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But what about the oracle?So what did really happen?
Common Myths about the Oracle
The oracle was a simple peasant girl Not very likely. She was a mature woman, whose official costume was that of a young woman.
The oracle muttered incoherently and male priests sorted out what she should have said This view is much more likely to be due to 19th and 20th century sexism than from ancient culture. There is, apparently, not one single ancient source that suggests this is what happened.
Oracles were issued from a special chamber under the temple. None has ever been found and it seems more likely that they were issued in a special room near the back, or on one side of the interior of the temple.
The oracle was celibate for life. She may be have celibate while in service, but that is not the same as assuming she was dedicated to perpetual virginity like a Catholic nun. She may have been widowed, or simply maintained celibacy for the term of her service - which was not for life.
There was just one oracle. No, there were two or three at any one time.
Oracles were ambiguous. Some were, some were not. Sometimes the oracle-giver would pick from two sealed urns. It's also thought that our memories of some oracles have suffered from rewriting them after the fact.
Somewhere in this part of the temple, the process of conducting an oracle occurred. It's easy to discuss archeology, politics, or social conditions. These require no facing of complex metaphysical issues. But there is no way to say 'what really happened' without answering those.
But what can be done is to narrow down the issues. First, let's observe that the priestess, the Pythia, was a woman and that (so the best evidence indicates) she did indeed say something that determined what message was given back. In other words, the central shrine of the misogynist Greeks, the agency that cities deferred to, that even Sparta followed - was a woman. And not a young, naive woman, but an older, mature woman, one of a team of two and sometimes three women who served as Pythia in rotation. Indeed women played a very prominent role in Greek religious practices and were, within a range, agents with authority.
Secondly, while no cavern has been found, in the late 1990s researchers did find that fissures in the rocks were located under the temple. And that from these fissures, ethane and methane gas is produced. And that these gases can indeed produce altered states of consciousness - but probably requiring concentrations higher than has been shown to be emitted now. So theories of the site that are based on everything being politics or being a total con game, or the like without anything to justify why the ancients chose this particular site seem less likely.
On the other hand, there seems no denying that Delphi was the political nerve center of Greece and that an active, intelligent person situated there would be in a fine position to gather intelligence on what was going on - indeed, if he could obtain the confidence of those coming to ask questions, he'd be in a better position than officials in any individual city. So, those around the oracle certainly knew inside information on those coming to ask questions.
What we don't know is extensive. We apparently know next to nothing of the social life of the priestesses, or the exact way they were chosen. However, we know some of their names. A couple are even satirized in the comic plays.
Some 5-600 oracles are known from Delphi, scattered throughout ancient literature. And they are famed for their ambiguity. However, many were not ambiguous at all. The oracle was consulted for questions that human effort and intelligence could not answer. It only gave answers that required the insight of a god.