The article suggests a new way to distinguish between historical and mythological components in the traditions of Apollo of Pythia, referring to the «insult of the deity». The objects of the study were written sources with descriptions and precise dates of the earliest cases of encroachment on the property of Apollo Pythias, which had consequences perceived by contemporaries as «God’s wrath». It has been established that all incidents of this kind date back to the period of the 5th–1st centuries BC. A list of characteristics and sacred attributes of Pythian Apollo as a local deity has been compiled, which turned out to be very different from the canonical image of Apollo. The result of the study was a reassessment of the reliability of the reports of ancient authors about some events in the history of Delphi in classical and Hellenistic times.
Apollo, canon, tradition, sacrilege, earthquake, rockfall, lightning, thunderstorm, storm, disease.
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