High above the Gulf of Corinth, in the holy Mountain of Parnassos, surrounded by a forest of pines, lay the shrine of the God Apollo, Delphi.
For many centuries the voice of Delphi, the most important sanctuary, was the absolute guiding power to the Greeks. People as well cities visited it in order to get answers and guidance for their future and destiny. The oracles were listened and obeyed and their suggestive power was such, that wars were won or lost, by a few words of Pythia.
During the 7th century BC, when the barbarian cult of Dionysos had been introduced in Greece, endangering to wipe out the values and traditions and send Hellenes in barbaric stages, it was Delphi that saved Greece by ingeniously introducing Dionysos, with the qualities of Apollo.
Delphi, a religious and cultural center, imposed for the first time in human history international law, prohibiting the execution of prisoners of war or the pollution the waters of wells and destruction of aqueducts.
Delphi influenced Greece not only religiously, but in education and literature, in art and trade and mainly on colonization. The offerings of individual and cities to the oracle of Pythian Apollo were enormous. More than five thousand works of art were at Delphi before it was destroyed.