In the ancient times, Didyma was famous as the place where a colossal Temple of Apollo stood, and the oracle revealed the future. In its heyday, Didyma was not a city, but a place of worship, connected with Miletus by the so-called Sacred Way.
It is supposed that until its destruction by the Persians in 494 BC, Didyma’s sanctuary was administered by the family of the Branchidae, who claimed descent from an eponymous Branchos a youth beloved of Apollo. The priestess, seated above the sacred spring, gave utterances that were interpreted by the Branchidae. Both Herodotus and Pausanias dated the origins of the oracle at Didyma before the Ionian colonization of this coast. Clement of Alexandria quotes Leandrios saying that Cleochus, grandfather of the eponymous founder Miletus, was buried within the temple enclosure of Didyma.
