Delphic Oracle
Delphic Oracle, at Delphi, the most important oracle in Greece, belonging to the god Apollo. In his temple the priestess of Apollo, known as the Pythia, speaking under the inspiration supposedly of the god, answered questions put to her by worshippers. The Pythia was over the age of 50 when she was appointed, and thereafter lived a secluded and dedicated life; how she was selected is never explained, but the Delphian authorities may have chosen her from among a band of holy women whose task it was to tend the hearth in the temple (see DELPHI). When prophesying the Pythia sat on a tall tripod similar in style to the cooking utensil (i.e. three metal legs supporting a bowl), said in late antiquity to be placed over a chasm from which fumes were exhaled (but for which there seems to be no archaeological or classical evidence). Plutarch records that in early times the Pythia gave oracles on only one day a year, in early spring; at a later date, perhaps in the sixth century BC, on one day a month, with the exception of the three winter months which the god spent with the Hyperboreans. The day had to be declared auspicious by the priests, after they had tested the omens. Each enquirer, or indeed anyone who was in Delphi for a religious purpose, was required first to purify himself. It seems that the enquirer addressed his question to the Pythia directly and was answered directly, occasionally in verse, more often in prose. A priest or prophētēs (‘mouthpiece’) may have been in charge of the proceedings, and may even have ‘interpreted’ the Pythia's response, or put it into hexameter form. An enquirer might have let the priest know his question in advance, especially if bribery of the priests or Pythia was involved. With the reply, the consultation ended.
The impressiveness of the wild scenery at Delphi as well as of the ritual no doubt contributed to the importance of Apollo's oracle. In religion its authority was for many centuries supreme, especially in the matter of cult laws and institutions. Every four years, at the Pythian games, Delphi was the centre for a panhellenic concourse. In Hellenistic times its decline began. Some of the functions of Delphi were taken over by defunct oracles in Asia and Europe which were revived after Alexander the Great had destroyed Persian domination. Sharp decline did not set in until the first centuries BC and AD as a consequence of increasing secularism and perhaps because of the rising interest in astrology. The oracle enjoyed a brief revival under the emperor Hadrian, but by the time of the fervently pagan Julian (emperor AD 360–3), it was beyond resuscitation as its last message to the emperor, reported by a later historian, makes clear: ‘Tell the emperor that the finely wrought hall is fallen to the ground; no longer has Phoebus his shelter, nor his prophetic laurel, nor his babbling spring; the water of speech is dried up.’
