Delphi (49 page)

3
. Alcaeus F 142 West; Davies 2007: 49–50.

4
. See Roux 1976: 19–34.

5
. Anaxandra
FGrHist.
404 F 5; Callim. frag. 86–89; Plut.
Mor.
417F–418B. See also Parke and Wormell 1956a: 7.

6
. Ephorus
FGrHist.
70F 31B; see Strabo 9.3.11: its purpose was to “summon humanity to civilization and rebuke it” See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 378.

7
. Amandry 1950: appendix XCVI.

8
. Simon. frag. 26a; Fontenrose 1959: 15.

9
. Strabo 9.3.3; Fontenrose 1959: 410–11.

10
. E.g., Strabo 9.3.12; Paus. 10.6.1.

11
. Pind. frag. 55.

12
. See Paus. 10.6.6; 10.7.2; 2.7–8; Morgan 1990: 145, Luce 2008: 429.

13
. Strabo 8.6.14; Paus. 10.5.6; Ephorus
FGrHist
F150; Parke and Wormell
314.

14
. See Amandry 1950: 196–200; appendix XCVI, Parke and Wormell 1956a: 11 n.28. The argument often ran that Dionysus's followers were women, thus explaining the choice of a female oracular priest at Delphi: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 11. Dionysus's tomb was supposedly inside the temple of Apollo at Delphi (earliest source third century
BC
): Philoch.
FGrHist
328 f7. By Plutarch's time at the latest (first century
BC
), Dionysus ran Delphi for three months each winter: Plut.
Mor.
388E.

15
. Parke and Wormell 1956a: 13. For the argument that the Sibyl was active much earlier in the archaic and classical period: Pollard 1960.

16
. Paus. 10.6.1–4 and Plin.
HN
7.203.

17
. Pind. frag. 54; Plut.
Mor.
409E–410A; Strabo 9.3.6. In early Greek maps, Delphi occupied the exact center of the world, like Jerusalem in maps of medieval Christendom: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 1.

18
. Heraclitus frag. 93. See “Delphi, most famous of the clefts of ancient Greece, owed its name to this mythical image. ‘Delphi' signifies in fact the female generative organ”: Eliade 1962: 21, see Richter 1994.

19
. Centre of the Earth: Aesch.
Eum.
39; Soph.
OT
897. Cronus stone: Hes.
Theog.
498–500; Paus. 10.24.6. Voice or “omphe” of the gods: Apollod.
FGrHist
244f 94–99. Pytho's tomb: Varro
Ling.
7.17. Virgil thought the oracular tripod, not the omphalos, was Pytho's tomb: Verg.
Aen.
3.92. For discussion of the “archaic omphalos,” see Bousquet 1951. For the discussion on where in the temple of Apollo it was placed: Amandry 1992b. For a recent scientific investigation of the properties of the omphalos as an optical transforming device known as a space-inverting anamorphoscope (which has the effect of reflecting the world around it in such as a way as to “condense” its surroundings, making it look like it is warping the world around it and acting as its center): Kuckel 2010.

20
. For discussion, see Sourvinou-Inwood 1979.

21
. Single narrative: e.g., Dempsey 1918. Narrative roles: e.g., Miller 1986. A similar initiative, as we saw in the last chapter, has occurred in understanding the stories of Delphic oracular responses in literature. Comparison with other myth cultures: e.g., Fontenrose 1959.

22
. For the
Homeric Hymn to Apollo
as confirming Delphi's universal, Panhellenic status, see Clay 1989.

23
. See Miller 1986: 73–75, 81, 107. Some scholars go further and seek to tie parts of the
Hymn
to historical events. For example, the Lelantine War (late eighth
century
BC
) should be seen as a reason for the rejection of the Lelantine plain as an oracular site by Apollo, and the First Sacred War (early sixth century
BC
) should be seen as the outcome of the Delphic authorities not obeying Apollo's final warning/prophecy not to engage in hubris. See Malkin 2000: 72. For both these events, see
chapters 3
and
4
. But tying the
Hymn
so closely to such events, of course, requires taking a particular stance about the date of the
Hymn
's first appearance, as well as of the date (and indeed historicity) of the events themselves.

24
. See Malkin 2000. For discussion of Delphi's role in, and the nature of Greek colonization, see the next chapter.

25
. See Amandry 1950: 214, Sourvinou-Inwood 1987: 231.

26
. See Sourvinou-Inwood 1979: 251.

27
. The most notable of the myths is Heracles' fight with Apollo over the oracular tripod, which comes about as a result of Heracles having fought off a number of others keen to take the sanctuary: Fontenrose 1959: 28, 401. But, as we shall see throughout this book, Delphi is also the subject of numerous conflicts for its ownership in the ancient world.

