Panhellenic Functions Of The Delphic Sanctuary

The Delphic sanctuary was one of the most famous panhellenic sanctuaries in ancient Greece, and it played panhellenic roles in many fields. This paper tries to analyze panhellenic functions of the Delphic sanctuary. The fist part narrates and analyzes how the Delphic sanctuary grew into a panhellenic sanctuary. The following three parts analyze its panhellenic functions respectively by Apollo's oracles, Pythian Game and Delphic Amphictyony. The last part narrates its change in Hellenistic and Roman periods.It took quite a long time for the Delphic sanctuary to become a panhellenic sanctuary. During the Mycenaean period, the main deity of the Delphic sanctuary was Mother God. When Mycenaean civilization collapsed, the development of the Delphic sanctuary stopped. During the last decades of the Dark Age, the worship of Apollo gave new motive to the Delphic sanctuary. Then the Delphic sanctuary developed very quickly with the effect of Greek expansion, the development of communities and the administration of Delphic Amphictyony in the Archaic Age, then it became a panhellenic sanctuary.As a panhellenic sanctuary, the Delphic sanctuary played its panhellenic roles through Apollo's oracles, Pythian Game and Dephic Amphictyony. Apollo's shrine attracted a large number of people from the Greek world to consult oracles, so this place became a natural panhellenic message-center. Apollo's oracles can also affect personal fate, internal development and external relations of various communities in Greece. Pythian Game is the second greatest panhellenic game in ancient Greece. Like Olympic Game, Pythian Game attracted many people from the whole Greece, which had the essense of panhellenism, stimulated people's panhellenic sense, and gave its panhellenic effect to the whole Greece by each attendee. The administrator of the Delphic sanctuary, Delphic Amphictyony, was a regional league at first, then it became a panhellenic league in a sense, and when it administrated the Delphic sanctuary, arbitrated Greek affairs and so on it had panhellenic functions.During Hellenistic and Roman period, Delphi sanctuary underwent many great changes, such as Gaulish invasion, the control of Aitolian League, invention of new festival, retrieval of freedom, Roman destruction and reconstruction, hostility of Christianity. Finally, the Delphic sanctuary disappeared in the history.