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Description
One of the most powerful individuals in the entire ancient Greek world was the Pythia, also known as the Oracle of Delphi. The first major settlement in the town of Delphi was established in the 15th century BCE. Mythology explains that Zeus founded the city by sending out two birds to circle the world, where they reunited on their paths supposedly being the center of the universe. Very convenient for Delphi, that. A stone representing the navel of Gaia was located there, which is why originally the priestesses based in Delphi were dedicated to the Earth goddess. The town was supposedly not even named Delphi originally, as that name would arise sometime in the 8th century BCE when the worship of Apollo overtook the city. Originally, it was called Pytho, named after the mythical serpent Python who guarded the Oracle of Gaia until Apollo came along, beat the snot out of the snake, and took the Sanctuary from Gaia. That's where the name "Pythia" came from, while the name "Oracle of Delphi" came from the fact that she was an oracle… at Delphi. Hmm.

So who was this Oracle? Well, in the olden days she was a young virgin priestess dedicated to Apollo. She was said to be possessed by the sun god himself, and channeled esoteric prophecies for the people of Greece, regardless of wealth or politics (though having more money to donate certainly increased your chances of hearing what you wanted to hear, funny that). Earlier writers claim that the Temple was actually situated over an underground chasm that belched out mysterious fumes for the Oracle to huff and receive prophecy from. Far out, man. Unfortunately, archaeology has failed to locate any such chasm, leading many to wonder if this was just a narrative spun by the priesthood. Some argue that the mysterious fumes were actually volcanic gasses vented in from an unknown source, specifically ethylene. Now, ethylene is present in the nearby spring, but its concentration is only 0.3 nanomoles per liter of water. To put that into perspective, your average college classroom will produce several thousand times this amount over the course of a single lecture. While those students are absolutely high on something, it isn't ethylene. This isn't even to mention that the amounts of ethylene that would be required to hallucinate visions from Apollo would be suffocating and extremely flammable, and as far as I'm aware, there's not exactly any reports of the Temple exploding after someone tried to light a stick of incense. Many, including myself, would argue that trying to insist the Pythia was tripping balls is a little demeaning to the cultural landscape she was a part of. Even today, people don't need to be high to have religious experiences or enter trance states. Even if it was just fumes, the role her prophecies played in the culture and religion of her people was more important than the source, and this dynamic is more worthy of study than how red her eyes were.

The Oracle's most famous predictions were the ones that came true, and a lot of them came true. Of course, I don't mean she actually predicted the future, that'd be magic and magic, sadly, isn't real. I say, as a person who practices religious magic. No, the Pythia was in fact famous for her incredibly vague and poetic responses to any question posed to her, which were conviently worded in an unfalsifiable way. Like any modern horoscope, you could really read and interpret her answers however you'd like and find a way to make it fit what comes to pass. The most famous example of this is when the Lydian king Croesus traveled to Delphi in 547 BCE to ask if he would succeed if he went to war against an up-and-coming Iranian king named Cyrus the Great. The Oracle replied that if he went to war with Iran, he would destroy a great empire. Awesome, Croesus thought! So he gathered his men, put his all into defeating Cyrus, and got his ass absolutely handed to him, never once considering that the "great empire" he would destroy was his own. Another notable example is when King Leonidas of Sparta inquired his fate as he went to confront the army of Xerxes at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. The Oracle told him that Sparta would either lose its kingdom or lose its king. Leonidas, a Spartan to the end, chose his fate on the battlefield that infamous day.

As Greek culture was spread across the world by the conquests of Alexander and later the Romans, the Oracle received pilgrims from all across the known world. Apparently they had to stop assigning the position to young virgins in the 2nd century BCE because the pilgrims had a tendency to get… handsy with the prophetess. From then on, the position could only be filled by a woman 50 years old or older. Having grown up on the internet, I know this probably didn't stop the persistence of pervs too much, but it did begin the era of decline for the Delphic Oracle, so take that for what you will. Where once, the Sanctuary was so overloaded with pilgrims and tourists that three separate Pythia had to be employed at any given time, by the first millennium CE, the city was a shell of its former self. The rise of Christianity negated the need for a pagan prophetess. In 302 CE, the Roman Emperor Diocletian consulted the Oracle about this newfangled Jesus craze sweeping the damned kids these days, and her worrying response supposedly inspired him to enact his infamous persecutions against the Christian population. Still, Apollo was clearly right to worry, as Constantine would lay the groundwork to replace him with a new god. In 362 CE, an agent of Emperor Julian the Apostate received the desolated Pythia's final recorded message: "Tell the Emperor that my hall has fallen to the ground. Phoibos (another name for Apollo) no longer has his house, nor his mantic bay, nor his prophetic spring. The water has dried up." The Delphic institution was finally swept under the rug when Emperor Theodosius destroyed the Sanctuary in the name of Christianity in 390 CE. The voice of the sun was replaced once and for all by the Word of God.

