Editing Pythia (section)

==Temple of Apollo==
[[File:A Delphi magic mist.JPG|thumb|Modern photograph of the ruins of the [[Temple of Apollo at Delphi]]]]

The ruins of the [[Temple of Delphi]] visible today date from the 4th century&nbsp; BC, and are of a [[peripteral]] [[Doric order|Doric]] building. It was erected on the remains of an earlier temple, dated to the 6th century BC, which itself was erected on the site of a 7th-century-BC construction attributed to the architects Trophonios and Agamedes.<ref name="b">[http://www.ancient-greece.org/architecture/delphi-temple-of-apollo.html Temple of Apollo at Delphi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101116190113/http://ancient-greece.org/architecture/delphi-temple-of-apollo.html |date=2010-11-16 }}, Ancient-Greece.org</ref>

The 6th-century BC temple was named the "Temple of [[Alcmaeonidae]]" in tribute to the Athenian family who funded its reconstruction following a fire, which had destroyed the original structure. The new building was a Doric [[hexastyle]] temple of 6&nbsp;by&nbsp;15 columns. This temple was destroyed in 373&nbsp; BC by an earthquake. The [[pediment]] sculptures are a tribute to [[Praxias and Androsthenes]] of [[Athens]]. Of a similar proportion to the second temple it retained the 6&nbsp;by&nbsp;15 column pattern around the [[stylobate]].<ref name="b"/> Inside was the [[adyton]], the centre of the Delphic oracle and seat of Pythia. The temple had the statement "[[Know thyself]]", one of the [[Delphic maxims]], carved into it (and some modern Greek writers say the rest were carved into it), and the maxims were attributed to Apollo and given through the Oracle and/or the [[Seven Sages of Greece]] ("know thyself" perhaps also being attributed to other famous philosophers).

The temple survived until AD 390, when the Roman emperor [[Theodosius I]] silenced the oracle by destroying the temple and most statues and works of art to remove all traces of paganism.<ref name="Ringp185">Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Bod, ''International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe''; Page 185; [https://books.google.com/books?id=74JI2UlcU8AC&dq=Temple+of+Apollo+delphi++theodosius&pg=PA185] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513210336/https://books.google.com/books?id=74JI2UlcU8AC&dq=Temple+of+Apollo+delphi++theodosius&pg=PA185|date=2023-05-13}}</ref>

===Comparative Oracular Traditions===
The characteristic of collaboration of oracular practices at Delphi were found to be similar with other ancient traditions. For example, at Dodona, oracles were delivered through the rustling of oak leaves. Then priests will be required to interpret the signs. Similarly, the oracle at Didyma involved the interpretation of cryptic utterances by the priestess. This demonstrate that oracles across the ancient world relied on a interaction between divine inspiration which are signs from god, priestly mediation, and human interpretation.{{sfn|Broad|2007}}

By situating the Delphic Oracle within this broader context, scholars highlight its unique features while acknowledging its shared characteristics with other oracular traditions.