Comments
Delphi was excavated by the French. It appears that few if any of their primary reports, or even follow-on papers have been translated to English. The Scott books cited at right explore this literature.
Links
Acropole HotelHave stayed here twice; fantastic view; wouldn't go elsewhere.
(Up 11/22/20; posted 10/30/13)
Villa Apollonia HotelHave stayed here but not recently. Upper floor rooms have nice view down to the sea.
(Up 11/22/20; posted 6/13/09)
Ancient Sources
The Homeric Hymn No. 3 "To Apollo" has a poetic description of the founding of the oracle. (ca. 550 BCE)
Pindar has a number of odes to the winners of the games here. (ca. 480 - 460 BCE)
Herodotus Recounts the famous story of Delphi consulting the oracle prior to the 2nd Persian invasion. However, his story of a double consultation is unlikely to have been true. (ca. 420 BCE)
Euripides in his play "Ion" recounts the myth about a child brought up at the site. (ca. 414 - 412 BCE)
Plutarch has three essays on Delphi: "The E at Delphi", "The Obsolescence of Oracles" and "The Oracles at Delphi no Longer given in Verse"(ca. 45-120 CE)
Strabo in book 9 of his "Geography" has a brief description of the site with some information about the games held there. (ca. 10-20 CE)
Lucan in his "Civil War" recounts a story (of unknown veracity) in Book V about Appius visiting Delphi and compelling the priestess to give an oracle. Appius forces the unlocking of the temple and physically shoves the priestess onto the tripod. At first no prophecy comes, but eventually a madness overcomes her and she gives him an ambiguous oracle, at great physical cost to her. (ca. 50-60 CE)
Pausanias has a long description of Delphi in his section on Phokis in Book X. (ca. 160-180 CE)
Articles
De Boer, Jelle, J. R. Hale, and J. Chanton. "New Evidence for the Geological Origins of the Ancient Delphic Oracle (Greece),"
Geology 29, no. 8 (August 2001): pp. 707-710.
J. Foster and D. Lehoux. "The Delphic Oracle and the ethylene-intoxication hypothesis," Clinical Toxicology (2007) 45 85-89.
Walter A. Franke, Magda Mircea, "Plutarch's Report on the Blue Patina of Bronze Statues at Delphi: A Scientific Explanation", Jurnal of the American Institute for Convervation, 44#2 Summer 2005, pp. 103-116.
Manuela Giordano, "Women's Voice and Religious Utterances in Ancient Greece", Religions 2011, 2, 729-743.
Peter Green, "Possession and Pneuma: The Essential Nature of the Delphic Oracle", Arion, Third Series, Vol. 17, No. 2 (FALL 2009), pp. 27-47
Lisa Maurizio, "Anthropology and Spirit Possession: A reconsideration of the Pythia's role at Delphi", J. of Hellenic Studies, (1995) pp. 69-86.
Lisa Maurizio, "Delphic Oracles as Oral Performances: Authenticity and Historical Evidence", Classical Antiquity, 16:2 (Oct 1997), pp. 308-334.
H. W. Parke, "The Days for Consulting the Delphic Oracle", The Classical Quarterly, 37(1/2) (Jan - Apr 1943) pp. 19-22.
Henry Spiller, John Hale, Jelle Be Boer, "The Delphic Oracle: A Multidisciplinary Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory", Clinical Toxicology, 40(2), 189-196 (2002)
Book chapters
Blue Guide to Greece: The Mainland, "Delphi"
Panos Valavanes, Angelos Delevorrias, Great Moments in Greek Archaeology, 2007
Joan B. Connelly
Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece
Princeton U., 2007
A revelation. She has uncovered and brought together a wonderful set of information and sources, ancient and modern. She challenges the reductionistic assumptions about the role of women at Delphi.
The book focuses on women's role in religion generally in ancient Greece.
Michael Scott
Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World
Princeton, 2014
Focuses on the full history of the site through the ages. Interesting for all eras, but particularly so for the Roman period and for the struggle to excavate the site in the late 1800s.
Michael Scott
Delphi and Olympia: The Spatial Politics of Panhellenism in the Archaic and Classical Periods
Cambridge, 2010
Wants to draw our focus past the micro-level analysis of individual statues and buildings to consider what message is being given by the location of particular works in relation to other buildings and the entirety of the site.
Panos Valavanis
Games and Sanctuaries in Ancient Greece
Kapon Editions, 2004
A lush large-format coffee-table book with many illustrations but also a serious text. Examines the four main games and the games at Athens.
William J. Broad
The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and the
Science Behind Its Lost Secrets
Penguin, 2006
Just a bit breathless and prone to hype all developments as revolutionary, nonetheless, this is an engaging introduction to Delphi and to the recent work that has shown that there was something to the notion of the oracle being in an altered state after all. Decent footnotes and bibliography allow you into the larger set of literature.
Hugh Bowden
Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle
Cambridge, 2005
A hard-headed, but not reductionistic, view of the oracle and what people thought of it. Collects and discusses references to oracles in ancient literature, including the plays.
Joseph Fontenrose
The Delphic Oracle: It's Responses and Operation with a catalogue of responses
U. of California, 1978
Notable for its list of 615 responses of the oracle, including indirect references and literary ones.
Manolis Andronicos
Delphi
Ekdotike Athenon, 2007
There are several guides to each of the ancient sites, this series seems to be backed and written by official archeologists. This book covers the site, going over the various buildings and describing the finds. A short history of the site is included, but this is not the publication for an in-depth history of Delphi and its role in Greek history.
Doesn't appear to have been updated lately.
Last modified 22 Nov. 20; posted 3/9/03; original content © 2020, 2009 John P. Nordin
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