Abstract
In ancient Greece, oracular sanctuaries, and Delphi in particular, were the place where " the greatest, the most beautiful and the first of the laws " (Plato,Republic, 427b) were produced: oracles. Attributed to the god himself, these rulings were binding in both the religious and political spheres. However, to see this divine attribution as the sole source of oracular authority is largely simplistic. Oracular sanctuaries are, in fact, norm-producing institutions, and as such, they set up a process of construction and authentication of the divine word, involving various human agents, from the Pythia to the god's secretary. The aim is to examine how these agents, through their selection, training, staging and collaboration, are the repositories of a religious authority that crystallizes in the oracular statement.
