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Key Details
Type
Sacred SiteMythology
Greek Pantheon
Coordinates
38.48°N, 22.5°E
About This Location
Navel of consultation
Delphi is Apollo's oracular workplace. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo has him kill the serpent and take the shrine from an older earth-power. The Pythia spoke from the adyton; cities sent theoroi and paid in gold and trouble. The omphalos stone marked a navel the Greeks were willing to argue about. Cult here is dense and documented; the poetry explains why a cliff above the Pleistos became the place to ask a god a question.
Primary Sources
“Phoebus Apollo, you came to Crisa under snowy Parnassus, and there the serpent received you.”
More from Greek Pantheon
Mount Olympus
MountainThe highest mountain in Greece and the mythological home of the twelve Olympian gods.
The Underworld
RealmThe gloomy realm of the dead ruled by Hades, located deep beneath the earth.
Tartarus
UnderworldThe deepest abyss of the underworld, a dungeon of torment where the Titans were imprisoned and the wicked punished for eternity.
Elysian Fields
RealmA paradise at the end of the earth where heroes and the virtuous were sent after death to live in eternal bliss.
River Styx
Body Of WaterThe principal river of the underworld, upon which even the gods swore binding oaths. Charon ferried the dead across its dark waters.
Olympia
Sacred SiteThe sanctuary of Zeus and site of the ancient Olympic Games, featuring a colossal statue of Zeus—one of the Seven Wonders.