By Laurie King

Situated in a pass high on Mount Parnassus, Delphi was determined by Zeus (himself!) to be the center of the world. Zeus was reasonably right-on in this determination, as the pass was in a strategic location central to the Greek city-states. Apollo was believed to dwell at Delphi, and temple sanctuaries were built here to honor him as well as other gods and goddesses. All Greek people had a sacred duty to protect the sanctuaries at Delphi.

Here's the Oracle part: The Oracle at Delphi was believed to speak for Apollo, and was consulted frequently by both rulers and everyday people. They brought gifts to offer in exchange for the Oracle's advice, and great treasury buildings were erected to house all the riches that eventually accumulated here. Because of the sacredness of the place, the various city-states didn't consider attacking it; in fact, they competed with each other to build the most beautiful temples and treasuries, and bring the most elaborate gifts. (So there's some great stuff to see here!)

Our guide at Delphi seemed to take the ancient gods and goddesses seriously, but explained the great site's history as a scam! Originally, a shepherd in the area noticed that his sheep were acting strangely, and traced the source to some vapors escaping from a crack in the mountainside. Later, young girls breathed these vapors, augmented by steam from boiling bay leaves, and then babbled pretty much incoherently. Priests who "interpreted" for them picked up a word or two here and there, like "army" or "enemy," and fashioned it into a prediction. They were good at this, because (as priests) they pretty much knew what was going on with everyone. (Did they have Confession? I forgot to ask.)

Here's an example: Two brothers* each had large kingdoms, separated by a river. The first brother wanted to attack the second brother (who had a slightly larger kingdom) and have the whole thing for himself. But he was concerned that he might not prevail, as the second brother had not only more territory, but also a slightly better-equipped army. So the first brother consulted the Oracle at Delphi, using a somewhat indirect question, so the priests would not suspect his selfish intention.

The priests were no fools; they knew what he was considering, although of course they had no way to know the outcome of an attack. So they "interpreted" the Oracle like this: Whoever crosses the river will cause a great kingdom to be lost.

The first brother took this to be good news and did not hesitate to cross the river and attack his brother's territory. He lost the ensuing battles, however, and the second brother ended up with everything.

You know what they say about hindsight. Brother number one reconsidered the Oracle's prediction and eventually realized that he, himself, had had a "great kingdom" (maybe not quite as great as his brother's, but great nevertheless) and, by crossing the river and initiating conflict, had caused it to be lost. So the Oracle was right!

Well, as it turned out, the Oracle was quite frequently right, and local custom called for individuals and city-states to bring lavish gifts to Delphi in return for correct predictions.

This was a great thing for many years, as Delphi grew larger and richer. Travelers from various city-states met in this central location to rest, consult the Oracle, and enjoy events in the theater and stadium; as a result, the city-states were brought closer together and their alliances grew stronger. (By the way, the stadium at Delphi housed 37,000, while the theater had a capacity of only 24,000 . . . so then, like now, more people enjoyed blood and violence than theater.)

A couple of other notes: Young girls were too hard to keep up on the mountain (is this anything like "down on the farm?"), and the ones who stayed seemed to be intimately involved with the priests, so eventually they replaced the maidens with women over 40 (who, I'm sad to say, were old in those days).

Also: It was the Oracle at Delphi who predicted the whole Oedipus tragedy. Now that was a fairly complex situation, and I'm thinking it would have taken more than a few steaming bay leaves to come up with it, but who knows? At any rate, Delphi is well worth the trip.

*There are other versions of this story, but I'm recounting it the way our local guide did.