The Oracle of Delphi: The Ancient World's Most Famous Seer

*Includes pictures*Includes ancient descriptions of the oracle*Includes a bibliography for further reading “Not often nor regularly, but occasionally and fortuitously, the room in which they seat the god's consultants is filled with a fragrance and breeze, as if the adyton were sending forth the essences of the sweetest and most expensive perfumes from a spring.” – Plutarch “[T]he seat of the oracle is a cavern hollowed down in the depths…from which arises pneuma [breath, vapor, gas] that inspires a divine state of possession.” – Strabo, Geography 9.3.5 The Oracle of Delphi was one of the greatest religious institutions in Ancient Greece and one which played a significant role not only in the formation and collective decisions of Hellenic localities and city-states but also in the personal lives of Greeks known and unknown. The site was dedicated to the god Apollo, and the Greeks believed the god spoke his oracles through his prophetess known as the Pythia. The judgments and decisions