Apollo spoke through his oracle: the sibyl or priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia ; she had to be an older woman of blameless life chosen from among the peasants of the area.

The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were Pythia, priestess to Apollo at Delphi, and the oracle of Dione and Zeus at Dodona in Epirus.

Priestesses in antiquity often performed sacred prostitution, and in Ancient Greece, some priestesses such as Pythia, priestess at Delphi, acted as oracles.

* The Pythia was the title of a priestess at the very ancient temple of Delphi that was dedicated to the Earth Mother.

The Pythia ( pronounced or, ), commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi, was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus.

Though little is known of how the priestess was chosen, the Pythia was probably selected, at the death of her predecessor, from amongst a guild of priestesses of the temple.

The job of a priestess, especially the Pythia, was a respectable career for Greek women.

Some reptilian attributes such as a belt made of snakes and snakes emanating from the head or entwined in the hair, as in the temple of Artemis in Corfu, are symbols likely derived from the guardians closely associated with early Greek religious concepts at the centers such as Delphi where the dragon Delphyne lived and the priestess Pythia delivered oracles.

The priestess of the oracle at Delphi became known as the Pythia, after the place-name Pytho, which Greeks explained as named after the rotting ( πύθειν ) of the slain serpent's corpse in the strength of Hyperion ( day ) or Helios ( the sun ).

The enemy dragoness "... actually became an Apollonian serpent, and Pythia, the priestess who gave oracles at Delphi, was named after him.

One of the earliest recorded group of prophets to utilise this technique was the Pythia, the priestess at the temple of Apollo in Delphi, who acted as the conduit for the Delphic Oracle.

The priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi was the Pythia, credited throughout the Greco-Roman world for her prophecies, which gave her a prominence unusual for a woman in male-dominated ancient Greece.

The Delphic Sibyl was not involved in the operation of the Delphic Oracle and should be considered distinct from the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo.

The Pythia, when about to deliver, would chew leaves from Apollo's sacred laurel tree and would then sit on her holy tripod, seated in the innermost sanctum, over a crack on the rock from where noxious volcanic fumes emanated.

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

When the Emperor Hadrian asked the Oracle at Delphi about Homer, the Pythia proclaimed that he was Ithacan, the son of Epikaste and Telemachus, from the Odyssey.

* Step 3: Visit to the Oracle — The supplicant would then be led into the temple to visit the adyton, put his question to the Pythia, receive his answer and depart.

* In Delphi, the Pythia became filled with the pneuma of Apollo, said to come from a spring inside the Adyton.

Myths indicate that Apollo killed the chthonic serpent Python, Pythia in older myths, but according to some later accounts his wife, Pythia, who lived beside the Castalian Spring.

The Sibyl had no connection to the oracle of Apollo, and should not be confused with the Pythia.

Pythia, the oracle at Delphi, only gave prophecies the seventh day of each month, seven being the number most associated with Apollo, during the nine warmer months of the year ; thus, Delphi was not the major source of divination for the ancient Greeks.

The Pythia was widely credited for her prophecies inspired by Apollo.

Diodorus also explained how, initially, the Pythia was an appropriately clad young virgin, for great emphasis was placed on the Oracle's chastity and purity to be reserved for union with the god Apollo.

It is often said that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapors rising from the ground, and that she spoke gibberish, believed to be the voice of Apollo, which priests reshaped into the enigmatic prophecies preserved in Greek literature.

Applied by the Greeks to manifestations of divine possession, by Apollo ( as in the case of the Pythia ), or by Dionysus ( as in the case of the Bacchantes and Maenads ), the term enthusiasm was also used in a transferred or figurative sense.

The Delphian Pythia Boeo attributed to him the introduction of the cult of Apollo and the invention of the epic meter.

The scholar Martin Litchfield West writes that the Pythia shows many traits of shamanistic practices, likely inherited or influenced from Central Asian practices, although there is no evidence of any Central Asian association at this time.

Orestes at Delphi flanked by Athena and Pylades among the Erinyes and priest esses of the oracle, perhaps including Pythia behind the tripod-Paestan Red-figure pottery | red-figured bell-krater, c. 330 BC

The Pythia advised them that an unnamed hero was angry at being neglected, and that they should find his grave and offer him worship forthwith.

* Pythia: The famous Delphic oracle, she foretells the triumph of the sausage-seller early in the play ( line 220 ) and her words confirm Cleon's defeat at the end of the play ( 1229, 1273 ).

The Pythia at Delphi saw the blood on the walls during the Persian War ; and, in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, blood and fire appear to Circe in her chamber on the night before the arrival of the fratricidal Jason and Medea.

: For a list of some of the most noted oracular pronouncements of the Pythia, go to Famous Oracular Statements from Delphi.

Priestess of Delphi ( 1891 ) by John Collier ( artist ) | John Collier ; the Pythia was inspired by pneuma rising from below

The name ' Pythia ' derived from Pytho, which in myth was the original name of Delphi.

Priestess of Delphi ( 1891 ), as imagined by John Collier ( artist ) | John Collier ; the Pythia is inspired by pneuma rising from below as she sits on a tripod

* Delphic oracle or Pythia, located in Delphi

The Via Pythia, or Pythian road, was the route to Delphi which was revered throughout the Greek world as the site of the omphalos stone, the centre of the earth and the universe.

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

At times when the Pythia was not available, consultants could obtain guidance by asking simple Yes-or-No questions to the priests.

In 428 BC, Pleistoanax was recalled and restored in obedience to the Delphic oracle's advice, though some suspected he had tampered with the Pythia.

One of the religious books of the Colonial canon was written by or named for the prophet Pythia.

It is revealed in the novel that Ancient Gallifrey was ruled by the Pythia, who controlled the population through prophecies and superstition.