Delphi beyond the oracle: treasuries, Amphictyony and Pythian Games

Whoever pictures Delphi thinks above all of the Pythia, but the sanctuary was much more than an oracle. It was a showcase in which Greek cities displayed their wealth, a political centre governed by a league of peoples, and the seat of games second in prestige only to those of Olympia. To walk the Sacred Way meant passing through centuries of Greek history, written in the stone and bronze of the offerings.

The treasuries of the Sacred Way

Along the road that climbed to the temple of Apollo stood the treasuries, small temple-like buildings erected by cities to house their offerings. Herodotus mentions that of the Corinthians, built by the tyrant Cypselus, where the gifts of the Lydian kings Gyges and Croesus were kept. The treasury of the Siphnians, built around 525 BC with the wealth of the island's mines, had two caryatids instead of columns and a carved frieze with scenes of battle between gods and giants.

The treasury of the Athenians, now reconstructed, was according to Pausanias an offering for the victory at Marathon in 490 BC, although its date is debated by archaeologists. Beside the treasuries crowded statues, tripods and victory monuments, often set up by rival cities facing one another, in a kind of permanent competition.

The Amphictyony and the Sacred Wars

The sanctuary was administered by the Amphictyonic League, an association of Greek peoples who met periodically, alternating their sessions between Delphi and Anthela, near Thermopylae. Thessalians, Boeotians, Phocians, Ionians and other groups held votes in the council. The league was charged with protecting the sanctuary and watching over its property.

In Apollo's name the so-called Sacred Wars were fought. The first, at the beginning of the sixth century BC, led to the destruction of Crisa, accused of extorting money from pilgrims. The third, between 356 and 346 BC, saw the Phocians seize the sanctuary and use its treasures to pay mercenaries. The conflict ended with the intervention of Philip II of Macedon, who gained a seat in the Amphictyony and a decisive role in Greek affairs.

The Pythian Games and the Charioteer

After the First Sacred War, in 582 BC, the Pythian Games were reorganised and became one of the four great Panhellenic festivals. Unlike at Olympia, musical contests played a central role at Delphi, in particular song accompanied by the kithara and the Pythian nomos for the aulos, which according to tradition evoked Apollo's fight against the serpent Python. There were also athletic contests in the stadium above the sanctuary and chariot races on the plain.

To a chariot victory belongs the famous Charioteer of Delphi, a bronze statue of about 470 BC, found in 1896. An inscription on the base mentions Polyzalus, tyrant of Gela. Another celebrated monument is the Serpent Column dedicated by the Greeks after the victory at Plataea, moved by Constantine to Constantinople, where a fragment can still be seen in the ancient Hippodrome.

Delphi was thus at once a place of worship, an archive of collective memory and a stage for rivalries between cities. The French excavations begun at the end of the nineteenth century brought this world back to light, helping us understand why the ancients considered the sanctuary the centre, and not only the geographical one, of the Greek world, and why every city wished to be represented there.