Print from steel engraving titled Delphes, published in a volume of L'Univers Pittoresque, Paris, approx.  page size 21 x 12.5 cm, approx. image size 12 x 8 cm.

Delphi,

seat of the most important ancient Greek temple and oracle of Apollo. It lay in the territory of Phocis on the steep lower slope of Mount Parnassus, about 6 miles (10 km) from the Gulf of Corinth. Delphi was considered by the ancient Greeks to be the centre of the world. According to ancient myth, Zeus released two eagles, one from the east, the other from the west, and caused them to fly toward the centre. They met at Delphi, and the spot was marked by a stone in the temple; this stone was known as the omphalos (navel). According to legend, the oracle at Delphi originally belonged to Gaea, the Earth goddess, and was guarded by her child the serpent Python; later, Apollo slew Python and founded his own oracle there.

Excavations have shown that Delphi has been continuously inhabited from late Mycenaean times (14th century BC), but its history really begins in the 6th century BC, when the Sacred War of about 590 BC destroyed the nearby town of Crisa, which had been taxing pilgrims, and opened free access to Delphi. Delphi joined the Amphictyonic League and became one of its chief centres. The Panhellenic Pythian Games, reorganized in 582, were held there quadrennially. By this time the prestige of the Delphic oracle was at its height. It was consulted not only on private matters but also on affairs of state, and its utterances often swayed national policy. It was also consulted whenever a colony was to be sent out from Greece proper, and so its fame spread to the limits of the Greek-speaking world.

In early Roman times Delphi was frequently pillaged; Nero is said to have removed 500 statues from the vicinity. With the spread of Christianity, the old pagan sanctuary of Delphi fell into decay. Julian the Apostate attempted to restore the temple in the mid-4th century AD, but the oracle responded to the emperor's enthusiasm with nothing but a wail over the glory that had departed.

The site of Delphi was occupied by the modern village of Kastrí until 1890, when the village was moved to a site nearby and renamed Delphi. Excavations, begun in 1892, revealed the plan of the ancient site, and the remains of its buildings can be further identified in the 2nd-century-AD writings of the geographer Pausanias. The temple sanctuary was a large, roughly rectangular area enclosed by a wall. A sacred way lined with monuments and treasuries wound up through the sanctuary to the temple of Apollo itself. The monuments along the way were offerings to Apollo erected by states or individuals in thanks for favours bestowed by the god. At the heart of the sanctuary was the great temple of Apollo; the existing temple, of which only the foundation and some steps and a few columns are preserved, was built in the 4th century BC. The Delphic oracle was in a chamber at the rear of the temple. Two earlier temples of Apollo on the site are known from their actual remains. Of the first, dating from about 600 BC, some archaic capitals and wall blocks are preserved. This temple was burned in 548 BC. Of the second temple, built at the end of the 6th century BC, many wall blocks and some pediment sculptures are extant. Of the site's once-numerous treasuries, the one of Athens has been rebuilt with the original blocks and has a famous wall inscribed with musically notated hymns to Apollo.