Delphi: record of significant events

Earliest dates are uncertain within a small range.  Dates marked “ca.” are less certain.

• Sanctuary sacred to Mother Earth.  Called Pytho.  (Iliad IX 405, Odyssey VII, 80)
• 595 (ca) Castalian fountain built
• 595 - 586 First Sacred War of Amphictyonic League against Krisa
• 582 Start of Pythian games
• 548 Temple of Apollo destroyed by fire
• 525 (ca) Treasury of Siphnos built
• 510 Temple of Apollo rebuilt by the Alkmaeonid family of Athens
• 506 (ca) Treasury of Athens built

• 491 King Demaratus (second king of Sparta) had been undermining Cleomenes. Upon his return, Cleomenes conspires with Leotychides to make L king in place of D.  Conspiracy succeeds with assistance of bribe to Delphic oracle. (Her. 6.63)
• 480 Oracle: Delphi: oracle predicting doom to Athens.
• 480 Oracle: Delphi: (priestess Aristonice) “the wooden wall alone shall not fall”  “divine Salamis would bring death to the sons of women” (Her. 7.141)
• 480 Oracle: Delphi oracle to citizens of Delphi: “Pray to the winds for they will be good allies to Greece.” (Her. 7.178)
• 480 Persian expedition against Delphi.  Purpose?  Turns back after rock fall.
• 478 The Charioteer, sculpture, at Delphi
• 448 – 446 Second Sacred War.  Sparta aiding Delphi to resist Athens.
• 373 Temple of Apollo destroyed by earthquake
• 356 – 346 Third Sacred war
• 340 – 338 Fourth Sacred war
• 330 Temple of Apollo rebuilt (current one)
• 279 Roman advance turned back by earthquake
• 160 – 159 Theater rebuilt by Eumenes II of Pergamon
• 83 Temple plundered and burned by Thracians
• 86 BCE Precinct plundered by Roman general Sulla
• 67 CE Nero seized statues
• ____ Pausanias visits
• ____ Constantine removes statues
• 362 Julian the Apostate consults oracle for the final time
• 365 Massive earthquake damages Temple of Apollo
• 395 Delphi closed by Emperor Theodosius
• 500-600 Four Christian churches exist on site
• 650-700 Slave invasion severely damages site
• 1436 Italian merchant Cyriac of Anacona first of modern visitors
• 1892 Village moved to present location
• 1892-1901 First phase of excavations by French and Greeks
• 1943 Battle with German forces near gymnasium
• 2001 Discovery of the faults under temple of Apollo

The end of the oracle

After the Christians took power in Rome, all ancient "pagan" sites fell into disuse or were actively plundered. About 360AD the last of the pagan emperors, Julian allegedly asked the oracle at Delphi for one last answer. Perhaps true, perhaps Christian triumphalism, the oracle allegedly answered:

Tell the king, the fair-wrought house has fallen.
No shelter has Apollo, nor sacred laurel leaves;
The fountains now are silent; the voice is stilled.

Leaving aside the irony of a voice that announces there is no voice - a fitting ambiguity to close a thousand years of ambiguity - this is a haunting quote. Or it should be. For what followed was not the voice of Christian oracles, pushing all of us to understand the ambiguity of our lives rooted in flesh but yearning for divinity but rather the merciless clarity and precision of laws, rules and the crushing finality of structure and hierarchy.

And we all live now in a world where all the oracles are silent. All of them.

Delphi came into maturity approximately 600 BCE and was well established by the classical era. It is mentioned in Homer. However, there are signs of habitation back to the Neolithic period.

Several different gods and goddesses were celebrated there before Apollo took pride of place.

As a result of several "sacred wars" a league of cities in the area became responsible for tending to the affairs of the site and running the Pythian games. "Pythia" means "snake" and is in reference to a cult of a great snake in a nearby cave that Apollo bested.

In the Hellenistic period, the site started to fall from its days of glory. The Romans plundered the site and the oracle fell into disuse. Eventually early Christian leaders had it shut down and the site fell silent for a thousand years and more. Slowly it was covered under a layer of rock and soil.

A small town grew up on the site and it wasn't until the late 1800's that serious archeology began. Because no cave under the temple had ever been found, for most of the modern era, people thought the ancient stories were bunk or credulous writings of pre-scientific people. But just at the end of the 20th century, scientists found that there were fissures running underneath the temple from two faults and they do produce gasses that, when inhaled, can produce hallucinogenic effects.

The location of the shrine in this spot was no accident.