It is possible that they had to interpret it first, before writing it down or telling the inquirers orally. It is possible that the consultants may have heard some of it from that separate room, but not necessarily.

How did the Pythia come up with these prophecies though? Well, no source from before the fourth century BC discusses how the Pythia was inspired to come up with her responses. All they say is that she sat on her tripod and uttered boai, which translates to cries or songs. Some sources mention her shaking a laurel branch, though this may have been for purification purposes rather than to ‘inspire’ her. In the first century BC, Diodorus Siculus is the first to mention a ‘chasm’ below the Pythia. Some writers agreed with this, while others described a place she physically descended into and prophecised from. Diodorus Siculus says that it was this chasm, and the powerful vapour floating out of it, which led to the oracle being built there in the first place. Siculus tells us a story where a goatherd noticed his goats were all shrieking and jumping around a particular hole on the mountainside. Other goatherds also began to do the same, and themselves began to prophesise when close to the chasm. Word got around of this new spot and many started jumping into the hole. Therefore, for safety purposes, the Delphians appointed one prophetess for everyone, and constructed her famous tripod, so she could safely prophesise over the chasm.

Furthermore, in the first century AD, Plutarch mentions the pneuma, and that the adyton was sometimes filled with a “delightful fragrance” because of the pneuma. The word pneuma translates to ‘wind’, ‘air’, ‘breeze’, ‘breath’ or ‘inspiration’. However, Plutarch does not describe the nature of the pneuma. His account suggests that though the pneuma ‘inspired’ the Pythia, it did not cause her to rave or speak differently to normally. Strabo, a geographer from the first century AD also paints a similar picture of her sitting on a tripod inhaling the pneuma, but speaking her oracles in both verse and prose.

Other writers also tell us that she drew on other things for ‘inspiration’ too. For example, Pausanias, a Greek travel writer, tells us that she drank from the Cassotis spring – the one which runs by and below the temple – for ‘inspiration.’ Similarly, Lucian, a rhetorician writing in the second century AD, tells us that she drank from the Castalian Spring and that she also chewed laurel leaves.

Contrastingly, Lucan – another writer from the first century AD – depicts the Pythia as being taken over by the god during the consultation. According to Lucan, this is because the inhalation of the gases or pneuma caused her to rave. Christian writers, like John Crysostom, also depict her as being taken over by a ‘madness’ caused by the ‘evil’ pneuma entering her body. From these sources we get the idea that the Pythia went ‘mad’ by breathing in the vapours emitted from the chasm as she sat on her tripod above it, raved, and gave nonsensical answers which had to be interpreted by the other priests. This happens to be the most common depiction of the Pythia in the modern world. However, it may not be the most reliable one. This is because these writers were anti-pagan – as they were Christian – and would therefore not paint a nice picture of Pagan practices, like the oracle of Delphi. Therefore, the theory that the Pythia was overtaken by Apollo and raved may have just been an exaggerated rumour.

Some scholars also believe that the Roman assumption of the Pythias's madness was caused by a mistranslation. They may have translated Plato’s description of her ‘inspiration’ as being mania, which would have led them to think it related to madness and insanity. However, it actually linked to the Greek word mantike, meaning divination. It then became the Latin word insania, meaning insanity. To the Romans, whose divination was usually much more methodical and scientific, the idea of the Pythia raving due to intoxication from gases arising from a mysterious chasm was a romantic and intelligible way of explaining consultation at Delphi. Therefore, it may just be that the Romans confused themselves.

The first excavations of Delphi could not find this so-called chasm which the literary sources mentioned. Several theories arose about how the Pythia got into the trancelike state she prophecised in without the gases from the chasm making her high. Some said that perhaps Delphi was just a trick put on by the priests of Apollo. Some said that chewing laurel leaves was what made her high, even though laurel leaves do not contain hallucinogenic properties. Others even suggested that after years of being a priestess, the Pythia may have found herself in a very emotionally intense relationship with the god. This means she could have easily been overtaken by self-induced hypnosis. People still wanted to believe in the idea of a chasm though, so it was suggested that the chasm possibly closed up in modern times. This would fit with Plutarch’s narrative which tells us that the reason the oracle was less active in his day was because there was less pneuma. It has also been proposed that the Pythia descended to a room below her tripod to light a fire which produced the smoke.  

If we turn to look at Delphi’s geology though, we see that the ancient writers may not have been lying to us at all. It has been proven that the sanctuary of Delphi sits exactly upon two geographical fault lines; one running east to west, the other north to south. The bedrock under the temple is also fissured, which means that small amounts of gas could have escaped despite the absence of a chasm. This gas originated from bituminous limestone, full of hydrocarbons, that naturally occur in the area. The shifting of the earth caused when the fault lines moved would have triggered the limestone to release the gas.  By testing the travertine – a product only found in active fault areas – and the water underneath the temple, geologists have found the presence of ethane, methane, and ethylene. These gases had been used in the 1920s due to their ability to put the person using them into a disembodied, trancelike state. Therefore, the Pythia could have been using these gases in the same way: to put her into a trance which would allow her to prophesise.

Was the Pythia’s famous ‘madness’ the result of her being high on hallucinogenic gases? I believe that the answer could be yes. Even if she did not go completely mad and rave, I believe the gases probably did allow her to succumb to a trancelike state which would ‘inspire’ her to give slightly more interesting answers. The ancients, however, likely did believe in the pneuma being the cause, or perhaps they believed that she was being taken over by Apollo when she entered this state.