The influence of the oracles was even more important. In Greece and Asia Minor there were several hundred places where oracles were given; this much is common to all of them, that it was not a divinely-inspired human being, but the god himself who announced his will by special tokens, while the priests were only the interpreters of the god’s will; the signs and methods of interpretation differed considerably. The oracles of Apollo were far the most celebrated, since he was specially the god of prophecy; among these, the oracle of Delphi surpassed all others in importance. Here the medium through which the god revealed his will to mankind was the holy priestess called Pythia; a vapour which rose from a cleft in the earth produced ecstasy in the Pythia, who had previously purified herself by chewing laurel leaves and drinking from the sacred spring, and clad in rich garments with a golden head-dress, long flowing robes, and buskins, and had taken her place on a tripod over the cleft. In this condition she uttered the oracles, which were, as a rule, incomprehensible to ordinary people. It was then the duty of the priests who were present during the ecstasy with the questioners, to discover the real meaning and sense of the senseless sounds, and arrange the answer in poetic form, usually in hexameters, which were, as a rule, cunningly arranged so as to have a two-fold meaning. At first this took place only once a year, but when the reputation of the oracle increased, and thousands of people came every year to Delphi, or sent messengers with questions to the temple, it became the custom to supply answers all the year round, and, in consequence of the great numbers, two Pythiae had to mount the tripod alternately, while a third was at hand to take their place occasionally. Only a few days in the year were regarded as unlucky, and then no oracles were given. At the time of the Empire, when the influence of the Delphic oracle had considerably diminished, it was only accessible once a year. The order in which the suppliants were to enter was generally decided by lot; in some few cases it may have been determined by rank. Prayer and sacrifice of course preceded the sacred ceremony; goats were chiefly offered, because, according to the legends, the discovery of this miraculous vapour was due to a goat.