Pythia was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythoness. The name Pythia is derived from Pytho, which in myth was the original name of Delphi. Etymologically, the Greeks derived this place name from the verb πύθειν (púthein) “to rot”, which refers to the sickly sweet smell from the decomposing body of the monstrous Python after it was slain by Apollo. The Pythia was established at the latest in the 8th century BC, (though some estimates date the shrine to as early as 1400 BC), and was widely credited for her prophecies uttered under divine possession (enthusiasmos) by Apollo. The Pythian priestess emerged pre-eminent by the end of the 7th century BC and continued to be consulted until the late 4th century AD. During this period, the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks, and she was among the most powerful women of the classical world. The oracle is one of the best-documented religious institutions of the classical Greeks. Nevertheless, details of how the Pythia operated are scarce, missing, or non-existent entirely, as authors from the classical period (6th to 4th centuries BC) treat the process as common knowledge with no need to explain. Those who discussed the oracle in any detail are from 1st century BC to 4th century AD and give conflicting stories. One of the main stories claimed that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapours rising from a chasm in the rock, and that she spoke gibberish which priests interpreted as the enigmatic prophecies and turned them into poetic dactylic hexameters preserved in Greek literature. This idea, however, has been challenged by scholars such as Joseph Fontenrose and Lisa Maurizio, who argue that the ancient sources uniformly represent the Pythia speaking intelligibly, and giving prophecies in her own voice. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, describes the Pythia speaking in dactylic hexameters.
Appearance List Homeric Hymn to (Pythian) Apollo (c. 7th–6th c. BCE; Loeb ed. 1914) by “Homeric Hymnist” (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White) — about Delos but not Pythia; “Eumenides” (458 BCE; Loeb vol. 2, 1930) by Aeschylus (opening prologue by the Pythia); Oedipus Tyrannus (429 BCE) by Sophocles — Laius’ prophecy from the Delphic oracle/Pythia (Loeb, 1914/1994); Histories (c. 440 BCE; Loeb 1921–1925) by Herodotus (multiple Delphic consultations—e.g., Croesus); Description of Greece, Book X (Phocis & Delphi) (2nd c. CE; Loeb 1918) by Pausanias; Geography (Book 9 on Phocis/Delphi) (early 1st c. CE; Loeb 1927 for Bks 8–9) by Strabo; Moralia: “On the Pythia’s Oracles” / “The Oracles at Delphi No Longer Given in Verse” / “On the E at Delphi” (1st–2nd c. CE; Loeb 1936) by Plutarch; Cults of the Greek States, vol. 4 (Apollo & Delphi sections) (1907) by L. R. Farnell; The Delphic Oracle: Its Early History, Influence and Fall (1918) by T. Dempsey; A History of the Delphic Oracle (1939) by H. W. Parke; Pythia, Oracle of Delphi, Story of the Priestess of Apollo at Delphi (1954) by Wayne Dickens. Film: Oedipus Rex (1957) dir. Tyrone Guthrie – Jocasta and Laius consult the Pythia’s prophecy.
Description Pythia was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythoness. The name Pythia is derived from Pytho, which in myth was the original name of Delphi. Etymologically, the Greeks derived this place name from the verb πύθειν (púthein) “to rot”, which refers to the sickly sweet smell from the decomposing body of the monstrous Python after it was slain by Apollo. The Pythia was established at the latest in the 8th century BC, (though some estimates date the shrine to as early as 1400 BC), and was widely credited for her prophecies uttered under divine possession (enthusiasmos) by Apollo. The Pythian priestess emerged pre-eminent by the end of the 7th century BC and continued to be consulted until the late 4th century AD. During this period, the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks, and she was among the most powerful women of the classical world. The oracle is one of the best-documented religious institutions of the classical Greeks. Nevertheless, details of how the Pythia operated are scarce, missing, or non-existent entirely, as authors from the classical period (6th to 4th centuries BC) treat the process as common knowledge with no need to explain. Those who discussed the oracle in any detail are from 1st century BC to 4th century AD and give conflicting stories. One of the main stories claimed that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapours rising from a chasm in the rock, and that she spoke gibberish which priests interpreted as the enigmatic prophecies and turned them into poetic dactylic hexameters preserved in Greek literature. This idea, however, has been challenged by scholars such as Joseph Fontenrose and Lisa Maurizio, who argue that the ancient sources uniformly represent the Pythia speaking intelligibly, and giving prophecies in her own voice. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, describes the Pythia speaking in dactylic hexameters.
