'DELPHI (now CASTES), an ancient t. of Phocis, Greece, celebrated chiefly for its famous oracle of Apollo, was situated about 8 m. n. of an indentation in the north ern shore of the gulf of Lepanto (Corinthian gulf), at the southern base of Parnassus, in Sat. 38° 27' n., and long. 22° 37' east. Its original name, and that by which Homer invariably speaks of it, was Pytho. It stood in the center of a district renowned for its classical associations. Occupying the vale of the Pleistus, it was seated in a semicircle. like the area of a grand natural theater, backed towards the n. by two lateral spurs of Parnassus. These lateral ranges extend e. and w. around D., and give rise also, from the point at which they approximate, to the famous fountain of Castalia, the holy water of the Delphian temple. The earliest inhabitants of D. are said to have come from Cycoreia, a town upon one of the.slopes of Parnassus, the inhabitants of which are sup posed to have been Dorians. From the Delphian nobles were at first taken the chief magistrates and the priests of the temple, while the pythia or female who delivered the oracle, at first always a young maiden, but latterly always a woman not younger than 50, was usually selected from some family of poor country-people. In the center of the temple was a small opening in the round, whence arose an intoxicating vapor; and the pythia having breathed this, sat down upon the tripod or three-legged seat, which was placed over the chasm in the ground, and thence delivered the oracle, which, if not pro nounced at first in hexameters, was handed over to a poet, employed for the purpose, who converted it into that form of verse. As the celebrity of the Delphic oracle
increased, D. became a town of great wealth and importance. In the 8th c. before the Christian era, it had become famous not only in Hellas, but also among the neigh boring nations. Here the Pythian games were at first celebrated in 586 B.c. The first stone temple at D. built by Trophonius and Agamcdes, was destroyed by fire in 548 p.c., but was rebuilt at the cost of 300 talents, or £115,000, and was fronted with Parian marble. In 480 B.C., Xerxes sent a portion of his army to plunder the temple; but as they climbed the rugged path that led to the shrine, a peal of thunder broke overhead, and two huge crags tumbling from the heights crushed many of the Persians to death, while the others, struck with terror, turned and fled. It was plundered by the Phocians during the sacred war, and was attacked by the Gauls in 279 B.C., who, approaching by that route which the Persians had on a former occasion adopted, were repulsed by a similar supernatural agency. D. subsequently excited the rapacity of many potentates, and suffered severely by their attacks. Nero carried off from it 500 statues in bronze; Constantine also removed many of its works of art to his own capital. In the time of Pliny, the number of statues in D. was not less than 3,000, and within the temple for a long time stood a golden statue of Apollo.
The modern town of Castri now occupies the site of Delphi. Its situation is beauti ful, and from it the traveler may command an excellent view of the ancient valley. Castri stands in the immediate neighborhood of the source of the still flowing Castalian spring.