Delphi, once known as Pytho in legend, was a major oracle that was consulted for critical choices throughout the ancient classical world. It was also the site of Pythia, an ancient sacred precinct regarded by the ancient Greeks as the center of the world.

Delphi is situated in the Fokida Regional Unit in Central Greece, above Mount Parnassos. Perched at 550
1 meter above sea level, the location offers excellent views of the surroundings. Since it is commonly held that Apollo initially arrived in the area shaped like a dolphin, the name Delphi is derived from the word "dolphin." Delphi, located in Phocis, mainland Greece, close to the Gulf of Corinth, is situated between two towering rocks of Mount Parnassus known as the Phaidriades (Shining) Rocks. The ancient Greeks believed Delphi to be the center of the earth.
The major oracle was consulted about important decisions. The oracle had origins in prehistory, and it became international in character and also fostered sentiments of Greek nationality. The ancient Greeks considered the center of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the omphalos (NAVEL). The sacred precinct of Ge, or Gaia, was in the region of PHOKIS, but its management had been placed in the hands of the Amphictyony, or committee of persons chosen mainly from central Greece. The sacred precinct occupies a delineated region of the southwestern slope of Parnassus.

TEMPLE OF APOLLO

One of the main components of the Panhellenic religious sanctuary at Delphi, Central Greece, was the Temple of Apollo, also called Apollonion. Apollo, the god of archery, music, light, prophecy, the arts, and healing, was one of themain Greek deities honored in the temple and sanctuary as a whole.

Today's apparent remnants of the Temple of Apollo dated from the fourth century BC. and depict a Doric edifice on the outskirts. It was built on the foundations of a previous temple that was built in the sixth century BC which had been erected on the site of a seventh -century BC construction attributed in legend to the architects Trophonios and Agamedes.Ancient tradition accounted for four temples that successively occupied the site before the 548\7 BC.The first temple was said to have been constructed out of laurel,the second was made by bees out of wax and wings the third was made of copper and the fourth was said to have been constructed of stone.

TREASURIES

From the entrance of the upper site continuing up the slope on the sacred way are a large number of votive statues and numerous so-called treasuries. These were built by many of the Greek city-states to commemorate victories and to thank the oracle for the advice, which was thought to have contributed to those victories. The most impressive is the restored Athenian treasury to commemorate the battle of Marathon in 490 BC.
The Siphnian Treasury was dedicated by the city of Siphnos, whose citizens gave a tithe from their silver mines until the mines came to an abrupt end and the sea flooded their workings. One of the largest of the treasuries was that of Argos. The Argives took pride in establishing their place at Delphi amongst the other city-states.

Altar of the Chians

Located in front of the temple of Apollo the main altar of the sanctuary was paid for and built by the people of Chios. Made entirely of black marble except for the base and cornice the altar would have made a striking impression.

Stoa of the Athenians

At the base of the polygonal wall that retains the terrace where the temple of Apollo is located, the stoa, or open-sided covered porch, is positioned roughly east-west. The nearby presence of the treasury of the Athenians suggests that this quarter of Delfi was used for Athenian business or politics as stoas are generally found in market places.

The Sibyl rock is a pulpit-like outcrop of rock between the Athenian treasury and the stoa of the Atheniens upon the sacred way that leads up to the temple of Apollo.The rock is clamed to be the location from which the prehistoric Sibyl sat to deliver her prophecies.

The ancient theatre was built farther up the hill.It was originally built in the fourth century BC.While its eastern portion overrides a small creek that led the water of the fountain Cassotis just beneath the Apollo temple, the koilon (cavea) leans against the mountain's natural slope. At first, the orchestra was a complete circle with a diameter of seven meters.Two arched apertures were created by the rectangular scene construction.The parodoi, or side corridors, provided access to the theater.Numerous manumission inscriptions documenting fictitious slave sales to the deity are etched on the parodoi's support walls.Through a tunnel known as the diazoma, the koilon was separated horizontally into two zones.There were just eight rows of seats in the upper zone compared to 27 in the lower one.The bottom portion of the koilon was separated into seven tiers by six radially oriented staircases.

The circular tholos in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaea was built somewhere between 380 and 360 BC.It was composed of 10 Corinthians columns inside and twenty Doric columns grouped with an outside diameter of 14.76 meters.

The Delfi youth used a set of structures that included the gymnasium, which is located half a mile from the main church.The structure had two floors: a palaestra, pool, and bathrooms on the lower level, and a stoa with an open area on the upper level.It was claimed that these spas and pools possessed magical abilities.

Beyond the theater and the Via Sacra, farther up the hill, sits the stadium.Although it was constructed in the fifth century BC, it underwent modifications in subsequent years.

Prominent political figures like Hieron, the tyrant of Syracuse, and Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sikyon, participated with their chariots at the Pythian Games.Archaeologists have been searching for the hippodrome for more over 200 years, and they have finally discovered remnants of it in the Krisa plain.

In 548 BC, the second temple of Apollo was constructed on a terrace supported by a retaining wall.Later, starting around 200 BC, the manumission contracts were engraved on the stones.

