Editing Delphi (section)

===The sacred precinct in the Iron Age===
[[File:07Delphi Fries01 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Section of the frieze from the [[Treasury of the Siphnians]], now in the museum]]
Excavation at Delphi, which was a post-Mycenaean settlement of the late ninth&nbsp;century BC, has uncovered artifacts increasing steadily in volume beginning with the last quarter of the eighth century&nbsp;BC. Pottery and bronze as well as tripod dedications continue in a steady stream, in contrast to [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]. Neither the range of objects nor the presence of prestigious dedications proves that Delphi was a focus of attention for a wide range of worshippers, but the large quantity of valuable goods, found in no other mainland sanctuary, encourages that view.

[[Apollo]]'s sacred precinct in Delphi was a [[Panhellenic Sanctuary]], where every four years, starting in 586&nbsp;BC{{sfn|Miller|2004|p=96}} athletes from all over the Greek world competed in the [[Pythian Games]], one of the four [[Panhellenic Games]], precursors of the [[Modern Olympics]]. The victors at Delphi were presented with a laurel crown (''stephanos'') that was ceremonially cut from a tree by a boy who re-enacted the slaying of the Python.{{sfn|Miller|2004|p=96}} (These competitions are also called stephantic games, after the crown.) Delphi was set apart from the other games sites because it hosted the mousikos agon, musical competitions.{{sfn|Miller|2004|p=95}}

These Pythian Games rank second among the four stephantic games chronologically and in importance.{{sfn|Miller|2004|p=96}} These games, however, were different from the games at Olympia in that they were not of such vast importance to the city of Delphi as the games at Olympia were to the area surrounding Olympia. Delphi would have been a renowned city regardless of whether it hosted these games; it had other attractions that led to it being labeled the "omphalos" (navel) of the earth, in other words, the centre of the world.{{sfn|Miller|2004|p=96}}{{sfn|Miller|2004|p=97}}
[[File:Ciriaco d'Ancona di Benozzo Gozzoli.jpg|thumb|right|[[Cyriacus of Ancona]], first [[Western Europe|Westerner]] to describe the remains in Delphi in 1436]]
[[File:Porträt der Society of Dilettanti.jpg|right|thumb|The [[Society of Dilettanti]] organized a study expedition to Delphi in 1766]]

In the inner ''hestia'' ([[hearth]]) of the Temple of Apollo, an [[eternal flame]] burned. After the [[battle of Plataea]], the Greek cities extinguished their fires and brought new fire from the hearth of Greece, at Delphi; in the [[foundation story|foundation stories]] of several Greek colonies, the founding colonists were first dedicated at Delphi.{{sfn|Burkert|1985|pp=61, 84}}