The Delphic oracle functioned one day a month for eight months of the year, from early spring to late autumn. Consultation days were likely accompanied by major Delphic festivals, though we only have record of a few of these. Petitioners could consult only about a single issue, probably involving two standard questions. The cost paid for consulting the oracles was pelanos – a type of bread.
It is likely that in all 8 months in which the oracle functioned, consultations of the oracle took place as part of a large festival. This would be one way in which consultation of the oracle differed from most other forms of divination, including many other oracular sanctuaries. Elsewhere, the process of divination took place at a time of the questioner’s choosing, and the focus of the rituals would be their question. At Delphi, the theōros and his question took their place in the broader ritual. It is therefore worth exploring what Athenian theōroi to Delphi would have experienced when they came to consult the oracle.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40647-020-00293-4
The oracle functioned 1 day a month for 8 months of the year. It is true that from the middle of the fifth century the Athenians had promanteia, but that would not guarantee that the oracle would provide answers to all the questions the Athenians might have. We have no idea how many questions any petitioner might ask of the oracle, but it is quite likely that they could consult only about a single issue. Probably, this would involve two questions of a standard form: ‘would it be better and more profitable for us to do X?’, and ‘to what gods should we pray so that the action will produce the right result?’
Herodotus (7.139.5-143) tells the famous story of the Athenian consultation about what they should do in the face of the Persian invasion of 480 BCE, and describes the theōroi returning later to get a second response. This story is probably very fictionalised, so cannot be relied upon as evidence for how consultations worked in the fifth century, but even if it were accurate, it does not show that multiple consultations, whether about the same or different topics were normal.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40647-020-00293-4
the cost of the pelanos (the payment required for consulting the oracle)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40647-020-00293-4
https://healthybreadbysophia.com/recipe/pelanos-bread/
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