The Phaedriades ravine is home to the revered Delfi spring.Both the Archaic and Roman eras have retained remnants of two colossal fountains that were filled with spring water, the latter of which was carved into the rock.

Sibyl rock

Theatre

Tholos

Gymnasium

Stadium

Hippodrome

Polygonal wall

Life in Delphi begins long before the history of the sanctuary of Apollo, which was founded on the site of a Mycenaean settlement (1500-1100 BC) clinging to the steep cliff of the Phaedriades.

Its inhabitants must have had their own cults and must have performed religious rituals in their houses, the remains of which have been found in the deepest layers of the excavation or on some altar or at the graves of their dead. Earlier archaeologists and historians of religion saw in these female figurines and in the Minoan stone rhyton, the precious ritual vessel in the shape of a lion’s head (16th century BC) that was found under the temple of Apollo, archaeological proof of what the subsequent literary tradition has handed down to us with regard to the cults that existed prior to that of Apollo—dedications to Ge or Gaea, the well-known Mother Earth of the Mycenaean pantheon—many standing Mycenaean female figurines of the <phi> and <psi> type.
The archaeological finds, however, are too poor to corroborate the myth that presents Apollo not as the founder of the sanctuary and its oracle but as a conqueror of a site on which a prophetic female divinity was already worshipped. The god Apollo descended from Olympus to earth in search of a suitable place to establish its first oracle. Having wandered through various regions of central Greece, the god arrived in the area of Crisa. There he laid the foundations for his temple.
Later he used his bow and arrows to kill the enormous she-dragon. From then on Apollo acquired the epithet "Pythian," and the site where the dragoness lay rotting was called "Pytho." Then the God had to find people who would look after his sanctuary and serve him. So he transformed himself into a dolphin (Apollo Delphinious), and having found a ship bearing merchants travelling from Knossos to Pylos, he pulled it to the nearby port of Kira, and from there he led them to Pytho. These Cretan merchants became the first priests of the newly arrived god, reformers of an ancient cult. Among the early offerings of the faithful, the most official position is held by bronze tripods.
Initially cooking utensils that consisted of lebes (cauldrons) supported on a base with three legs, they evolved owing to the great value of their metal into valued prizes in contests and precious votive offerings to sanctuaries. The Pythia could comprehend and transmit the precious divine knowledge only when she was seated on a tripod that linked her with the chthonic powers. The many fragments of the cauldrons and their supports have made it possible to reconstruct their shape and technique fully and to attribute them to one of the known contemporary bronze foundries in the Peloponnese and Attica. At the beginning the geometric type prevailed with the three legs and two upright circular handles that were attached to the rim of the hammered metal cauldron with nails.

Bronze geometric statuettes appeared slightly later than the early tripods of humans and horses.

Male figures predominated among the anthropomorphic statuettes. The type of the helmeted warrior brandishing a spear and the proud animal, the horse, symbolized the privileged status of their dedicators in the contemporary aristocratic society of hoplites. In the late 8th century, together with dedications from all parts of Greece, the first imports from the East arrived in Delphi. Relations with the eastern world and its culture were commonplace in all Greek art in the 7th century BC, described as orientalizing. A new type of tripod—a hammered cauldron—is movable. It rests on a circular hoop supported by three fluted legs. Around the rim are busts of bulls, lions, and fantastical creatures such as griffins and sirens.
Griffins are mythical monsters with an eagle’s head and wings and the body of a lion. Sirens, winged creatures with the head of a woman, were thus named for their similarity to the Sirens in the Odyssey. The four-sided cauldron supports with their decoration of lacy open-work relief scenes originated in Cyprus. The shields with incised representations were a rare type of votive offering in Hellenic sanctuaries and resemble the shields found in the Idean Cave in Crete.
Monumental sculpture is provided by the appearance of the first large stone statues on Hellenic lands in the second half of the 7th century BC. The art of this period is called Daedalic after Daedalus, the sculptor who, according to tradition, was the first to create life-size statues and invest them with reality.
It was Argos early in the 6th century BC that sent the first monumental dedications consisting of two kouroi known by the names Cleobis and Biton. These two similar statues constitute a real pair. Gods or heroes, the statues have left us with a characteristic work of Argive plastic arts from the years of the transition from Daedalic to mature Archaic art in about 580 BC.
In about 560 BC. Just a few years after the offering of the Argive twins, the wealthy Cycladic island of Naxos sent an offering to Delphi. The statue of a Sphinx, which with its colossal size, form, and imposing position, expressed Naxian political and artistic supremacy in the Archaic period. The mysterious demonic figure of the mythical creation was mounted on a very high Ionic column that had been erected in front of a polygonal wall. The total height of this votive offering was 12.45 meters.
Later he used his bow and arrows to kill the enormous she-dragon. From then on Apollo acquired the epithet "Pythian," and the site where the dragoness lay rotting was called "Pytho." Then the God had to find people who would look after his sanctuary and serve him. So he transformed himself into a dolphin (Apollo Delphinious), and having found a ship bearing merchants travelling from Knossos to Pylos, he pulled it to the nearby port of Kira, and from there he led them to Pytho. These Cretan merchants became the first priests of the newly arrived god, reformers of an ancient cult. Among the early offerings of the faithful, the most official position is held by bronze tripods.
Initially cooking utensils that consisted of lebes (cauldrons) supported on a base with three legs, they evolved owing to the great value of their metal into valued prizes in contests and precious votive offerings to sanctuaries. The Pythia could comprehend and transmit the precious divine knowledge only when she was seated on a tripod that linked her with the chthonic powers. The many fragments of the cauldrons and their supports have made it possible to reconstruct their shape and technique fully and to attribute them to one of the known contemporary bronze foundries in the Peloponnese and Attica. At the beginning the geometric type prevailed with the three legs and two upright circular handles that were attached to the rim of the hammered metal cauldron with nails.

