The first diviner to occupy the Delphic oracle was the mother of the gods, Gaia. She was succeeded by her daughter, Themis. The third occupant was another daughter of Gaia, the Titaness Phoibe, who gave Apollo the surname of Phoibos as a birthday present. We have this information from the Pythia's own mouth, in the opening lines of Aischylos' tragedy Eumenides. As regards the rest of the story: how Apollo founded his first temple at Delphi, and how he slew the fearful dragon (a female serpent) near a spring, this is recounted in the ancient Homeric hymn to Apollo. In later times, men believed this serpent to have been male and even more redoubtable, none other than the famous Python, guardian of Gaia's oracle; the battle that the young god who had come from the north - from the valley of Tempe - fought against the serpent was indeed a great and terrible one. They also believed that although a god, Apollo complied to the divine rule which he himself had set: that whoever defiled his hands with the blood of murder should be sent into exile. Thus the god departed for eight years and worked in the service of Admetos, King of Pherai, in order to cleanse himself of the pestilent blood of murder; then he returned, purified and clean at last, sole master of the Delphic oracle.
This is what the ancients had to say about the beginnings of the legendary oracle. But concerning the site itself, that unique site which overwhelms whoever visits it for the first time, they had another story to tell. Zeus, wishing to find the centre of the earth, let loose two eagles from the two ends of the world; the sacred birds met at Delphi, which meant that there was the "navel" of the earth. Hence, Apollo's sanctuary contained, since remotest times, an omphalos (navel-stone), and votive offerings in the shape of the omphalos were presented to the god by pious pilgrims from all over the world. The Apollonian oracle was indeed celebrated and venerated throughout the inhabited world. Not only Greeks, but barbarian monarchs as well sent envoys to consult the oracle and expressed their gratitude by dedicating sumptuous gifts and votive offerings to the god.
The Site: Such are the myths of the ancients concerning Apollo, Delphi and the celebrated oracle. However, before we come to the Delphic sanctuary and speak of the Delphic cult, we must first take a look at the place itself - the place which was once behind to be the centre of the earth. The usual approach to Delphi by land is by means of the road climbing up from Boiotia towards Arachova and then descending westward; it is the same road which the god himself followed when he first came to Delphi, as we are informed by the Homeric hymn to Apollo. Another approach is by means of the Corinthian gulf, and that was the one used by the first priests of Apollo, who were Cretans. Now the visitor encounters a landscape vividly described in the Homeric hymn: "You climbed rapidly (Phoibos is being addressed here) running across the hill-tops and you reached the regions of Krisa below Mount Parnassos which is covered with much snow, at the point where it forms a knee to the west, and a large rock overhangs the spot, while below a wild valley stretches out; this was the spot where the Lord Phoibos Apollo decided to have a beautiful temple..."
Anybody coming upon the holy site for the first time is struck with awe. "It is as if the earth had been cleft asunder by some cosmogonic spasm; the valley is a vast and profound chasm... And as soon as we reach the foot of the Phaidriades, at the exact spot of the Kastalian Spring, we are faced with something that appears like the chasm of chasms: the two rocks are separated by a tremendous gorge, narrow and impassable - the Arkoudorema (the Bear's Gully) as it is known today - which continues all the way down the slope, deep into the thicket". And there, at the point where the two rocks meet, in the deepest recess of the gorge and at the foot of the east rock (known anciently as Hyampeia and presently as Flempoukos), the most limpid water gushes forth: it is the water of the celebrated Kastalian Fountain where both priests and pilgrims cleansed themselves before entering the temple. On the western side, at the foot of the rock named Rhodini, Apollo's sanctuary, the most famous in ancient Greece, extends across the opening on the rising ground. And down below, the deep valley of the Pleistos river spreads out, green and silver with olive-groves, and merges with the plain of Itea stretching all the way down to the sea-coast.
The history of Delphi: The history of Delphi is inextricably bound with the history of the sanctuary and the oracle; to be more precise, Delphi only existed as a township under the shadow of the sanctuary. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of an insignificant settlement on the site of the sanctuary and further east, dating back to c. 1400 B.C. This settlement was destroyed at the end of the Mycenaean period, but came back to life in Geometric times, when Apollo's cult began to take root in that region. Hence-forward, Delphi acquired world fame and power of a kind unparalleled in Greece, although it remained a small town, sparsely populated. Over the course of 250 years, four sacred wars were waged for this small town, and at the end it caused the annihilation of the Phokians.
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