The cave where the divinity Gaia (Mother Earth) used to utter prophecies guarded by her son, the serpent Python, dates from the second millennium BC (Mycenaean period). It was located on the way from the Gulf of Coninth to Central and Northern Greece, in a region then called Pytho. When the god Apollo was an infant, he killed Python, at the same time abandoning Delphi to purify himself. After the purification took place, he returned to Delphi crowned and took over the Oracle, which from then on belonged to him. Apart from the mythical implications, this act symbolised the introduction of the worship of Delphinios Apollo at Krisa (a town in Phokis, today Hrisso), by the seamen of Knossos. The god became known as Apollo Pythias and the area was called Delphi from that time on. At first the Oracle was under the strict domination of Krisa; It was liberated in 590 BC, and it is from this date that the true history and fame of Delphi essentially began. A number of Sacred Wars broke out for control of the Oracle. The Phokians, Amphissans and even the Athenians vied to avail themselves of its great wealth, interfering with the independence of the priests and the little world that revolved about them. In 191 BC the Romans became masters of Delphi.