The Oracle of Delphi

In Greek mythology Leto was the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe. 

Both Coeus and Phoebe were Titans. Titans were the ancient Gods of the Greeks and the Titans were mostly the children of Uranus, the God of the sky and Gaia, the goddess of the Earth.

Zeus was the king of the Greek gods and  Zeus ruled from Mount Olympus.

The wife of Zeus was Hera. Hera was the goddess of lawful marriages, women and family.

Leto was one of the lovers of Zeus and she was about to bear the children of Zeus.

Naturally Hera was jealous of Leto.

Hera drove Leto out of Olympus. And Hera asked all land on Earth to refuse to give refuge to Leto so that Leto would not be able to give birth on any land. At the same time Hera also asked a giant snake called Python to chase Leto, if Leto thought of resting.

Python was a huge serpent who was believed to live in the centre of the Earth. The Greeks believed that the centre of the Earth opened at Delos.

After being refused a place to stay, Leto finally found the island of Delos. 

Delos was a very interesting  place, because it was not connected to the mainland - it was an island. The island was also not connected to the ocean floor. The land of Delos was considered as neither land nor island and therefore the land of Delos did not mind Leto coming there.

On the island of Delos, Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. 

Apollo was the God of archery, music, dance and prophecy and Artemis was the Goddess of the hunt.

After being born, to help his mother Apollo killed the Python and Apollo buried Python at Delos.

Apollo took over Python's home at Delos. Over time a huge temple of Apollo was established in the island of Delos, which came to be known as Delphi.

Pythia was the name of the priestess of the temple. 

Pythia served as the Oracle and she came to be known as the Oracle of Delphi as it was believed that she prophesied the future with the blessings of the Greek God Apollo.

Stories from Greek mythology