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).