Temple of Apollo at Delphi

According to Greek myth, the Temple of Apollo was dedicated to the god Apollo in thanks for his slaying of the snake or dragon Python. The original temple was held by tradition to have been built around the 7th century BC by the legendary architects Trophonios and Agamedes. The Archaic incarnation of the Temple of Apollo, which is supposed to have occupied the same space, was destroyed by fire in the 6th century BC.

Rebuilt in marble with the financial support of the wealthy Athenian family of the Alcmaeonidae at the end of the 6th century BC, the renovated temple lasted until 373 BC, when it was destroyed by an earthquake. Scholarly consensus in the 20th century viewed the ultimate, late antique destruction of the temple as a deliberate act of arson by Christians in an attempt to remove pagan influences in the fourth century CE; however, more recent studies (see e.g., Lamouille 2020, paragraph 12) doubt this view, preferring an earthquake of uncertain date as the likely cause.