Delphi
Andrea D. Roche
History of the city
“Zeus
according to the Greek legend once wished to determine the exact centre of the
earth. So he released two eagles from
opposite ends of the world. Flying
towards each other they met precisely over Delphi.”[1] So, according to this legend and historians, Delphi was known
as the center of the world to the Ancient Greeks, starting in the 6th century
BCE.
Excavations
have shown that the Mycenaeans (in Greece from
1600-1200 BCE) were probably the first to inhabit Delphi in the 14th
BCE, and it has continuously been inhabited since then.[2] The famous ancient author Homer even spoke of
Pytho, the primitive name for Delphi, in his book,
the Iliad. In the last third of the 8th
century BCE, Delphi emerged in Greek religious
history.[3] It was first founded as a Greek colony, and
all new Greek colonies at that time needed new temples and sanctuaries of gods
and heroes built so the inhabitants of the city could worship their numerous
gods.[4]
Tradition
says that Pytho (Delphi) was
originally the sacred ground of the goddess Ge, and a
dragon named Python protected it.
Apollo, the god of light, poetry, music and prophecy, slayed Python by shooting numerous arrows into him.[5] The city was said to be founded and built
because Apollo wished it after his accomplishment, but that could just have
been a way for Delphi, which
does not have a concrete past, to have a perfect picturesque conception.
Delphi did not
become the center of the Greek world until after it joined the Amphictyonic League in the 7th century BCE. This was a religious league that included
many tribes of mainland Greece and
surroundings. These seemed to have been
very prominent in Ancient times; there is proof of leagues of Calauria, Onchestus, Itonia and Delos. The ones of Delphi and Delos are the
only ones that seemed to have “retained their importance down to late periods.”[6] Delphi was
member of the League at least until the 4th century BCE.
“Amphictyony” technically referred to the league of states
that surrounded a religious center, which Delphi
eventually became. Joining this league
offered the city a level of protection from thieves and bandits, and since
religious cities often had a lot of money and many expensive treasures in them,
this was necessary.[7] Once a member, the city would acquire a group
of men that would protect it. A
religious city could not defend itself, because its focus was to provide a
religious purpose for the Greeks.[8] So, the groups of men dwelled around the city
and defended it.
So,
from the 6th century BCE onward, Delphi was a
religious center of Greece. Starting in 582 BCE, The Panhellenic
Pythian Games were held in Delphi quadrennially.[9] Previously, there was only one game site at Olympia for Zeus,
but it was attracting so many people that the leaders decided to open three
more sites. So, the game sites were
opened up at Delphi for Apollo, Corinth for
Poseidon and another one for Zeus at Argos. These festivals were staggered so there would
only be one major game each year, with the Olympics still being the most
important.[10]
Delphi also
became the most famous religious city of Greece, and its
only close rivals were Dodona and Ammon. We know from
Herodotus that in 479 BCE, Greek allies “set up a monument at Delphi made of
three intertwined bronze serpents.”[11] This statue stayed in Delphi until
“centuries later Roman emperor Constantine moved this important monument to Constantinople, where it
still stands today prominently displayed in the central square called the
Hippodrome in Istanbul.”[12] From the 7th century through the 5th
century BCE, Delphi was a flourishing colony
of Greece, but its’
downfall started in the 4th century BCE.
According
to excavations of Greece and records in books and on papers of the 4th
century BCE, in the year 373 BCE there seemed to have been an earthquake and a
flood at Delphi. In doing further
research, historians have realized that the earthquake probably caused the
flood. “The earthquake of 373 (winter)
may have ruptured the retaining wall above the temple and released on it a mass
of earth and flood water.”[13] This series of natural events, although the
Greeks probably took them as bad omens, ruined the Temple of Apollo, but it
was restored again starting around 330 BCE.
Besides
natural disasters damaging Delphi, many
groups also tried to attack it. Delphi mainly
became a member of the Amphictyonic League because it
would help the city from being attacked by the Phocians,
who inhabited surrounding areas. From
356-346 BCE, the Phocians, allied with the Athenians
and Spartans, occupied Delphi.[14] Philip II of Macedon drove the Phocians out of Delphi in 346
BCE, but not before they stole many of the temple treasures and melted many of
the valuable offerings.[15] In 339 BCE, the Krissans
tried to take over Apollo’s sacred grounds, and Philip II stepped in
again. He “punished the Krissans, and consequently around 338 BCE defeated the
combined armies of the Athenians and the Spartans, thus becoming the dominant
force in Greek affairs.”[16] So, since Philip II was pro-Delphi, it was
not until after his reign and many other Greek rulers, that the city had a
bigger problem – Christianity.
Oracle at Delphi
So,
what was so famous about Delphi that
people came from all over to see or destroy?
From a religious point of view, Delphi was most
famous for its oracle. Over the door of
the Temple of Apollo at Delphi was the
motto ‘Know Thyself.’ The temple
contained the famous oracle of Delphi.”[17] Rulers, kings, and other people came from all
over the known world to seek the advice of Pythia,
the goddess of Delphi. The myth stated that in the ancient days,
there was cleft in a rock formation, where Delphi now
stands, and volcanic vapors seeped out of it.
A priestess, Pythia, after bathing in the
fountain of Castilia and consuming the leaves of the
sacred laurel, sat on a tripod over the cleft.