28
. Aristotle told a story of a man called Hegesippus, who first went to the oracle of Zeus at Olympia to ask a question, and then to Apollo at Delphi where he asked only, “Does the son agree with the father?” Arist.
Rh.
2.23.12 (1398 b 34). Hegesippus had effectively played Delphi off against Olympia, as Apollo at Delphi could hardly not agree with his father Zeus. The same story is told of king Agesipolis of Sparta on the question of whether to invade Argos, in Xen.
Hell.
4.7.2.

29
. See Defradas 1954: 148, Morgan 1990. Indeed, the later literary sources will claim that Delphi's oracle was fundamental to the establishment of the oracle at Olympia (once again establishing its superiority over it): Parke and Wormell 1956a: 367. Similarly, in Strabo (9.3.12), the autochthonos nature of the Delphians is stressed, thus intimating their eternal association with the region, see Kyriakidis 2011: 86. Nevertheless, the myths fail to elucidate how Delphi is linked to other parts of the territory of Phocis, which it had to have been (in practical, economic terms if nothing else): McInerney 2011: 97.

30
. The dragon was called Pytho e.g., Simon. frag. 26a. It is also suggested that the name Pytho came from the cry of the paean song encouraging Apollo to shoot the unnamed monster: Ephorus
FGrHist
70F 31b (Strabo 9.3.12).

31
. Graf 2009: 52.

32
. See Larson 2007: 87–99.

33
. For the etymology of Apollo, see Nagy 1994. He connects it to “
apeileo
”: to “make a boastful promise or threat.”

34
. See Roux 1976: 35–52, Davies 1997. While many point to the equal worship of Dionysus at Delphi, and while it is not impossible that this god was worshiped at Delphi from its earliest existence, there is no archaeological proof for worship of Dionysus at Delphi until the fourth century
BC
. As a result, Dionysus's role at Delphi will be considered in later chapters, along with that of the host of other deities worshiped at Delphi.

35
. De La Coste-Messelière and Flacelière 1930.

36
. Plut.
Mor.
420C;
FD
III, 5, 25, col. III, A, 1.3–4 (
CID
II 62 IIIA.4). For discussion on whether this was a new sanctuary or the first attestation of a very old one: Dempsey 1918: 4, de La Coste-Messelière 1936: 63, Amandry 1950: 202–204, Sourvinou-Inwood 1987: 221.

37
. For the initial excavation: Radet 1992. For the lion muzzle: Picard 1991: 7.

38
. For the detailed publication of the cave: Touchais 1981. For the pottery: Picard 1991: 243.

39
. Mycenean finds at the Corycian cave: Lerat 1984.

40
. For discussion of the Delphic site in this period: Perdrizet 1908: 5–7, Amandry 1938: 305–307, Themelis 1983, Morgan 1990: 107. For the tomb: Bommelaer 1991: 15. For a wider discussion of Mycenaean Delphi and the surrounding area, see Müller 1992b, Müller 1992a, Luce 2011b: 306–10. For recent discussions on the nature and location of settlement across the Pleistos valley at this time: Skorda 1992b, Luce 2011b: 315–19.

41
. Evidence for Gaia worship: Demangel 1926: 13–28. Deposited at later time: Lerat 1935.

42
. Demangel 1926: 36, Bommelaer 1991: 48.

43
. See Forrest 1957: 171, Morgan 1990: 107, Bommelaer 1991: 15.

44
. Initial accounts of excavations: Luce 1992. Full report: Luce 2008. See also a summary of the arguments in Rolley 2002, Luce 2011b: 310–12. Pottery: Luce 2008: 438. Contact with Thessaly: Lerat 1961: 352–57, Morgan 1990: 108.

45
. Luce 2008: 85–94, Luce 2011b: 312–15. See also Amandry 1938, Amandry, Lerat and Pouilloux 1950.

46
. For discussion, see Morgan 1990: 106, 112, Luce 2008: 26–27, 29–50 (maison noire), 83. Theopomp.
FGrHist
115F 193 [219] indicates that the first dedications at Delphi were tripods and cauldrons. See Jacquemin 1999: 37.

47
. For a recent discussion of the (inverse) development of the settlements of Medeon and Delphi in Phocis during the Iron Age through to the eighth century
BC
: Luce 2011a.

48
. Osborne 2009: 16.

49
. For a wider discussion of eighth century
BC
change, see Snodgrass 1980, Morgan 1990: 5–20, Sourvinou-Inwood 1993, Osborne 2009: 66–162.

50
. For the increasingly different political attachments of Delphi and Kalapodi, and thus their difference trajectories of development, see recently: McInerney 2011.

