Delphi

by Michael Scott

  36. Homolle, director of the original excavations at Delphi 1892–1901, is quoted as saying in 1894, “the temple, on which so much hope had rested, has been a great deception”: Broad 2006: 87.

  37. Oppé 1904.

  38. Price 1985: 139.

  39. Parke and Wormell 1956a: 39. See also Dodds 1951: 70, Lloyd-Jones 1976.

  40. E.g., Maurizio 1995.

  41. Dempsey 1918.

  42. Holland 1933.

  43. The stone block: Bourguet 1914: 249, Parke and Wormell 1956a: 29. It was recently used as the center of an “oracle-consultation” scene in the movie Driving Aphrodite / Life in Ruins. It has, over time, been recognized as carrying the tomb of Dionysus, as the base for the tripod, and as having nothing at all to do with the temple. In reality, it seems to be a stone block originally from the temple that received its curious markings only so it could be made use of as an olive press in the last phase of the ancient settlement at Delphi in the sixth century AD: Hansen 2009: 115–20.

  44. For an introduction to the general geology of the landscape at Delphi: Péchoux 1992.

  45. De Boer and Hale 2000, de Boer, Hale, and Chanton 2001, de Boer, Hale, and Spiller 2002. See Broad 2006.

  46. Price 1985: 131. See the discussion in Maass 1997: 1–19.

  47. Respected: Rosenberger 2001: 65–126. Oracles were, as Mary Douglas put it, not “a poor man’s whiskey, used for gaining conviviality and courage against daunting odds”: Douglas 1966: 69. Numerous sites: e.g., Parke 1967, Parke 1985, Curnow 2004, Struck 2005, Johnston 2008, Stonemann 2011. For Dodona: Eidinow 2007. For oracles of the dead: Ogden 2001.

  48. Paus. 2.24.1–2. For description of this sanctuary see: Vollgraff 1956.

  49. See Dillery 2005, Flower 2008.

  50. Eidinow 2007: 27.

  51. Xen. Mem. 1.1.6–9.

  52. Evans-Pritchard 1937. See Whittaker 1965.

  53. See the scorn in later writers about how Croesus had mishandled his interaction with the oracle: Xen. Cyr. 7.2.17. On Herodotus and Croesus: Herodotus 1.46.2; Crahay 1956, Kindt 2003, Barker 2006, Kindt 2006. See how Herodotus also has Croesus misunderstand happiness as not being solely dependent on material possessions in his meeting with Solon of Athens: Herodotus 1.29–32; Osborne 2009: 204.

  54. Bowden 2005: 22. See also Price 1985: 144. Some examples of personal questions with equal leeway: “is it advantageous for me to sail/farm/go abroad”: Plut. Mor. 386C.

  55. It provided what has been termed “resistance” for the oracle to any accusation of falsehood: Parker 2000: 78–80.

  56. Plut. Mor. 407E.

  57. Johnston 2005: 301.

  58. Parker 2000: 78. See Cleomenes in Sparta received an ambiguous oracle about his impending invasion of Argos. Making his own interpretation of it, he decided not to attack. When he was later put on trial in Sparta for his withdrawal, he defended himself by explaining his reasoning, which was determined sufficient to acquit him of all charges: Hdt. 8.77.

  59. Advisor: Xen Mem. 1.4.15; Hdt. 1.157.3. There is no clear case of disobedience to a specifically solicited oracular responses recorded in the surviving sources: Parker 2000: 76.

  CHAPTER 2. BEGINNINGS

  1. Hom. Hymn Apollo lines 281–93. For discussion of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, see Parke and Wormell 1956a: 107, Fontenrose 1959: 13, Miller 1986.