The Chryselephantine statues

The remains of these statues that were found in the depository constitute unique examples of a rare sculptural technique that combined sculpted ivory and hammered gold attached to a wooden core. Gold leaf or gilt sheets with hammered decoration that rendered the hair, dress, jewelry, and other details were fixed onto the wooden core of the statue, while the bare parts of the body were of ivory. The eyelashes were inlaid, as were the eyes.
The three gold and ivory statues constituted a group representing the Apollonian triad: Apollo with his sister Artemis and their mother, Leto.

The silver bull from the depository

It is a bull made of three sheets of silver. The mass of the statue was created by a wooden core. The gaps were filled with some malleable material, such as clay, wax, or plaster, on which the leaves rested. The metal plates were joined with bands of silver-plated bronze and affixed with silver and bronze nails. The horns, ears, forehead curls, hoofs, and other parts of the body were gilded. The dimensions of the statue have been altered in relation to its initial total length, which was about 2.30 meters.

It was part of a group representing a four-horse chariot. Near it excavators also found two horse’s hind legs and a tail, parts of the chariot harness, and a child’s hand and arm with remnants of reins. From beneath the long robe emerge two bare feet close to each other like twin brothers that are unrivalled in all of art history for their realism and vitality. Each toe is rendered separately. Under the skin, veins are visible. The nostrils seem to flare with quickened breath. The mouth is drawn with a sharp contour; the lips are parted. The hair is carved in an unbroken, tidy roundness that continues unbroken until caught at the forehead by the ribbon of victory.

Almond-shaped eyes are framed by strong eyelids. The eyes shine with inner light. The enamel orb has two circles of different-colored onyx. Together with the bronze parts of the offering that included the charioteer, parts of its stone pedestal were also found bearing a couplet fragment from its dedicatory verse inscription. The name Polyzalos survived, one of the four sons of Deinomenes, tyrant of Syracuse.

The twins from Argos.

The Sphinx

The charioteer.

THE GOLDEN-HAIRED APOLLO WITH HIS LYRE.

The figure of Pythian Apollo was preserved intact in a painted representation on a widerimmed kylix.This small drinking cup is the sole exhibit that did not come from the sanctuary.It was found in 1959 in a tomb under the site of today’s museum.It was a funeral gift that accompanied some famous man of Delphi.The exterior of the vessel is undecorated covered with black slip,burnished as in the Archaic period and has today taken a brown hue.The inside curved surface is covered by off-white slip on which the main emblem of the kylix has been painted the representation of Apollo pouring a libation.The god is depicted as a very young man crowned with laurel or myrtle leaves and with long hair that has been tied up in the back leaving the line of his neck defined.He is seated on a folding stool with crossed legs that terminate in the legs and paws of a lion.Over hias sleeveless tunic a simple undecorated purple mantle hangs from his left shoulder covering the lower part of his body.The fingers of his left hand are resting on the chords of the lyre,perhaps to strike up a hymn or paean.The depiction of the tortoise-shell sound box of the lyre calls to mind the story recounted that the newborn Hermes made the first lyre out of shell of a tortoise and oxhide.With his outstretched right hand the young Apollo is holding a ritual vessel from which he is pouring a libation.The scene takes place in front of a black bird,perhaps on the doves that nested in the temple of Apollo.The bird might be the crow that announced to Apollo the wedding of the nymph Coronis the beautiful daughter of king Phlegyas.According to the myth the god was angry at losing his beloved and cursed the crow to be as black as his heart.

This thematic column with the <dancers> is outstanding for its great height of thirteen metres.The dedication comprises a column of drums which resemples a plank stalk wound at regular intervals with lacy acanthus leaves.At its top three young women carved around another phytomorphic stalk appear to be suspended in the air .The figures wear short transparent chitons and head coverings shaped like small baskets. With their left hands they gasp the hems of their ethereal garments while raising their right arms in a breezy gesture.The maidens of the column are most probably the three daughters of the mythical Athenian king Cecrops who are offering the god his favourite symbol.The girls are supporting an enormous cauldron of a bronze tripod.Furthermore the most recent restoration of the monument places the stone omphalos on top as a lid for the sacred tripod augmenting the symbolic significance of the Athenian dedication.