Delphi

Delphi, a city in central Greece, is known largely for it’s importance to religion, prophecy, and pagan ceremony. The Oracle at Delphi was, according to Greek myth, a woman blessed by Apollo with the gift of prophecy. When Lycurgus, founder of Sparta, asked for his prophecy, the Oracle said that his laws would make Sparta the most famous civilization in the world. According to Polybius, he was satisfied with his impact on history, and walked into the woods to starve himself to death. The Oracle at Delphi was in fact seeing visions, but scholars question of those visions were provided to her by the gods, or the toxic fumes she would inhale before entering her religious trance. Never the less, the Oracle at Delphi and Delphi itself remained a crucial piece of Spartan history and ancient history as a whole.