51
. For discussion of the low level of elaboration at Olympia and Delphi in this early period, see Morgan 1990. For discussion of the comparative elaboration of “polis” sanctuaries: Alcock and Osborne 1994, de Polignac 1995. For debate over the appropriateness of the “Panhellenic” label, see Scott 2010: 260–64.

52
. For discussion, see Morgan 1990: 112–27. For recent work on Kalapodi, see Felsch 2007, McInerney 2011.

53
. Starting late eighth century
BC
: Morgan 1990: 134. For a comparison of the development of divination and cult at the sanctuaries of Delphi and Didyma in the eighth century
BC
: Morgan 1989. Long history of oracle at Delphi stretching back to second millennium
BC
: Bommelaer 1991: 19.

54
. E.g., Snodgrass 1980: 120, Snodgrass 1986: 53–54. See Morgan 1993.

55
. Note that some dedications from the west seem to have arrived before there is any evidence for Delphic involvement in colonization in the west: d'Agostino 2000: 79.

56
. Luce 2008: 29–50.

57
. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 312, Miller 1986: 105, Bommelaer 1991: 18. The stories involving Delphi and the heroes of the Homeric cycle grow in the literary sources during the classical and Hellenistic period. In the
Odyssey
, King Agamemnon is said to have consulted the oracle (Parke and Wormell
19
), but also, later, to have planted a plane tree at Delphi to commemorate his visit (Plin.
HN
16.238). In the Hellenistic period, Agamemnon's visit was said to have been the moment of the foundation of the cult of Dionysus at Delphi: Parke and Wormell
408.
It is interesting to note that later literary sources claim Homer himself consulted the Delphic oracle about his own birthplace: Parke and Wormell
317, 318, 319
. The oracle's response was later said to have been inscribed onto the base of a statue of Homer, which stood in the front section of the temple of Apollo at Delphi: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 394. Similarly, Hesiod (writing in the same
period) was also later said to have consulted the oracle at Delphi about his fate: Parke and Wormell
206.

58
. It was initially thought that Delphi, in contrast, did not receive the more personal kinds of dedications seen at Perachora (although such items were dedicated at the Corycian cave). The most recent excavations, have started to turn up more and more personal objects: Luce 2008: 212. Delphi, it seems, acted both as a local place for personal cult activity and, increasingly, for more state-level interaction.

59
. See Morgan 1990: 142–46.

CHAPTER 3. TRANSFORMATION

1
. Burning of the maison noire: Luce 2008: 47. Not the entire settlement: Lerat 1938, Lerat 1961: 330–38.

2
. The Phlegyians:
FGrHist
3 F 41e and
FGrHist
F 70, 93 (mid-fifth century–fourth century
BC
); Luce 2008: 48–49. Diod. Sic. (4.37.1) records another raid on Delphi, this time by the Dryopes (date uncertain). Neeft argues that an earthquake may have caused the destruction instead: Neeft 1981.

3
. For the development of the relationship between Delphi and Medeon, see recently: Luce 2011a. Sadly much of the material evidence for the development of the Itean plain and other settlements like Medeon is still not widely available.

4
. For further discussion, see: Morgan 1990: 115–26, Luce 2011b, Luce 2011a, McInerney 2011, McInerney (forthcoming). For discussion in particular on the north-south trade corridor: Kase, Szemler, Wilkie, and Wallace 1991.

5
. Picard 1991: 243.

6
. This is, however, unlikely. Tripod dedications, often identical to the ones at Delphi, are known from a variety of sites in the eighth century
BC
, many of which never had an oracle: Bommelaer 1991: 15–16.

7
. Inception last quarter eighth century: e.g., Morgan 1990: 134. Problems of such a link: e.g., Osborne 2009: 192.

8
. Luce 2008: 437. At the same time, of course, later literary sources claim the oracle was fully involved in a number of well-known Greek myths stretching far back in time: Kings Codrus and Aegeus of Athens consulted; famously, the family of Oedipus of Thebes as well as the Thebes's rulers during the era of “the seven against Thebes”; King Oenomaus of Pisa; Orestes of the Atreus family; Io the nymph priestess of Hera seduced by Zeus; Jason who sought the Golden Fleece; Trophonius and Agamedes who were associated with the early building of the
temple of Apollo at Delphi; Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles; and Heracles the demigod. As well, the oracle at Delphi was said to have given responses concerning Orpheus the son of Apollo, told the Epidaurians to worship Asclepius, identified the shoulder bone of the hero Pelops, set up the oracle at Olympia and the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea, and been involved in the establishment of the shrine of Apollo Pythaios at Argos: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 297–318, 340–51, 367–68.