A TRIP ROUTE

INTERESTING STORIES

Delphi was home to an oracle famous throughout ancient Greece, dating back to the Mycenaean period, when it was a place of worship for the chthonic god. The Greeks considered the sanctuary to be the omphalos, the navel of the world. Such a navel, carved in stone, you can see at Delphi. During the Homeric period, the oracle became the center of the cult of Apollo, and prophecies were delivered by the priestess Pythia, the seer of Apollo, seated on a tripod. Only men could approach the seer for a revelation from the oracle after performing a series of purification rites and offering prescribed sacrifices. During the ceremony, dressed in a white robe and adorned with a golden diadem and a wreath of laurel leaves, Pythia drank from the sacred spring of Kassotis. She then sat on a tripod placed over a cleft and, inhaling the intoxicating fumes, provided answers. The prophecy was considered an oracle of Zeus revealed through Apollo. The Delphic oracle's fame was so great that its predictions had a significant influence on the religion, politics, and laws of ancient Greece, and Delphi became a pan-Hellenic sanctuary. (source: www.wikipedia.org)