Oracle of Delphi

Actually, the inscription on this vase reads 'Themis,' not 'Pythia.' Around 440 BC, an Athenian painter chose to depict the Delphic oracle not as the priestess of Apollo, but as the goddess of justice, Themis, the original owner of the tripod.

Attic red-figure kylix. Attributed to the Kodros Painter. 440-430 BC. Found in Vulci (Italy), currently housed in the Antikensammlung Berlin, inventory no. F 2538. Painted on the interior surface of a drinking cup - the tondo - this scene greets the drinker who empties the vessel, much like a prophecy waiting at the bottom.

The bearded, crowned figure facing Themis is King Aegeus of Athens. He hasn't been able to have a child, so he's come to Delphi to consult the oracle. The prophecy is this: 'Don't loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you reach Athens.' Aegeus doesn't get it. But the prophecy is a sexual metaphor: don't sleep with any woman until you return home.

On his way back, Aegeus stops in Troezen. King Pittheus instantly figures out the prophecy's meaning but doesn't tell Aegeus. Instead, he gets him drunk and has him sleep with his daughter, Aethra. Theseus will be born from that night. Euripides stages this exact visit to Delphi in his play Medea around the same time: Aegeus meets Medea in Corinth and grants her sanctuary.

The phiale (a shallow libation bowl) in Themis's hand is up for debate. Some scholars think her looking into the bowl shows the ritual of drawing lots with beans or stones (cleromancy). That's a divination method completely different from the Pythia's famous trance state. The laurel branch in her other hand is Apollo's sacred plant: the Pythia would burn laurel leaves before giving a prophecy.

The oracle giving prophecies at Delphi was always a woman. According to Diodorus Siculus, young virgins were initially chosen for the role, until Echecrates of Thessaly kidnapped and raped a Pythia. After that, the Delphians changed the rules: the oracle would be a woman over 50, but she'd wear a young maiden's clothes as a nod to the old tradition. During busy periods, three Pythias served at the same time.

Aegeus meets a tragic end. When his son Theseus returns from Crete, he forgets to change his ship's sails from black to white. Seeing his son's ship with black sails from Cape Sounion, Aegeus assumes he's dead and throws himself off the cliffs into the sea. Today, we call that sea the Aegean (Aigaion). The scene we see on this kylix is the starting point of the tragedy that would eventually give the sea its name.