The Delphic Sibyl was a legendary prophetic figure who was said to have given prophecies at Delphi shortly after the Trojan War.

Five sibyls were painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo ; the Delphic Sibyl, Libyan Sibyl, Persian Sibyl, Cumaean Sibyl and the Erythraean Sibyl.

Michelangelo's rendering of the Delphic Sibyl

The Delphic Sibyl was a legendary figure who made prophecies in the sacred precinct of Apollo at Delphi, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus.

There are a number of legends about the Delphic Sibyl, though they are not necessarily all consistent.

* Suda: Delphic Sibyl from Suda On-Line.

As the patron of Delphi ( Pythian Apollo ), Apollo was an oracular god — the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle.

Apollo was worshipped as Actiacus ( ; Ἄκτιακός, Aktiakos, literally " Actian "), Delphinius ( ; Δελφίνιος, Delphinios, literally " Delphic "), and Pythius ( ; Πύθιος, Puthios, from Πυθώ, Pūthō, the area around Delphi ), after Actium ( Ἄκτιον ) and Delphi ( Δελφοί ) respectively, two of his principal places of worship.

There was a tradition that the Delphic oracle was consulted as early as the period of the kings of Rome during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.

In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python, a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth.

Inside was the adyton, the centre of the Delphic oracle and seat of Pythia.

When Pausanias visited Thebes in Boeotia, in the second century AD, he was shown Hector's tomb and was told that the bones had been transported to Thebes according to a Delphic oracle.

One, as early as Thucydides, reported in Plutarch, the Suda and John Tzetzes, states that the Delphic oracle warned Hesiod that he would die in Nemea, and so he fled to Locris, where he was killed at the local temple to Nemean Zeus, and buried there.

As penalty for a murder, imposed by Xenoclea, the Delphic Oracle, Heracles was to serve as her slave for a year.

Lemmon attended Phillips Academy ( Class of 1943 ) and Harvard University ( Class of 1947 ), where he lived in Eliot House and was an active member of several Drama Clubs-becoming president of the Hasty Pudding Club-as well as a member of the Delphic Club for Gentleman, a final club at Harvard.

Apollo slew it but had to do penance and be cleansed afterwards, since though Python was a child of Gaia, it was necessary that the ancient Delphic Oracle passed to the protection of the new god.

Only the Delphic Oracle was a female ; all others were male.

It was not long before the Pallantides ' hopes of succeeding the apparently childless Aegeus would be lost if they did not get rid of Theseus ( the Pallantides were the sons of Pallas and nephews of King Aegeus, who were then living at the royal court in the sanctuary of Delphic Apollo ).

According to Greek mythology, the Delphic Oracle told Apollo that the horseradish was worth its weight in gold.

This claim was known by the anecdote of the Delphic oracular pronouncement that Socrates was the wisest of all men.

The Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BCE.

During this period the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks.

The priestess at Delphi was the " Delphic Bee ".

Dionysus was said to have danced down from Parnassos accompanied by Delphic virgins, and it is known that even as young girls the women in Boeotia practiced not only the closed rites but also the bearing of the thyrsos and the dances.

Aristaeus ' presence in Ceos, attested in the fourth and third centuries BC, was attributed to a Delphic prophecy that counselled Aristaeus to sail to Ceos, where he would be greatly honored.

Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy.

The name Pythia remained as the title of the Delphic Oracle.

* Parke, Herbert William, History of the Delphic Oracle, 1939.

" The Delphic Oracle: A Multidisciplinary Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory.

* John R. Hale, et al., " Questioning the Delphic Oracle: When science meets religion at this ancient Greek site, the two turn out to be on better terms than scholars had originally thought ", in Scientific American August 2003

The Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout Hellenic culture.

The Delphic Oracle.

Recent geological investigations have shown that gas emissions from a geologic chasm in the earth could have inspired the Delphic Oracle to " connect with the divine.

There are also many later stories of the origins of the Delphic Oracle.

* de Boer, Jelle Zeilinga, John Rigby Hale & Henry A. Spiller, " The Delphic Oracle: A Multidisciplinary Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory.

* de Boer, Jelle Zeilinga, Jeffrey P. Chandon & John Rigby Hale, " New Evidence for the Geological Origins of the Ancient Delphic Oracle ," Geology 29. 8, 707-711 ( 2001 )

* de Boer, Jelle Zeilinga, Jeffrey P. Chandon, John Rigby Hale & Henry A. Spiller, " Questioning the Delphic Oracle ", Scientific American ( August 2003 )

* Etiope, G., D. Christodoulou, M. Geraga, P. Favali, & G. Papatheodorou, " The geological links of the ancient Delphic Oracle ( Greece ): a reappraisal of natural gas occurrence and origin ", Geology, 34, 821-824 ( 2006 )

* Foster J., Lehoux D. R., " The Delphic Oracle and the ethylene-intoxication hypothesis ", Clinical Toxicology, 45, 85-89 ( 2007 )

* Lehoux D. R., " Drugs and the Delphic Oracle ", Classical World, 101, 1, 41-56 ( 2007 )

* Parke, Herbert William, A History of the Delphic Oracle, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, ASIN B002NZWT0Y ( 1939 )

The Delphic Oracle is one of the earliest stories in classical antiquity of prophetic abilities.

In Contest of Homer and Hesiod, it is alleged that the Roman Emperor Hadrian asked the Delphic Oracle about Homer's birthplace and parentage.

In the poem " The Delphic Oracle Upon Plotinus " by William Butler Yeats, " Bland Rhadamanthus " is depicted as beckoning to Plotinus.