While she sat there, she inhaled these “intoxicating vapors [and] was
thrown into an inspired frenzy or trance.”[18] The words that she then spoke were written
down, put into verses, and said to be the revelations of Apollo. The oracle was always written in an ambiguous
and obscure language, so each oracle could have been translated many different
ways.
This
myth seems to have originated in the Hellenistic period of Greek history (c.
323 –30 BCE). The excavated geology of Delphi does not
support the myth that there were volcanic vapors escaping from a cleft in a
rock. Nevertheless, rulers from all over
came to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, gave
offerings, and asked for some advice concerning themselves or their country.
Huge
treasuries were built around the temple so people could place their offerings
in them. Also, many rulers paid to have
statues erected encompassing the temple.
“The oracle at Delphi was
always consulted before any important step was taken by the ancient Greeks in
affairs of state; and thus it exerted a powerful influence on the history of
the Greeks.”[19] People from all over made the pilgrimage to Delphi and paid
great sums of money to hear Pythia’s oracles.
The
problem was that the oracle given could often be taken in many different
ways. For example: the Athenians went up
to the oracle and asked how they could withstand the Persians. The oracle answered, “Athens must
trust in wooden walls.”[20] This could be understood by the Athenians as
a guide to hold the Acropolis or to trust in their navy. This ambiguity let the Delphic oracle keep
its reputation, because it gave no exact answers so it could never be
wrong. Plutarch, ancient author and
priest, was once a priest at Delphi, and we
have many writings of his about the oracle and Pythia.
The
Delphic oracle was only one of the many Greek oracles in ancient times, but the
one at Delphi was the most famous. Its fame reached as far as Asia, and many
rulers from far away came to Delphi to
receive a prophecy from Pythia.[21]
Uncovering
the city/city today
Archaeologists
started excavating Delphi around
1890, and they found the remains of many of the buildings of the ancient
city. They found the foundation of the Temple of Apollo, and a
few columns. The columns were made of a
porous stone or limestone, both of which are soft rocks, and that is why the
columns did not survive as well as other parts of the city.[22] Up the hill from the temple lies what use to
be the Delphi Theater. There are 35 rows
in the theater and can hold around 5000 people.[23] Even further up the hill is the stadium. It was used frequently in ancient times for
The Panhellenic Pythian
Games, and could seat around 6500 spectators.[24]
Many
of the 30 Delphi treasuries have been
ruined in some natural disaster (fire, earthquake or flood) or the contents
have been stolen. One treasury was
rediscovered in 1939, and its contents date “mostly to the seventh and sixth
centuries, though there are some fifth-century pieces.”[25] From the contents, historians have found that
gold, silver, ivory and some bronze were used as currency in the ancient
world. They also found anthropomorphic
statues, probably of Apollo, a “life-size bull in gold and silver and a large
number of ivory reliefs of mythological scenes.”[26] This shows that a great amount of wealth went
into these gifts, and they were seen as very important offerings to the gods.
By
100 CE, Delphi was just a shadow of what
it had previously been, with its peak around the 5th century
BCE. The oracles did not completely fade
away with the rise of the Roman Empire, but the
ones at Delphi eventually did. “Elsewhere in the Greek world they certainly
did flourish in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.”[27] Through the 2nd and 3rd
centuries CE the Oracle at Delphi gradually
lost its importance. Delphi
physically fell, starting with the sanctuary in 191 BCE, although many people
tried to restore it. The treasuries were
stripped and the city burned by Emperor Sulla in 86 BCE.[28] Some of the Roman emperors tried to rebuild
the city and restore the religious significance of Delphi, but with
the rise of Christianity in the 4th century CE, Delphi’s
importance and its oracle would be forgotten.
[1] H.W. Parke & D.E.W. Wormell, The Delphic Oracle, (Oxford, GB: Alden
Press, 1956), 1.
[2] Encyclopedia Britannica 15th
Edition: Volume III Colemani to Exclusi,
(Johannesburg, South Africa: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 1974), “Delphi” 452.
[3] H.W. Parke, Greek
Oracles, (London: Alden Press), 44.
[5] “Delphi,”
<www.ancient-greece.org/history/delphi.html> 12 December 2003, 1.
[6] Parke & Wormell, 100.
[7] Thaddeus Zielinski, The
Religion of Ancient Greece, trans. George Rapall Noyes, (Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press), 112.
[9] Encyclopedia Britannica,
452.
[10] Sarah B. Pomeroy, etc., Ancient
Greece: A Political, Social, and
Cultural History,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 127.
[13] Parke & Wormell, 214.
[14] Encyclopedia Britannica,
452.
[15] Encyclopedia Britannica,
452.
[16] www.ancient-greece.org.
[17] Britannica Junior
Encyclopedia, Volume 5 D-E, (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc
1973), “Delphi,” 67.
[18] Compton’s Encyclopedia 31st
Edition: Volume 4 D-E, (Chicago, F.E. Compton & Company Publishers,
1952) “Delphi,” 62.
[19] Compton’s Encyclopedia, 62.
[20] Britannica Junior, 67.
[22] www.ancient-greece.org.
[23] www.ancient-greece.org.
[24] www.ancient-greece.org.
[25] Simon Price, Religion
of the Ancient Greeks, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 60.
[28] www.ancient-greece.org.