Design notes, there's shockingly few contemporary images of the Oracle of Delphi. There seems to be only two, both found on pieces of pottery. One is an Attic kylix depicting Aigeus in front of the Pythia, dated roughly to the late 5th century BCE. The other is a Paestan bell-krater depicting Orestes's visit, created in the late 4th century BCE. The older image is… frankly kinda useless, lacking any real detail. The second one is much more helpful, and from that I referenced the snake jewelry, face, and what seems like tattoos on her arms, though I admit this may just be meant as the pattern on her sleeves, hard to tell from the image, but I personally just think the tattoos look cooler and make her seem more esoteric. One of the more famous modern paintings of the Pythia is the 1891 work "Priestess of Delphi" by John Collier, but it doesn't really provide enough detail for my personal satisfaction. I took the color scheme and fabric pattern from it, but not much else. For the basic silhouette and the shape of her head covering, I referenced a 1789 painting titled "Alexander Consults the Oracle of Apollo" by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée. Her sash is taken from "The Oracle", a 1880 piece by Biacca Camillo Miola, and was a pain in my rear to draw, but it fits well with the composition. And lastly, her white underskirt was inspired by "Pythia", a 1917 painting by Polish artist Jacek Malchevsky. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the final result, but I do like how it's different from how most generic depictions of the Pythia tend to appear. She's not just some generic Greek priestess, and I think that serves this piece well. Could use some tweaking, and you're of course free to insert your own joke about the Pythia tweaking here.

Description
One of the most powerful individuals in the entire ancient Greek world was the Pythia, also known as the Oracle of Delphi. The first major settlement in the town of Delphi was established in the 15th century BCE. Mythology explains that Zeus founded the city by sending out two birds to circle the world, where they reunited on their paths supposedly being the center of the universe. Very convenient for Delphi, that. A stone representing the navel of Gaia was located there, which is why originally the priestesses based in Delphi were dedicated to the Earth goddess. The town was supposedly not even named Delphi originally, as that name would arise sometime in the 8th century BCE when the worship of Apollo overtook the city. Originally, it was called Pytho, named after the mythical serpent Python who guarded the Oracle of Gaia until Apollo came along, beat the snot out of the snake, and took the Sanctuary from Gaia. That's where the name "Pythia" came from, while the name "Oracle of Delphi" came from the fact that she was an oracle… at Delphi. Hmm.

So who was this Oracle? Well, in the olden days she was a young virgin priestess dedicated to Apollo. She was said to be possessed by the sun god himself, and channeled esoteric prophecies for the people of Greece, regardless of wealth or politics (though having more money to donate certainly increased your chances of hearing what you wanted to hear, funny that). Earlier writers claim that the Temple was actually situated over an underground chasm that belched out mysterious fumes for the Oracle to huff and receive prophecy from. Far out, man. Unfortunately, archaeology has failed to locate any such chasm, leading many to wonder if this was just a narrative spun by the priesthood. Some argue that the mysterious fumes were actually volcanic gasses vented in from an unknown source, specifically ethylene. Now, ethylene is present in the nearby spring, but its concentration is only 0.3 nanomoles per liter of water. To put that into perspective, your average college classroom will produce several thousand times this amount over the course of a single lecture. While those students are absolutely high on something, it isn't ethylene. This isn't even to mention that the amounts of ethylene that would be required to hallucinate visions from Apollo would be suffocating and extremely flammable, and as far as I'm aware, there's not exactly any reports of the Temple exploding after someone tried to light a stick of incense. Many, including myself, would argue that trying to insist the Pythia was tripping balls is a little demeaning to the cultural landscape she was a part of. Even today, people don't need to be high to have religious experiences or enter trance states. Even if it was just fumes, the role her prophecies played in the culture and religion of her people was more important than the source, and this dynamic is more worthy of study than how red her eyes were.

