Delphi (Gr. ), a town of ancient Greece, deriving its importance from its oracle of Apollo, the most famous in the ancient world. It was situated in the S. W. part of Phocis, in a narrow valley, on the river Plistus, at the foot of Mount Parnassus. The remains of the modern village of Oastri, almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake in 1870, now occupy a portion of its site. The oracle was the nucleus around which the town grew up. According to the legends, Apollo long searched for a spot on which to found a temple, and at last came to the valley at the foot of Mount Parnassus, which so charmed him that after he had slain a huge serpent which inhabited the place, he established his worship there. From the serpent's rotting (Gr. to rot) in the ground, the Homeric hymn to Apollo ingeniously derives the name Pytho by which the temple was first known. To obtain priests for his worship, Apollo now changed himself into a dolphin, and conducted into the Crisssean gulf a Cretan vessel which was on its way to Cnossus; the crew became his priests and worshipped him under the name of Apollo Delphinius (Gr. a dolphin, whence also the name Delphi). From the antiquity of these legends, which are themselves probably mere attempts to explain the names, it appears that the worship of Apollo was in some way established in this valley in the very earliest times. At the period of the Homeric poems a magnificent temple already stood there, said to have been built by the architects Agamedes and his brother Trophonius, who however were doubtless mythical characters. A city had also sprung up about the shrine of the god. In the earliest times this was subject to the neighboring town of Crissa, and afterward to that city's rapidly increasing seaport of Cirrha, in which crowds of pilgrims landed on their way to the oracle, so enriching the harbor town that it rapidly gained a lasting superiority over Crissa. About the year 598 B. 0. complaints arose that the people of Cirrha treated the pilgrims on their way to Delphi unjustly; and the amphic-tyonic league, comprising representatives of the countries of Greece, rose to avenge the alleged insult to Apollo. In this war, called the first sacred war (595 to 585), they defeated and destroyed Crissa, and solemnly dedicated its lands and the territory about it to the Delphic god.

A portion was set apart for the Pythian games, which after this time were celebrated with great magnificence. Every matter of profane or ordinary usage was excluded under the gravest penalties from the sacred ground. (See Amphictyons.) In 548 the temple was burned, and money was at once subscribed throughout Greece to rebuild it. The family of the Alcmaaonids, at that time under sentence of banishment from Athens, contracted to accomplish this for 800 talents, and gained the greatest popularity by far exceeding the terms of their contract, and by erecting mainly at their own cost a much more magnificent building than had been contemplated. Spintharus of Corinth was the architect. The front of the temple was of Parian marble, and the whole was decorated with the most costly and beautiful ornamentation. In spite of the immense wealth accumulated in Delphi, from gifts and votive offerings pouring in constantly from all parts of Greece and even from other countries, the sacred character of the place protected it from plunderers for two centuries.

The army of Xerxes, sent to sack it on that monarch's invasion (480), were, according to the legend, driven back in panic by the miraculous interference of Apollo. In 357, however, the Phocians themselves, having been found guilty by the amphictyonic council of an act of sacrilege, and condemned to pay an enormous fine, rebelled against the sentence and seized Delphi. In the war which followed to compel them to surrender it, they robbed the treasury of the temple to pay the expenses of their defence. Through the interference of Philip of Macedon the sacred city was restored to the custody of the amphictyons, and the Phocians were condemned to reestablish the splendor of the dismantled temple, which, however, they were too poor to do properly. In 279 Brennus and the Gauls planned the plunder of Delphi, but they also were said to have been driven back by a miracle. The temple was plundered by Sulla, and again by Nero, who silenced the oracle. Hadrian restored it, and in his reign Delphi enjoyed the greatest prosperity, its temple and other buildings being again decorated and enriched with their former magnificence.

Constantine plundered the temple of some valuable works of art; but the oracle continued to flourish until Theodosius finally abolished it. - The ancient city of Delphi was built in the form of an amphitheatre on the S. W. side of Mount Parnassus, and extended into the valley across the Plistus. At the time of the visit of Pausanias, to whom we owe our best description of it, the general arrangement of its principal features was probably, as follows: The temple and the buildings connected with the worship of Apollo were set apart within a sacred enclosure. Entering this by the eastern gate, and passing by the almost innumerable statues erected as offerings to the god, the visitor next came to the thesauri or treasuries, small buildings standing about a stone called the stone of the sibyl. The neighboring stoa, built by the Athenians, also served as a repository for the riches of the temple. The great altar of Apollo stood in the open air before the principal edifice. The temple appears to have been a hexa-style, the exterior Doric, the interior Ionic. Its dimensions were about 195 ft. by 82. The exterior was elaborately adorned with sculptures.

The divisions of the interior were the pronaon, with walls inscribed with sayings of the seven wise men of Greece; the cella, where a perpetual fire burned on the hearth, and where was placed the omphalos or navel stone, supposed to mark the centre of the earth; and the adytum, where the oracles were delivered. This last division is supposed to have been in part, if not wholly, underground. Within it, and over a deep chasm from which issued a peculiar mephitic vapor, stood a tripod, upon which sat the Pythia, or priestess of the oracle, when she delivered its revelations. Preparing herself by chewing the leaves of the laurel, she was placed upon the tripod, where, inspired by the god, as was believed, and probably affected by the vapor from the chasm, she fell into a violent convulsive ecstasy, uttering groans and confused sounds, with disconnected words. These were carefully noted by the attending priests, and rendered into metrical forms as revelations from Apollo. In the earliest times the Pythia was a young girl; afterward only women over 50 were selected for the office. They must be natives of Delphi, and were bound to absolute chastity.

Of the theatre little is known; and the only other noteworthy objects within the enclosure were the oouleuterion or council house of the Del-phians, which stood near the Athenian stoa, and a great many monuments of various kinds. Outside the enclosure, opposite the eastern gate, was the Castalian fountain, the sacred spring in which all who visited Delphi for a religious purpose were obliged to purify themselves. Other temples and buildings in Delphi were the temple of Athena Pronasa, the sanctuary of Phylacus, and the gymnasium. - With regard to the ruins at Castri, and the more complete topography of the city, see Leake's "Northern Greece" (London, 1835 and 1841), and Ulrich's Reisen und Forschungen in Grie-chenland (Bremen, 1840).

Site of Delphi.