Editing Delphi (section)

==Myths regarding the origin of the precinct==
[[File:CHURCH(1893) p073 DELPHI.jpg|thumb|300px|Vulva of the Earth, Ge or Gaia, with the two [[Phaedriades]] above resembling her breasts. In this drawing the village of Castro still occupies the site. The footprint of the modern road is in the foreground. The village was thus entirely on the upper site. Below the road is the Marmoria, or "marble quarry", where the villagers mined structural stone. The picture below shows the site after the removal of the village.]]

In the ''[[Iliad]]'', [[Achilles]] would not accept [[Agamemnon]]'s peace offering even if it included all the wealth in the "stone floor" of "rocky Pytho" (I 404). In the ''[[Odyssey]]'' (θ 79) Agamemnon crosses a "stone floor" to receive a prophecy from Apollo in Pytho, the first known of proto-history.<ref>{{harvnb|Lloyd-Jones|1976|p=60}}</ref> Hesiod also refers to Pytho "in the hollows of Parnassus" (Theogony 498). These references imply that the earliest date of the oracle's existence is the eighth century BC, the probable date of composition of the Homeric works.

The main myths of Delphi are given in three literary "loci".<ref>{{harvnb|Parke|1939|p=6}}</ref> H. W. Parke, the Delphi scholar, argued that the myths are self-contradictory,{{efn|1="All three versions, instead of being simple and traditional, are already selective and tendentious. They disagree with each other..."}} thereby aligning with the [[Plutarch]]ian epistemology that these myths are not to be taken as literal historical accounts but as symbolic narratives meant to explain oracular traditions." Parke asserts that there is no Apollo, no Zeus, no Hera, and certainly never was a great, serpent-like monster, and that the myths are pure Plutarchian figures of speech, meant to be [[Origin myth|aetiologies]] of some oracular tradition.

[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn 3]], "To Apollo", is the oldest of the three loci, dating to the seventh century BC (estimate).{{efn|1=The poem has two parts, "To Delian Apollo" and "To Pythian Apollo". The Pytho myth is only in the latter.}} Apollo travels about after his birth on [[Delos]] seeking a place for an oracle. He is advised by [[Telephus]] to choose [[Crissa]] "below the glade of [[Parnassus]]", which he does, and has a temple built, having killed the serpent that guards the spring. Subsequently, some Cretans from [[Knossos]] sail up on a mission to reconnoitre [[Pylos]]. Changing into a dolphin, Apollo casts himself on deck. The Cretans do not dare to remove him but sail on. Apollo guides the ship around Greece, ending back at Crisa, where the ship grounds. Apollo enters his shrine with the Cretans to be its priests, worshipping him as ''Delphineus'', "of the dolphin".

Zeus, a Classical deity, reportedly determined the site of Delphi when he sought to find the centre of his "Grandmother Earth" ([[Gaia]]). He sent two eagles flying from the eastern and western extremities, and the path of the eagles crossed over Delphi where the [[omphalos]], or navel of Gaia was found.<ref>Graves, Robert (1993), "The Greek Myths: Complete Edition" (Penguin, Harmondsworth)</ref><ref name="Harissis 2019">{{harvnb|Harissis|2019}}</ref>

According to [[Aeschylus]] in the prologue of the ''[[Oresteia#The Eumenides|Eumenides]]'', the oracle had origins in prehistoric times and the worship of [[Gaia]], a view echoed by H. W. Parke, who described the evolution of beliefs associated with the site. He established that the prehistoric foundation of the oracle is described by three early writers: the author of the ''Homeric Hymn to Apollo'', [[Aeschylus]] in the prologue to the ''Eumenides'', and [[Euripides]] in a chorus in the ''Iphigeneia in Tauris''. Parke goes on to say, "This version [Euripides] evidently reproduces in a sophisticated form the primitive tradition which Aeschylus for his own purposes had been at pains to contradict: the belief that Apollo came to Delphi as an invader and appropriated for himself a previously existing oracle of [[Gaia|Earth]]. The slaying of the serpent is the act of conquest which secures his possession; not as in the ''Homeric Hymn'', a merely secondary work of improvement on the site. Another difference is also noticeable. The ''Homeric Hymn'', as we saw, implied that the method of prophecy used there was similar to that of [[Dodona]]: both Aeschylus and Euripides, writing in the fifth century, attribute to primeval times the same methods as used at Delphi in their own day. So much is implied by their allusions to tripods and prophetic seats... [he continues on p.&nbsp;6] ...Another very archaic feature at Delphi also confirms the ancient associations of the place with the Earth goddess. This was the Omphalos, an egg-shaped stone which was situated in the innermost sanctuary of the temple in historic times. Classical legend asserted that it marked the 'navel' (Omphalos) or center of the Earth and explained that this spot was determined by [[Zeus]] who had released two eagles to fly from opposite sides of the earth and that they had met exactly over this place". On p.&nbsp;7 he writes further, "So Delphi was originally devoted to the worship of the Earth goddess whom the Greeks called Ge, or Gaia. [[Themis]], who is associated with her in tradition as her daughter and partner or successor, is really another manifestation of the same deity: an identity that Aeschylus recognized in another context. The worship of these two, as one or distinguished, was displaced by the introduction of Apollo. His origin has been the subject of much learned controversy: it is sufficient for our purpose to take him as the ''Homeric Hymn'' represents him – a northern intruder – and his arrival must have occurred in the dark interval between Mycenaean and Hellenic times. His conflict with Ge for the possession of the cult site was represented under the legend of his slaying the serpent.<ref>Herbert William Parke, ''The Delphic Oracle'', v. 1, p. 3.</ref>

