The Oracle of Delphi

In brief

Delphi was home to the Pythia, a priestess believed to speak prophecy directly from the god Apollo.
The site marked the "navel of the world," fixed by two eagles Zeus released from opposite ends of the earth that met there.
Kings, generals, and ordinary citizens traveled from across the Greek world to ask the Oracle's cryptic, often double-edged advice.

According to myth, Zeus once released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth, and where their paths crossed above Delphi, he dropped a sacred stone (the omphalos, or "navel"), marking the site as the literal center of the world.

The sanctuary had first belonged to the earth goddess Gaia, guarded by a monstrous serpent named Python. Apollo slew Python to claim Delphi as his own, and in atonement for the killing, established the Pythian Games and the oracle in the serpent's memory: the priestess who spoke there was even named the Pythia after it.

Seated on a tripod over a fissure in the rock, the Pythia would fall into a trance, ancient writers described vapors rising from the earth, and utter Apollo's words, which priests then shaped into verse. Her answers were famous for being technically true yet nearly impossible to interpret correctly in advance.

The most famous case was King Croesus of Lydia, who asked whether he should go to war with Persia. The Oracle told him that if he did, he would destroy a great empire. Croesus attacked, and destroyed his own.