Pythia- Greek FigureMortal"High Priestess of Apollo"

The Serpent's Lair

Delphi's sanctity preceded Apollo. The site was sacred to Gaia and guarded by Python, her monstrous serpent offspring. The Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo recounts how the young god journeyed from Olympus seeking a place for his oracle, slew Python with his arrows, and claimed the sanctuary as his own. The priestess's title derived from this conquest: "Pythia" from the slain serpent whose lair became Apollo's seat of prophecy.

The Greeks regarded Delphi as the omphalos, the navel of the world. Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth, and they met at Delphi, marking it as the center. A sacred stone, the omphalos, stood in Apollo's temple as proof.

The Priestess of the Tripod

The Pythia was not a single woman but a succession of priestesses drawn from among the women of Delphi regardless of class. A peasant might sit on the tripod as easily as a noblewoman. Once selected, a woman separated from husband and household to dwell in the sanctuary for life. Questioners drew lots for their turn, though states that had earned Delphi's favor received promanteia, the right to consult first.

In the earliest periods, young virgins served. After one priestess was assaulted, older women of at least fifty were chosen, though they continued to wear virginal dress. At the height of Delphi's prestige, the demand for prophecy was so great that two Pythiai served simultaneously, with a third in reserve.

The Prophetic Rite

Prophetic sessions occurred on the seventh day of each month, Apollo's sacred day, except during the three winter months when the god sojourned among the Hyperboreans. Supplicants paid a fee called the pelanos and brought a sacrificial goat. Cold water was poured over the animal before the session. If it trembled, Apollo was willing to speak. If it stood still, the consultation was refused.

The Pythia purified herself in the Castalian Spring and chewed laurel leaves sacred to Apollo. She then descended into the adyton, the inner sanctuary beneath the temple, accessible only to the priestess and certain priests. There she mounted the sacred tripod, a three-legged bronze seat positioned over a chasm in the earth from which vapors rose.

Something happened in that chamber. Plutarch, who served as a priest at Delphi, describes a pneuma, a divine breath, that seized the Pythia and spoke through her. Earlier Pythiai had delivered prophecy in verse; by Plutarch's day, the priestess spoke in plain prose, and temple priests shaped her words for the questioners. But all who stood in that room understood they were hearing the god.

The Oracles

Croesus of Lydia, contemplating war against Persia, asked the Pythia whether he should attack. She replied that if he crossed the Halys River, a great empire would fall. Croesus attacked. A great empire fell: his own.

Before the Persian invasion of 480 BCE, Athens received the terrifying "wooden wall" oracle. The Pythia declared that Athens would be destroyed but that a wooden wall would preserve the Athenians. Debate raged: the palisade around the Acropolis or the fleet? Themistocles argued for ships. Athens built them, won at Salamis, and saved Greece.

Socrates's philosophical mission began at Delphi. When Chaerephon asked whether anyone was wiser than Socrates, the Pythia answered that no one was. Socrates took this not as flattery but as a puzzle, and spent the rest of his life proving that his wisdom consisted in knowing he had none.

Alexander the Great visited Delphi before his Asian campaign, arriving on a day when the oracle was not in session. When the Pythia refused to prophesy, Alexander dragged her toward the temple. She cried out, "You are invincible!" He released her and departed, satisfied.

The Pythia was not always above mortal politics, either. Herodotus reports that the Alcmaeonid family bribed the priestess to urge Sparta to liberate Athens from the tyrant Hippias. Every Spartan delegation that came to Delphi, whatever their question, received the same answer: free Athens first.

The Final Silence

The sanctuary suffered repeated plunder. The Gauls sacked it in 279 BCE. Sulla stripped its treasures in 86 BCE, and Nero carried away five hundred statues. Where once multiple Pythiai served simultaneously, a single priestess sufficed for the dwindling traffic.

The end came in 362 CE. The Emperor Julian, attempting to restore the old gods, sent a delegation to consult the oracle. The Pythia told the envoys to report that the decorated hall had fallen and Phoebus had no shelter left. His prophetic laurel was gone. The speaking water had been silenced. After more than a thousand years, the voice went still.