Of all the oracles of the ancient Greek world, that of Delphi was undoubtedly the most important. Many who consulted the oracles of Didyma, Dodona, Olympia, Claros, Efira or Delos, asked for a second opinion at Delphi, if they could afford it.
Even so, it was not the oldest, an honor that fell to Dodona, already mentioned by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey , although it is one of the richest.
The prophetess of the temple of Apollo in Delphi, the Pythia, seated on a tripod arranged on the crack from which the gases that made her go into a trance emanated, returned to the consultants the oracle of the god, who spoke through her.
They used to be enigmatic messages and subject to different interpretations. As Plutarch says:
The Pythia and her prophecies were not infallible and the Greeks knew it. Her revelations were not considered objective truths, and therefore several oracles were consulted.
Located next to Mount Parnassus in Phocis, on whose southern slope it extends, the sanctuary of Delphi was founded around 750 BC. and there is evidence that as late as A.D. 424. it still maintained a certain activity, when the oracle had already disappeared and the Greek world was essentially Christian. Approximately 1,100 years of existence.
During a good part of that time, the oracle influenced, with its predictions and prophecies, political and religious life, first in Greece and then in the Roman world. All kinds of people came to consult the Pythia, from great kings to peasants, as long as they could pay the fees.
Of the answers offered by the Pythia throughout the history of the oracle, many have survived, more than 500 collected by ancient sources, although knowing how many of them are authentic is complicated. In any case, they were preserved because of their historical importance, or because they were especially notable literary.
The episode that occurred in 560 BC is especially famous, when King Croesus of Lydia ordered the main oracles of Greece to be consulted, all at the same time, to see which was more reliable.
He sent emissaries to all of them with the order to ask, on the same day and at the same hour, what Croesus himself was doing at that moment. Delphi replied that the king was making a lamb and turtle stew, and she was right.
So Croesus again consulted him (but at the same time also another oracle, just in case) if he should attack Persia. The answer was that if he did, he would destroy an empire.
Of course, the empire he destroyed was his own.
The Roman occupation would mark the beginning of the decline of the sanctuary. The writer Plutarch, who was during the last 30 years of his life (he lived between 46 and 127 AD) administrator of the amphictyony and main priest of the temple (in practice the one in charge of the sanctuary and responsible for interpreting the omens of the Pythia) speaks of the feeling of abandonment that Delphi produces. In his time the Pythia had even stopped giving her answers in verse and now did so in prose. The political influence of the oracle had almost completely disappeared.
The last straw was the arrival of a new religion, Christianity. As it was imposed in the Greco-Roman world, fewer and fewer people went to the oracles, so that they gradually disappeared, becoming silent. Ancient Christian writers wanted to discredit both the oracle and the Pythia, who is often portrayed as a demon-possessed woman.
However, the amphictyony continued to function and organize the Pythian Games, which had been held first every 8 years, and then every 4 alternating with the Olympic Games. There are laws (Cod. Theodosianus 15.5.4) that allude to the Pythian Games as late as AD 424. which would mean that they were still being celebrated.
Emperor Julian II, nicknamed by Christians the apostate , who reigned between 361 and 363 AD. he wanted to restore and revive the old pagan religion and prevent the spread of Christianity. For this, what better than to consult the oracle of Delphi. In the year 362 AD. he sent Oribasio with the mission to consult the Pythia about it, and the answer he got is considered as the last words of the oracle of Delphi:
The oracle was preserved in Ecclesiastical history of Philostorgio the Arian, who died around 439 AD. His work has not survived to this day, but Photius reviewed it in his Myriobiblion in the 9th century and wrote an epitome of its contents that has survived.
According to Christian scholars, that simply meant, don't bother, Apollo is dead . For a long time it was thought that these words were nothing more than an invention designed to expose Julian. Many scholars now think that, if they were authentic, they could be interpreted in another way:as a request for help.
In fact, the Byzantine chronicler George Cedrenus, who lived in the 11th century, wrote that Julian sent Oribasius to Delphi to organize the rebuilding of the temple . Thus, the oracle's response would serve to confirm to the emperor the need to launch this reconstruction program, due to the poor state of the temple and the sanctuary.
In some places they are quoted as the last words of the oracle of Delphi everything is over , making them coincide in the year 393 AD. with the decree of Theodosius definitively closing the pagan temples and prohibiting the Olympic Games. A book written in 1892 by Gilbert E.A. Grindle titled The destruction of paganism in the Roman Empire from Constantine to Justinian . However, we have reviewed two of the versions of the book that can be consulted online, and we have not found a trace of such words.
However, it must be recognized that they would have been a great ending.