  2. Hom. Hymn Apollo 300–304.

  3. Alcaeus F 142 West; Davies 2007: 49–50.

  4. See Roux 1976: 19–34.

  5. Anaxandra FGrHist. 404 F 5; Callim. frag. 86–89; Plut. Mor. 417F–418B. See also Parke and Wormell 1956a: 7.

  6. Ephorus FGrHist. 70F 31B; see Strabo 9.3.11: its purpose was to “summon humanity to civilization and rebuke it” See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 378.

  7. Amandry 1950: appendix XCVI.

  8. Simon. frag. 26a; Fontenrose 1959: 15.

  9. Strabo 9.3.3; Fontenrose 1959: 410–11.

  10. E.g., Strabo 9.3.12; Paus. 10.6.1.

  11. Pind. frag. 55.

  12. See Paus. 10.6.6; 10.7.2; 2.7–8; Morgan 1990: 145, Luce 2008: 429.

  13. Strabo 8.6.14; Paus. 10.5.6; Ephorus FGrHist F150; Parke and Wormell 314.

  14. See Amandry 1950: 196–200; appendix XCVI, Parke and Wormell 1956a: 11 n.28. The argument often ran that Dionysus’s followers were women, thus explaining the choice of a female oracular priest at Delphi: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 11. Dionysus’s tomb was supposedly inside the temple of Apollo at Delphi (earliest source third century BC): Philoch. FGrHist 328 f7. By Plutarch’s time at the latest (first century BC), Dionysus ran Delphi for three months each winter: Plut. Mor. 388E.

  15. Parke and Wormell 1956a: 13. For the argument that the Sibyl was active much earlier in the archaic and classical period: Pollard 1960.

  16. Paus. 10.6.1–4 and Plin. HN 7.203.

  17. Pind. frag. 54; Plut. Mor. 409E–410A; Strabo 9.3.6. In early Greek maps, Delphi occupied the exact center of the world, like Jerusalem in maps of medieval Christendom: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 1.

  18. Heraclitus frag. 93. See “Delphi, most famous of the clefts of ancient Greece, owed its name to this mythical image. ‘Delphi’ signifies in fact the female generative organ”: Eliade 1962: 21, see Richter 1994.

  19. Centre of the Earth: Aesch. Eum. 39; Soph. OT 897. Cronus stone: Hes. Theog. 498–500; Paus. 10.24.6. Voice or “omphe” of the gods: Apollod. FGrHist 244f 94–99. Pytho’s tomb: Varro Ling. 7.17. Virgil thought the oracular tripod, not the omphalos, was Pytho’s tomb: Verg. Aen. 3.92. For discussion of the “archaic omphalos,” see Bousquet 1951. For the discussion on where in the temple of Apollo it was placed: Amandry 1992b. For a recent scientific investigation of the properties of the omphalos as an optical transforming device known as a space-inverting anamorphoscope (which has the effect of reflecting the world around it in such as a way as to “condense” its surroundings, making it look like it is warping the world around it and acting as its center): Kuckel 2010.

  20. For discussion, see Sourvinou-Inwood 1979.

  21. Single narrative: e.g., Dempsey 1918. Narrative roles: e.g., Miller 1986. A similar initiative, as we saw in the last chapter, has occurred in understanding the stories of Delphic oracular responses in literature. Comparison with other myth cultures: e.g., Fontenrose 1959.

  22. For the Homeric Hymn to Apollo as confirming Delphi’s universal, Panhellenic status, see Clay 1989.

  23. See Miller 1986: 73–75, 81, 107. Some scholars go further and seek to tie parts of the Hymn to historical events. For example, the Lelantine War (late eighth century BC) should be seen as a reason for the rejection of the Lelantine plain as an oracular site by Apollo, and the First Sacred War (early sixth century BC) should be seen as the outcome of the Delphic authorities not obeying Apollo’s final warning/prophecy not to engage in hubris. See Malkin 2000: 72. For both these events, see chapters 3 and 4. But tying the Hymn so closely to such events, of course, requires taking a particular stance about the date of the Hymn’s first appearance, as well as of the date (and indeed historicity) of the events themselves.

