Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

After his birth, Apollo sought a place for his oracular shrine. The Homeric Hymn’s Pythian narrative follows him through many lands until he reaches Crisa beneath snowy Parnassus, by a spring. There a vast she-dragon—afterward called Python—haunted the spot and wrought great harm to the people and their flocks. Apollo shot her with his arrows; she writhed, gasped out her life among the trees, and left the place free for the god. From her rotting (*pythein*) corpse, the Hymn etymologizes the name Pytho for the sanctuary. Apollo then planned a temple. He encountered Cretan sailors bound from Knossos toward Pylos, leaped aboard in the form of a dolphin, and steered their ship to Crisa. There he revealed himself as the son of Zeus, led them inland, and installed them as priests of his precinct, teaching them his worship. Thus Delphi (Pytho) became his chief oracular seat among mortals. Apollodorus gives a compressed parallel: Apollo learned prophecy from Pan (son of Zeus and Hybris), came to Delphi where Themis then delivered oracles, and when the snake Python that guarded the chasm tried to block his approach, he killed it and took over the oracle. The Hymn supplies the fuller foundation-epic—dragon-slaying, temple, and importation of Cretan cult personnel—while Apollodorus stresses succession from Themis and the oracular cleft.