On a narrow terrace high on Mount Parnassus, Delphi was where the ancient Greeks believed the world had its centre. For centuries the Pythia, priestess of Apollo, delivered oracles here that kings, generals and city-states weighed before going to war or founding colonies.
At a glance
Delphi was the one sanctuary in ancient Greece that every city-state accepted as neutral sacred ground. A Sacred Truce, the Ekecheiria, suspended hostilities so that pilgrims could travel safely to consult the Oracle or attend the Pythian Games. At the heart of the sanctuary stood the Temple of Apollo, where a single Pythia at a time delivered prophecies after breathing vapours said to rise from a chasm in the rock; modern geological surveys have identified ethylene gas vents at the site.
The sanctuary also held the bronze Charioteer of Delphi, cast in 478 BCE for the tyrant of Gela in Sicily to mark a victory at the Pythian Games, and now kept in the Delphi Archaeological Museum alongside the site’s other finds.
Key facts
- The Oracle: petitioners purified themselves at the Castalian Spring, paid a ritual cake known as the pelanos, sacrificed an animal and waited their turn before the Pythia spoke; her answers, such as the one given to Croesus of Lydia before he attacked Persia, were famously ambiguous.
- The Pythian Games: held every four years, they ranked second only to the Olympic Games among the athletic and artistic festivals of ancient Greece.
- The Tholos of Athena: a circular building of around 380 BCE attributed to the architect Theodoros of Phocaea; only three of its original twenty columns still stand, and its exact purpose, whether treasury or cult building, remains unknown.
- The Treasury of the Athenians: built by Athens to celebrate its victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, and reassembled between 1904 and 1906.
- The Delphic maxims: three sayings inscribed at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo, including ‘Know thyself’, which later inspired Socrates, and ‘Nothing in excess’.
- Heritage status: the Archaeological Site of Delphi was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
History
The site was sacred from around 1400 BCE, first to the earth goddess Gaia and later to Poseidon, before Apollo, in myth, slew the serpent Python and claimed the sanctuary for himself; the name Delphi is thought to derive from ‘Delphys’, meaning womb. Control of the sanctuary was contested through four Sacred Wars, the first fought between 595 and 585 BCE, while the Pythian Games themselves began in 582 BCE.
The sanctuary was plundered by the Roman general Sulla in 86 BCE and finally closed as a pagan site by the Emperor Theodosius I in 390 CE. Its ruins lay buried until the École française d’Athènes carried out the Grande Fouille, the Great Excavation, between 1893 and 1903, uncovering the remains visible today. The Archaeological Site of Delphi was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987.
What you see
The paved Sacred Way climbs some 80 metres from the entrance to the Temple of Apollo, lined along its length by the foundations of treasuries dedicated by different Greek city-states. The sanctuary sits on a narrow terrace at 550 metres, with views opening out over olive groves and the Gulf of Corinth below.
The Delphi Archaeological Museum stands immediately below the site and houses the bronze Charioteer, the Sphinx of Naxos and the statue known as the Antinous, together with the original Omphalos stone that once marked what the ancient Greeks took to be the navel of the world.
Practical information
- Duration: the site and museum together reward an unhurried visit; many visitors give the ruins a morning and the museum an afternoon.
- Where to stay: the modern village of Delphi, relocated in 1890 to allow excavation of the ancient site, has restaurants along its cliff edge and serves as the usual overnight base.
- Official information: current opening arrangements and any entry conditions are best checked through the Greek Ministry of Culture or the site’s own visitor channels before travelling.
Getting there
Delphi can be reached by bus from Athens’ Liossion Terminal B, or by car via the E75/A1 motorway to Livadia and then Route 48, a mountain road through central Greece. Given the distance from Athens, an overnight stay is generally more comfortable than a single-day round trip.
Nearby
- Arachova — a short drive east, a mountain village and ski resort often used as a base for visiting Delphi.
- Meteora — to the north, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988, its six monasteries built on sandstone pillars that were originally reachable only by rope and basket.
- Olympia — to the south-west, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1989, birthplace of the Olympic Games, with the site of the Temple of Zeus, once home to Phidias’s Statue of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and a stadium with its original starting blocks.
Sources
- UNESCO, Archaeological Site of Delphi, World Heritage List reference 393
- École française d’Athènes
- Catherine Morgan, Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century BC, Cambridge University Press, 1990
- Delphi Archaeological Museum
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