  24. See Malkin 2000. For discussion of Delphi’s role in, and the nature of Greek colonization, see the next chapter.

  25. See Amandry 1950: 214, Sourvinou-Inwood 1987: 231.

  26. See Sourvinou-Inwood 1979: 251.

  27. The most notable of the myths is Heracles’ fight with Apollo over the oracular tripod, which comes about as a result of Heracles having fought off a number of others keen to take the sanctuary: Fontenrose 1959: 28, 401. But, as we shall see throughout this book, Delphi is also the subject of numerous conflicts for its ownership in the ancient world.

  28. Aristotle told a story of a man called Hegesippus, who first went to the oracle of Zeus at Olympia to ask a question, and then to Apollo at Delphi where he asked only, “Does the son agree with the father?” Arist. Rh. 2.23.12 (1398 b 34). Hegesippus had effectively played Delphi off against Olympia, as Apollo at Delphi could hardly not agree with his father Zeus. The same story is told of king Ag
esipolis of Sparta on the question of whether to invade Argos, in Xen. Hell. 4.7.2.

  29. See Defradas 1954: 148, Morgan 1990. Indeed, the later literary sources will claim that Delphi’s oracle was fundamental to the establishment of the oracle at Olympia (once again establishing its superiority over it): Parke and Wormell 1956a: 367. Similarly, in Strabo (9.3.12), the autochthonos nature of the Delphians is stressed, thus intimating their eternal association with the region, see Kyriakidis 2011: 86. Nevertheless, the myths fail to elucidate how Delphi is linked to other parts of the territory of Phocis, which it had to have been (in practical, economic terms if nothing else): McInerney 2011: 97.

  30. The dragon was called Pytho e.g., Simon. frag. 26a. It is also suggested that the name Pytho came from the cry of the paean song encouraging Apollo to shoot the unnamed monster: Ephorus FGrHist 70F 31b (Strabo 9.3.12).

  31. Graf 2009: 52.

  32. See Larson 2007: 87–99.

  33. For the etymology of Apollo, see Nagy 1994. He connects it to “apeileo”: to “make a boastful promise or threat.”

  34. See Roux 1976: 35–52, Davies 1997. While many point to the equal worship of Dionysus at Delphi, and while it is not impossible that this god was worshiped at Delphi from its earliest existence, there is no archaeological proof for worship of Dionysus at Delphi until the fourth century BC. As a result, Dionysus’s role at Delphi will be considered in later chapters, along with that of the host of other deities worshiped at Delphi.

  35. De La Coste-Messelière and Flacelière 1930.

  36. Plut. Mor. 420C; FD III, 5, 25, col. III, A, 1.3–4 (CID II 62 IIIA.4). For discussion on whether this was a new sanctuary or the first attestation of a very old one: Dempsey 1918: 4, de La Coste-Messelière 1936: 63, Amandry 1950: 202–204, Sourvinou-Inwood 1987: 221.

  37. For the initial excavation: Radet 1992. For the lion muzzle: Picard 1991: 7.

  38. For the detailed publication of the cave: Touchais 1981. For the pottery: Picard 1991: 243.

  39. Mycenean finds at the Corycian cave: Lerat 1984.

  40. For discussion of the Delphic site in this period: Perdrizet 1908: 5–7, Amandry 1938: 305–307, Themelis 1983, Morgan 1990: 107. For the tomb: Bommelaer 1991: 15. For a wider discussion of Mycenaean Delphi and the surrounding area, see Müller 1992b, Müller 1992a, Luce 2011b: 306–10. For recent discussions on the nature and location of settlement across the Pleistos valley at this time: Skorda 1992b, Luce 2011b: 315–19.

