Shane Roosa on Delphi
Delphi, one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, and location of a major sanctuary!
Delphi, A Spiritual Journey
When I tell you experiencing the natural beauty and historical weight of the Oracle of Delphi changed my life, I’m not exaggerating. The first time I visited – I was seventeen on a trip with some of my high school classmates – I was awestruck by the amazing views of the surrounding landscape. I found it little wonder that the Ancient Greeks felt such a powerful connection to their gods there. During this most recent trip, I expected that feeling to be muted, since I had already experienced it once before, but I experienced the same child-like wonder all over again. It’s truly an unforgettable place.
The Myths
The ancients told a tale that Zeus, wanting to find the exact center of the Earth, released two eagles simultaneously from opposite ends of the Earth. The eagles were flying toward each other at equal height and speed. When they met over Delphi, Zeus declared the site to be the center of the Earth and placed the stone omphalos(meaning “navel” in Greek) there to mark its location. The omphalos was guarded by the serpent Pytho (in some versions of the tale the serpent is female and is named Delphyne, and the place-names Delphi and Pytho were both used to describe the site in ancient times), who according to another tale was later slain by Apollo. Apollo cast the corpse of the serpent into a chasm in the rocks and built his sanctuary atop it. The fumes of the decaying serpent’s body are what were believed to give the priestess (called the Pythia) her prophetic visions.
The omphalos (“navel, bellybutton”) of Delphi marking the center of the world.
In Practice
The Pythia was said to sit atop a large tripod splayed over the chasm within the inner sanctum of the temple, inhaling the fumes before giving her prophecies. The prophecies would then be interpreted by other priests and read to the person or persons who had asked for them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these prophecies were notoriously ambiguous! Ancients from all over the world would visit the Oracle to learn the answers to their lives’ greatest questions. The ancient Greeks also visited the sacred precinct (the area around the sanctuary) to compete against each other in all manner of things. In the Theater of Dionysos on the slopes above Apollo’s sanctuary, they competed in games of poetry, music, and theatrics, while in the stadium above that, they competed against one another in a Panhellenic athletic competition called the Pythian games (similar in principle to the Olympic Games). City-states even competed against one another to see who could leave the most lavish offerings and construct the most lavish treasuries to house them, some still visible during the ascent to the sanctuary today.
Theater and Temple of Apollo looking down into the valley.
Athenian Treasury, built after the battle of Marathon (490 BC) as a tribute to their victory and the gods’ support.