Before housing the sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi was once the site of an oracle of the earth goddess Gaea. During Gaea's reign in the Bronze Age, the site earned the name Pytho for the Python, the great serpent offspring of Gaea produced from the slime left on the earth after the great flood. The Python lived in a cave on Mount Parnassus where he guarded Gaea's shrine. According to mythology, Apollo slew the Python, expelled Gaea from the sanctuary, and was thereafter known as Pythian Apollo. Apollo was said to have established the Pythian games, one of the four great athletic and drama festivals of ancient Greece, to commemorate his victory over the Python. As Apollo's cult began to take root in the region in the eighth century BCE, the association with the dolphin god brought about the change in name to Delphi.⁴

The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was consulted throughout the ancient world. The Delphic priests developed an elaborate ritual, centered on the chief priestess of Apollo known as the Pythia, whose utterances worshippers regarded as the words of Apollo. The Pythia fell into a trance by the sulfurous fumes rising from a deep cleft in the mountainside. Her priests would then interpret her muttered phrases into promising, though vague, prophesies which they would then convey to the pilgrims who had journeyed to the oracle to learn of their fates.⁵ The oracle was consulted by private citizens and public officials alike. At first a single Pythia served as oracle, but as the requirements of the oracle grew more demanding, two more Pythias were added.⁶

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