  41. Evidence for Gaia worship: Demangel 1926: 13–28. Deposited at later time: Lerat 1935.

  42. Demangel 1926: 36, Bommelaer 1991: 48.

  43. See Forrest 1957: 171, Morgan 1990: 107, Bommelaer 1991: 15.

  44. Initial accounts of excavations: Luce 1992. Full report: Luce 2008. See also a summary of the arguments in Rolley 2002, Luce 2011b: 310–12. Pottery: Luce 2008: 438. Contact with Thessaly: Lerat 1961: 352–57, Morgan 1990: 108.

  45. Luce 2008: 85–94, Luce 2011b: 312–15. See also Amandry 1938, Amandry, Lerat and Pouilloux 1950.

  46. For discussion, see Morgan 1990: 106, 112, Luce 2008: 26–27, 29–50 (maison noire), 83. Theopomp. FGrHist 115F 193 [219] indicates that the first dedications at Delphi were tripods and cauldrons. See Jacquemin 1999: 37.

  47. For a recent discussion of the (inverse) development of the settlements of Medeon and Delphi in Phocis during the Iron Age through to the eighth century BC: Luce 2011a.

  48. Osborne 2009: 16.

  49. For a wider discussion of eighth century BC change, see Snodgrass 1980, Morgan 1990: 5–20, Sourvinou-Inwood 1993, Osborne 2009: 66–162.

  50. For the increasingly different political attachments of Delphi and Kalapodi, and thus their difference trajectories of development, see recently: McInerney 2011.

  51. For discussion of the low level of elaboration at Olympia and Delphi in this early period, see Morgan 1990. For discussion of the comparative elaboration of “polis” sanctuaries: Alcock and Osborne 1994, de Polignac 1995. For debate over the appropriateness of the “Panhellenic” label, see Scott 2010: 260–64.

  52. For discussion, see Morgan 1990: 112–27. For recent work on Kalapodi, see Felsch 2007, McInerney 2011.

  53. Starting late eighth century BC: Morgan 1990: 134. For a comparison of the development of divination and cult at the sanctuaries of Delphi and Didyma in the eighth century BC: Morgan 1989. Long history of oracle at Delphi stretching back to second millennium BC: Bommelaer 1991: 19.

  54. E.g., Snodgrass 1980: 120, Snodgrass 1986: 53–54. See Morgan 1993.

  55. Note that some dedications from the west seem to have arrived before there is any evidence for Delphic involvement in colonization in the west: d’Agostino 2000: 79.

  56. Luce 2008: 29–50.

  57. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 312, Miller 1986: 105, Bommelaer 1991: 18. The stories involving Delphi and the heroes of the Homeric cycle grow in the literary sources during the classical and Hellenistic period. In the Odyssey, King Agamemnon is said to have consulted the oracle (Parke and Wormell 19), but also, later, to have planted a plane tree at Delphi to commemorate his visit (Plin. HN 16.238). In the Hellenistic period, Agamemnon’s visit was said to have been the moment of the foundation of the cult of Dionysus at Delphi: Parke and Wormell 408. It is interesting to note that later literary sources claim Homer himself consulted the Delphic oracle about his own birthplace: Parke and Wormell 317, 318, 319. The oracle’s response was later said to have been inscribed onto the base of a statue of Homer, which stood in the front section of the temple of Apollo at Delphi: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 394. Similarly, Hesiod (writing in the same period) was also later said to have consulted the oracle at Delphi about his fate: Parke and Wormell 206.

  58. It was initially thought that Delphi, in contrast, did not receive the more personal kinds of dedications seen at Perachora (although such items were dedicated at the Corycian cave). The most recent excavations, have started to turn up more and more personal objects: Luce 2008: 212. Delphi, it seems, acted both as a local place for personal cult activity and, increasingly, for more state-level interaction.

  59. See Morgan 1990: 142–46.

  CHAPTER 3. TRANSFORMATION

  1. Burning of the maison noire: Luce 2008: 47. Not the entire settlement: Lerat 1938, Lerat 1961: 330–38.

  2. The Phlegyians: FGrHist 3 F 41e and FGrHist F 70, 93 (mid-fifth century–fourth century BC); Luce 2008: 48–49. Diod. Sic. (4.37.1) records another raid on Delphi, this time by the Dryopes (date uncertain). Neeft argues that an earthquake may have caused the destruction instead: Neeft 1981.

