place

Delphi

Places

A sanctuary on the slopes of Parnassus, famous in antiquity for an oracle of Apollo and for the older story of a serpent killed there.

Also known as Pytho

Hellenic religion

  • Delphi belongs to Hellenic religion.

    Delphi is a Greek sanctuary. Pausanias treats it as a place one can walk through and describe.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    belongs to · sourced · documented

  • Delphi is associated with Oracle.

    The oracle of Apollo at Delphi is the site’s most famous institution. The word oracle here has a Greek address.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Serpent is associated with Delphi.

    Pausanias records the story of a serpent at Delphi slain so that the oracle could be established. The Python is a local opponent, not Quetzalcoatl.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Prophecy appears in Delphi.

    Delphi was famous for Apollo’s oracle. Prophecy here is a seated, civic, expensive answer, not Ifá and not a raven’s cry.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • Divination appears in Delphi.

    Pausanias’s Delphi is a working oracular site in the Roman-era landscape. The method is not Ifá’s chain and palm nuts.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • Apollo is sacred to Delphi.

    Pausanias’s Delphi is Apollo’s oracular house. The god and the slope belong together in that travel-book.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    sacred to · sourced · documented

  • Stone is associated with Delphi.

    Sanctuaries are stone piled on a slope. Delphi’s working body is rock, terrace, and a named omphalos in later description.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    associated with · partially sourced · documented

  • Mountain is associated with Delphi.

    Delphi sits on Parnassus. The sanctuary is a mountain place in Pausanias’s walk.

    from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Apollo appears in Delphi.

    The Homeric Hymn to Apollo tells of the god’s taking of a Delphic seat and of a serpent slain there. The poem is a Greek foundation-story, not Pausanias’s later walk, though they share a slope.

    from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Apollo, c. 7th–6th century BCE

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • Athena is connected to Delphi.

    Athena is not Delphi’s owner; Apollo is. The two cults share a Greek world without sharing a priesthood.

    from Anonymous (Homeric hymn) · Homeric Hymn to Apollo, c. 7th–6th century BCE; Walter Burkert · Greek Religion, 1977 German; 1985 English

    connected to · interpretive · culturally specific

sources