Python (mythology)

Mythology

Before Apollo could build his famous temple at Delphi, he first had to kill Python, a monstrous son of Gaia who guarded the site. Python, also known as Pytho, once controlled the Delphic oracle, which was originally a cult center for its mother, Earth. The Greeks believed Delphi was the world’s center, marked by a sacred stone called the omphalos that Python protected. After slaying the chthonic creature, Apollo took over Python’s home and oracle.

Versions and interpretations

Various versions exist of Python's birth and death. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, composed in 522 BC, Apollo searched for a place to establish his shrine, reached Delphi, saw the Python as a bane to the people, slew it, and declared himself owner of the oracular shrine. Hyginus relates that Hera, jealous of Zeus's union with Leto, sent Python to pursue Leto and prevent her from giving birth to Artemis and Apollo. When Apollo was born and four days old, he pursued Python to Mount Parnassus, then to the oracle of Gaia at Delphi, where he killed it with arrows beside the rock cleft where the priestess sat.

Robert Graves interpreted this as the capture by Hellenes of a pre-Hellenic shrine, with funeral games instituted to placate local opinion. An epigram from 159 BC suggests Python meant to rape Leto. Clearchus of Soli wrote that while Python pursued them, Leto stepped on a stone and cried 'ἵε παῖ' ('shoot, child') to Apollo. Zeus ordered Apollo to purify himself and instituted the Pythian Games as penance.

Erwin Rohde described Python as an earth spirit conquered by Apollo and buried under the omphalos. The priestess of the oracle became known as the Pythia, after the place-name Pytho, which Greeks explained as named after the rotting of the slain serpent's corpse in the strength of Hyperion or Helios.