Halos (Delphi)
area of Delphi Sacred Way, Greece
The Halos was a round open space close to the temple of Apollo in Delphi, where ancient rituals were being performed.
Description
Between the Bouleuterion and Sibyl's Rock in the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi there is a narrow pass leading to the fountain which the dragon Python was supposedly guarding. Apollo killed the dragon and then left for the land of the Hyperboreans in order to be expiated from the murder. This action signifies in mythology the transition from the early chthonic cults to the cult of the god of light and music.
At that spot, in front of the rocks marking the pass, a round square is formed, called Halos (literally: a threshing floor), where several rituals were taking place. Among these rituals was the Septerion (Σεπτήριον), the ritual re-enactment of the murder of Python by Apollo, taking place once every eight years. Plutarch mentions that during the ritual cleansing of the site a boy, whose parent were both alive, would set fire on a wooden construction symbolizing the dwelling of Python and then went on to cleanse himself as Apollo had done, taking recourse initially in the Tempi Valley. Around the Halos, particularly on its north side, platforms and bases for monuments were erected, particularly in the Hellenistic period. Among them stands out the base for a statue of the Pergamene king Attalus II Philadelphus(159-138 B.C.), dedicated by the city of Delphi. To the northeast the Halos is delimited by the Polygonal wall, built after the destruction of the Temple of Apollo (Delphi) in 548 B.C., in order to support the ground for the erection of the new temple that was going to be built under the auspices of the Alcmaeonids.
The public source identifies “Halos (Delphi)” as area of Delphi Sacred Way, Greece. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Halos, Delphi and area.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q25351988. Authority coordinates are 38.482, 22.502. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Halos (Delphi)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.