At the oracular
temple at Claros, before the temple entrance was a sacred valley
and at the entrance stood a large triple gate. Within the gate
was a sacred grove and further on was the altar and the Doric
temple of Apollo.
The altar was
enormous and so were the statues of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto.
They could reach a height of twenty feet.
There was an underground
chamber which contained an omphalos or navel stone
of deep blue marble. This was quite similar to the famous omphalos
at Delphi. This omphalos served as a signal to visitors
that they had reached the oracular center of the earth. The prophet
would drink from the spring of Apollo and
go into a trance-like state. He would not be aware of his actions
at this time. It was during this time that he would utter his
oracle in verse, or at least an attempt at verse. Later came the
voice of the thespode, or "singer of oracles." He would
put the basic message, inspired by Apollo into
intricate verses. "By divine insight, Apollo's verses
neatly matched the problems at hand" (Lane Fox, pp. 172-176).