Oracle at Delphi Box Diorama

 This is my latest modeling project. I was inspired by a presentation by David Hoffman to build a box diorama. I chose the oracle at Delphi as a subject as I wanted to try new subject matter beyond railroads and military. 

The details of how the oracle worked are clouded by the passage of more than 2,000 years. There are conflicting descriptions of where and how she operated.  This is my interpretation of the oracle performing her ritual in the adyton (private room in the cellar) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The oracles were female, and,  according to some sources, they would make pronouncements while breathing fumes from a crack in the earth, allegedly the breath of Apollo. Male priests would stand by to record and or translate her utterances to hexameter verse.  

The statue on the right depicts Apollo wrestling with a python, which is how the temple became sited at this place according to Greek Mythology. The formal Greek name of the oracle was, "Pythia," to reflect the python in the origin myth. 

On the walls are inscriptions in Greek that translate to, “know thyself,” and, “all things in moderation.”

The figures and vases in the diorama are objects that I purchased from my various sources and modified to fit the diorama. An ultrasonic micro-humidifier produces the fumes emanating from the earth. The burning braziers are 3D printed objects with flickering LEDs from Evans Designs.