Delphi
or DELPHOS (now CASTRI). a small town of ancient Phocis, in a valley to the W. of Mount Parnassus, was the seat of the most famous of all the oracles of Apollo. At this place certain exhalations, issuing from cavern, threw all who approached it into convulsions. The responses were delivered by a priestess, called Pythia, who sat upon a tripod placed over the mouth of this cavern, and after having inhaled the vapor, gave utterance to the wishedfor predictions, which were then interpreted by the priests. From its favorable position this oracle came to be consulted, not only by the Greeks, but even by the neighboring nations. The oracle continued to utter its responses long after the seat of empire had been transferred from Greece to Rome; and it was only when Constantine the Great removed the sacred tripods to adorn the hippodrome to his new city that the responses ceased to be delivered.