One tale of the sanctuary's discovery states that a goatherd, who grazed his flocks on Parnassus, one day observed his goats playing with great agility upon nearing a chasm in the rock; the goatherd noticing this held his head over the chasm causing the fumes to go to his brain; throwing him into a strange trance.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog |title=Lives of the Necromancers |year=1876 |page=[https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog/page/n169 11] |author=William Godwin |publisher=London, F. J. Mason}}</ref>

The [[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo]] recalled that the ancient name of this site had been ''Krisa''.<ref>''Hymn to Pythian Apollo'', l. 254–74: [[Telphousa]] recommends to Apollo to build his oracle temple at the site of "Krisa below the glades of [[Mount Parnassus|Parnassus]]".</ref>

Others relate that the site was named '''Pytho''' (Πυθώ) and that Pythia, the priestess serving as the oracle, was chosen from their ranks by the priestesses who officiated at the temple. Apollo was said to have slain [[Python (mythology)|Python]], a ''drako'' (a male serpent or a dragon) who lived there and protected the [[Omphalos|navel]] of the [[Gaia (mythology)|Earth]].<ref name=IK/> "Python" (derived from the verb πύθω (''pythō''),<ref name=rot/> "to [[Decomposition|rot]]") is claimed by some to be the original name of the site in recognition of Python that Apollo defeated.{{sfn|Miller|2004|p=95}}

The name ''Delphi'' comes from the same root as δελφύς ''delphys'', "womb" and may indicate archaic veneration of [[Gaia]] at the site. Several other scholars discuss the likely prehistoric beliefs associated with the site.{{efn|Such was its prestige that most Hellenes after 500&nbsp;BCE placed its foundation in the earliest days of the world: before Apollo took possession, they said, Ge (Earth) (''Gaia'') and her daughter Themis had spoken oracles at Pytho. Such has been the strength of the tradition that many historians and others have accepted as historical fact the ancient statement that Ge and Themis spoke oracles before it became Apollo's establishment, yet nothing but the myth supports this statement. In the earliest account known of the Delphic oracle's beginnings, the story found in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (281–374), there was no [[oracle]] before Apollo came and killed the great she-dragon, Pytho's only inhabitant. This was apparently the Delphic myth of the sixth century.<ref>Fontenrose, Joseph (1978). ''The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Operations, with a Catalogue of Responses'', pp. 3–4.</ref>}}{{efn|The earth is the abode of the dead, therefore the earth-deity has power over the ghostly world: the shapes of [[dream]]s, which often foreshadowed the future, were supposed to ascend from the world below, therefore the earth-deity might acquire an oracular function, especially through the process of incubation, in which the consultant slept in a holy shrine with his ear upon the ground. That such conceptions attached to Gaia is shown by the records of her cults at Delphi, Athens, and Aegae. A recently discovered inscription speaks of a temple of Ge at Delphi... As regards Gaia, we also can accept it. It is confirmed by certain features in the latter Delphic divination, and also by the story of the Python.<ref>Farnell, Lewis Richard, ''The Cults of the Greek States'', v. III, pp. 8–10, onwards.</ref>}}

Apollo is connected with the site by his [[epithet]] Δελφίνιος ''Delphinios'', "the Delphinian". The epithet is connected with [[dolphin]]s (Greek δελφίς,-ῖνος) in the [[Homeric hymns|Homeric ''Hymn to Apollo'']] (line 400), recounting the legend of how Apollo first came to Delphi in the shape of a dolphin, carrying [[Crete|Cretan]] priests on his back. The [[Homer]]ic name of the oracle is ''Pytho'' (Πυθώ).<ref>[[Odyssey]], VIII, 80</ref> Another legend held that Apollo walked to Delphi from the north and stopped at [[Vale of Tempe|Tempe]], a city in [[Thessaly]], to pick laurel (also known as [[Bay laurel|bay tree]]) which he considered to be a sacred plant. In commemoration of this legend, the winners at the Pythian Games received a wreath of laurel picked in the temple.