The mass poisoning of the city of Kirrha in Phocis, a few miles south of the sacred city of Delphi, around 595 BC, is an incident that stands out in ancient Greece for its chilling scale and its unparalleled environmental devastation.
This grim episode, often overlooked in popular historical narratives, represents one of the most horrific crimes committed in the ancient world.
The city of Kirrha and its infamy
The inhabitants of Kirrha were accused of egregious transgressions against the Delphic oracle. While the primary accusation, widely cited by ancient historians such as Aeschines and Plutarch, was the trespassing and sacrilegious cultivation of the sacred lands of Apollo that belonged to the Delphic sanctuary, other theories exist.
Some suggest that the Kirrhaeans were notorious for extorting and robbing pilgrims who journeyed to Delphi to consult the oracle, exploiting their piety for economic gain. This predatory behavior, combined with the desecration of holy land, ignited the wrath of the powerful states of Greece.
The First Sacred War: A holy vengeance
In response to Kirrha’s offenses, the Amphictyonic League—a council of ancient Greek city-states responsible for protecting the Delphic sanctuary—was immediately convened. This assembly, outraged by the affront to Apollo, declared a “Holy War” (Ἱερὸς Πόλεμος) against the sacrilegious Kirrhaeans. This conflict, which lasted for a decade, became known to later historians as the First Sacred War.
At the forefront of the allied forces, determined to bring about Kirrha’s extermination, were the powerful city-states of Athens and Sicyon. The military campaign was fierce and relentless, with the allies laying siege to Kirrha. However, the city’s strong fortifications, its mountainous and difficult terrain, and the primitive state of siege warfare technology at the time meant the siege progressed slowly and unsatisfactorily for the besiegers.
The mass poisoning of Kirrha
After years of a protracted siege (some accounts suggest as long as ten years), the allies discovered a crucial weakness: a hidden underground pipeline that supplied fresh water to the city. They immediately cut this pipeline, depriving the besieged Kirrhaeans of their vital water source. After days of immense suffering from thirst, the desperate inhabitants managed to locate and repair the pipeline, believing their ordeal was over.
However, the allies devised a horrifying plan. They allowed the Kirrhaeans to repair the pipeline, but then, before the water flow was fully restored, they poisoned the water with hellebore (a toxic plant, likely helleborus niger or “black hellebore,” known for its powerful emetic and purgative properties). The exact type of hellebore used is often cited as a type that induced violent diarrhea and vomiting, weakening the population rapidly.
Mass poisoning leads to an ecological catastrophe
Within a mere few days, the besieged populace of Kirrha fell grievously ill. Weakened by dehydration and now suffering from agonizing stomach ailments, they were unable to resist. The allied forces then launched a final, decisive assault on the city, which quickly fell.
The allies’ retribution did not end with the city’s capture. As a supreme act of punishment and a ritual purification of the land, they irrigated all the fields of Kirrha with the same poisoned water and further consecrated the entire Crissaean Plain to Apollo, dedicating it to him and cursing anyone who would cultivate it. This act effectively rendered the land infertile and uninhabitable. The trees and all other vegetation in the area withered and died, creating an incalculable ecological disaster.
The long-term effects were profound. The renowned Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias, visiting the site some 740 years later in the 2nd century AD, noted that the soil remained infertile and cursed.
He wrote: “The plain around Kirrha is uncultivated because the land is still cursed and the inhabitants cannot plant trees.” Pausanias explicitly attributed the diabolical plan to poison the waters to Solon, an attribution that remains a point of historical discussion and moral contemplation regarding the esteemed Athenian lawgiver.
Modern-day Kirrha
Today, the area is once again inhabited, with the modern town of Kirra (or Kirra) having a population exceeding 1,300 inhabitants. Yet, how many of them truly know the dark, unprecedented past of their ancestors—the mass poisoning and destruction that marked one of the most infamous episodes of the First Sacred War?
This horrifying event serves as a stark reminder of the extreme measures taken in ancient conflicts and the lasting impact of human actions on both human lives and the environment.
Related: The Laws of War in Ancient Greece