The Oracle's most famous predictions were the ones that came true, and a lot of them came true. Of course, I don't mean she actually predicted the future, that'd be magic and magic, sadly, isn't real. I say, as a person who practices religious magic. No, the Pythia was in fact famous for her incredibly vague and poetic responses to any question posed to her, which were conviently worded in an unfalsifiable way. Like any modern horoscope, you could really read and interpret her answers however you'd like and find a way to make it fit what comes to pass. The most famous example of this is when the Lydian king Croesus traveled to Delphi in 547 BCE to ask if he would succeed if he went to war against an up-and-coming Iranian king named Cyrus the Great. The Oracle replied that if he went to war with Iran, he would destroy a great empire. Awesome, Croesus thought! So he gathered his men, put his all into defeating Cyrus, and got his ass absolutely handed to him, never once considering that the "great empire" he would destroy was his own. Another notable example is when King Leonidas of Sparta inquired his fate as he went to confront the army of Xerxes at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. The Oracle told him that Sparta would either lose its kingdom or lose its king. Leonidas, a Spartan to the end, chose his fate on the battlefield that infamous day.

As Greek culture was spread across the world by the conquests of Alexander and later the Romans, the Oracle received pilgrims from all across the known world. Apparently they had to stop assigning the position to young virgins in the 2nd century BCE because the pilgrims had a tendency to get… handsy with the prophetess. From then on, the position could only be filled by a woman 50 years old or older. Having grown up on the internet, I know this probably didn't stop the persistence of pervs too much, but it did begin the era of decline for the Delphic Oracle, so take that for what you will. Where once, the Sanctuary was so overloaded with pilgrims and tourists that three separate Pythia had to be employed at any given time, by the first millennium CE, the city was a shell of its former self. The rise of Christianity negated the need for a pagan prophetess. In 302 CE, the Roman Emperor Diocletian consulted the Oracle about this newfangled Jesus craze sweeping the damned kids these days, and her worrying response supposedly inspired him to enact his infamous persecutions against the Christian population. Still, Apollo was clearly right to worry, as Constantine would lay the groundwork to replace him with a new god. In 362 CE, an agent of Emperor Julian the Apostate received the desolated Pythia's final recorded message: "Tell the Emperor that my hall has fallen to the ground. Phoibos (another name for Apollo) no longer has his house, nor his mantic bay, nor his prophetic spring. The water has dried up." The Delphic institution was finally swept under the rug when Emperor Theodosius destroyed the Sanctuary in the name of Christianity in 390 CE. The voice of the sun was replaced once and for all by the Word of God.

Design notes, there's shockingly few contemporary images of the Oracle of Delphi. There seems to be only two, both found on pieces of pottery. One is an Attic kylix depicting Aigeus in front of the Pythia, dated roughly to the late 5th century BCE. The other is a Paestan bell-krater depicting Orestes's visit, created in the late 4th century BCE. The older image is… frankly kinda useless, lacking any real detail. The second one is much more helpful, and from that I referenced the snake jewelry, face, and what seems like tattoos on her arms, though I admit this may just be meant as the pattern on her sleeves, hard to tell from the image, but I personally just think the tattoos look cooler and make her seem more esoteric. One of the more famous modern paintings of the Pythia is the 1891 work "Priestess of Delphi" by John Collier, but it doesn't really provide enough detail for my personal satisfaction. I took the color scheme and fabric pattern from it, but not much else. For the basic silhouette and the shape of her head covering, I referenced a 1789 painting titled "Alexander Consults the Oracle of Apollo" by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée. Her sash is taken from "The Oracle", a 1880 piece by Biacca Camillo Miola, and was a pain in my rear to draw, but it fits well with the composition. And lastly, her white underskirt was inspired by "Pythia", a 1917 painting by Polish artist Jacek Malchevsky. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the final result, but I do like how it's different from how most generic depictions of the Pythia tend to appear. She's not just some generic Greek priestess, and I think that serves this piece well. Could use some tweaking, and you're of course free to insert your own joke about the Pythia tweaking here.