In the theatre were held the music and dramatic competitions of the Pythian Games moreover, the theatre, as the place of public gatherings par excellence, was used for the disclosure of release acts, concerning in their vast majority slaves. Its capacity is estimated to 5000 spectators and it bears all the typical architectural features of the Late Classical Greek theatres, though it is somewhat narrower in form, due to the limited natural space available. Perched on a hillside with panoramic view, lies the theatre of Delphi, built in 400 BC of white stone from Parnassus.In the 3rd century BC were inscribed on the outside walls two hymns to Apollo, including the ancient musical signs, an extremely rare finding. The Athenians’ treasury was erected after their victory at Marathon in 490 BC to host the best part of their war booty.An important specimen of the late Archaic period, when the island workshops give the tone in the art, the treasury of the Siphnians is entirely worthy of the reputation of the island that donated it: Siphnos was among the richest Aegean islands of the time. It had a porch supported not by columns but by Korai statues, like the Erechtheion of the Athenian Acropolis one century later. A notable example in terms of its elegant architecture and sculptural decoration is the 6th century BC treasury of the Siphnians, the oldest structure in mainland Greece entirely built by marble. The elegant Treasuries ( Thisavroi in Greek) were erected by several Greek cities to host their votive offerings to the shrine.The Doric temple we see today was completed in 330 BC, during the reign of Alexander the Great, and it was the last in a succession of six temples built on the site in honour of Apollo. In the adyton of this temple, a separate closed room at the rear, Pythia, seated on the tripod, uttered the prophetic - and by all accounts unintelligible - words of the god. A winding path, the Sacred Way led to the imposing temple of Apollo, that overlooks the shrine from its centrally located, elevated position. The roughness of the amphitheatrical landscape betrays the most difficult challenge that ancient craftsmen dealt with.
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Its clefts emitted the vapours in which the ancients saw the spirit of God and gave way to the waters of the sacred spring of Castalia no one was allowed to seek Apollo's oracle before washed and purified in its waters. The rocks are split forming an awesome chasm.
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In AD 394 the decree of the emperor Theodosius I banned the pagan cults and their sanctuaries.
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The last Delphic oracle uttered to the emperor Ioulianos (AD 360-363) would be its swan song. The prevalence of Christianity deprived Apollo from its shelter and Pythia was silenced. Due to its wealth and influence was the apple of discord and a magnet for invaders. The powerful monarchs of the East seek its oracles, while there isn't a single event with some historical significance in the Greek region, in which the Delphic oracle has not implicitly or explicitly taken part or stand. In the course of 1500 years, the Delphi sanctuary and oracle mirrors the ancient history, as its fate was inextricably tied, not only with the history of Greece but also of the then known world. A landscape of untamed beauty and a crossroad of natural passages in the heart of mainland Greece, the land of Delphi meant much more for the ancient Greeks: According to the legend, Zeus let two eagles fly from the ends of the world to find the navel of the Earth. To the north, the valley is surrounded by the Mount Parnassus, while on the south it opens to the sea of the Corinthian Gulf. Cradle of one of the most important sanctuaries of the Greek antiquity and its most famous oracle was the land of Phocis and specifically the green valley of the river Pleistos.