  3. For the development of the relationship between Delphi and Medeon, see recently: Luce 2011a. Sadly much of the material evidence for the development of the Itean plain and other settlements like Medeon is still not widely available.

  4. For further discussion, see: Morgan 1990: 115–26, Luce 2011b, Luce 2011a, McInerney 2011, McInerney (forthcoming). For discussion in particular on the north-south trade corridor: Kase, Szemler, Wilkie, and Wallace 1991.

  5. Picard 1991: 243.

  6. This is, however, unlikely. Tripod dedications, often identical to the ones at Delphi, are known from a variety of sites in the eighth century BC, many of which never had an oracle: Bommelaer 1991: 15–16.

  7. Inception last quarter eighth century: e.g., Morgan 1990: 134. Problems of such a link: e.g., Osborne 2009: 192.

  8. Luce 2008: 437. At the same time, of course, later literary sources claim the oracle was fully involved in a number of well-known Greek myths stretching far back in time: Kings Codrus and Aegeus of Athens consulted; famously, the family of Oedipus of Thebes as well as the Thebes’s rulers during the era of “the seven against Thebes”; King Oenomaus of Pisa; Orestes of the Atreus family; Io the nymph priestess of Hera seduced by Zeus; Jason who sought the Golden Fleece; Trophonius and Agamedes who were associated with the early building of the temple of Apollo at Delphi; Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles; and Heracles the demigod. As well, the oracle at Delphi was said to have given
responses concerning Orpheus the son of Apollo, told the Epidaurians to worship Asclepius, identified the shoulder bone of the hero Pelops, set up the oracle at Olympia and the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea, and been involved in the establishment of the shrine of Apollo Pythaios at Argos: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 297–318, 340–51, 367–68.

  9. For further discussion, see Osborne 2009: 153–95.

  10. See Morgan 1990: 155–61, 184–85.

  11. Rejecting all accounts: e.g., Fontenrose 1978. Here, I have followed the list of fake and historical oracles in Morgan 1990: 186–90. Examples of “fakes”: involvement of the Delphic oracle in encouraging the Dorian invasion of Greece, and the Ionian migration: see Parke and Wormell 1956a: 55–57. Also consultations that link the oracle to authorizing the beginning of the Olympic games (Parke and Wormell 485; 486); the city of Aegion asking who were the better Greeks and being told that they were not in the reckoning (Parke and Wormell 1). Plut. Mor. 492A–B claims that the Thessalians consulted a “lot” oracle at Delphi when choosing Aleuas the Red as king.

  12. In terms of individual consultations, the first more reliable consultation is that of Archilochus, the poet from Paros in the seventh century BC on the issue of his prospects for begetting children, and, later on, about what to do during hard financial times: Parke and Wormell 231, 232; Parke and Wormell 1956a: 396.

  13. Parke and Wormell 29, 21, 217–21.

  14. Tyrtaeus frag. 5 (West) repeated in Plut. Vit. Lyc. 6, and Diod. Sic. 7.12.5.

  15. Process, oaths, land: Parke and Wormell 222, 539, 561. Warning: Parke and Wormell 222

  16. Commencement: Parke and Wormell 296. Improve fortunes: Parke and Wormell 363, 297, 299.

  17. Maximize chances: Parke and Wormell 365. Conduct during war: Parke and Wormell 364: it is ironic here that the oracle is supposed to have told Sparta to use trickery to take Messenia and to have warned the Messenians to beware Spartan trickery! Salvation: Parke and Wormell 298, 366, 367.

  18. The oracle advised them to bring the bones of Orestes back to Sparta: Parke and Wormell 32, 33.