Lisa Maurizio on the Mystery of the Oracle at Delphi

The community of believers, who authored the Delphic oracles as well as their narrative frames, have left us a tradition of oracular tales containing authentic oracles whose very purpose was to transcend the particulars of time, place, and circumstance in favor of establishing Apollo's presence on earth. If modern historians insist on recovering the factual details of any one story in the service of a modern secularism or positivism, they risk robbing all of Greece of its sweating temples and bleeding rooftops.

Lisa Maurizio. 1997. Delphic Oracles As Oral Performances: Authenticity and Historical Evidence. Classical Antiquity 16(2):308¬334.