ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the Previous Owners myth does not reflect cultic history but expresses certain important perceptions about the Delphic Apollo, the oracle and the cosmos. Many scholars believe that this story reflects a memory of a time in which Gaia and/or Themis were the oracular divinities at Delphi, dispossessed by Apollo who did not evict them altogether but allowed them to maintain a cult of secondary importance in the Delphic sanctuary. According to Aesch. Emu 18, Gaia gave the Delphic oracle to Themis, succeeded with her consent by Phoebe, who gave it to her grandson Apollo on his birth. That this friendly transfer foreshadows the plays conclusion has been noted by others, as has the passages relationship with Hesiods Theogony. The omphaloss funerary interpretations resulted from the interaction between the Minoan stones funerary connections and the funerary spaces of Delphic myth and cult which involved Dionysos and the Python.
