The oracle at Delphi
Greeks bring their hardest decisions to a woman on a tripod, and get ambiguous answers.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 300 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
The sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi becomes the most authoritative oracle in the Greek world, consulted by individuals and states alike on colonisation, war and law. The Pythia delivers responses that are often notoriously equivocal. Delphi functions as a neutral clearing house for information — the priests knew more about the Greek world than anyone — and as a site where competing cities deposited treasure and displayed their rivalry in stone.