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The Pythia was the priestess presiding over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The Pythia was widely credited with giving prophecies inspired by Apollo, giving her a prominence unusual for a woman in male-dominated ancient Greece. The Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BCE. Its last recorded response was given in 393 CE, when the emperor Theodosius I ordered pagan temples to cease operation. During this period the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle in the Greek world. The oracle is one of the best-documented religious institutions of the classical Greek world. Writers who mention the oracle include Herodotus, Euripides, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Pindar, Xenophon, Diodorus, Strabo, Pausanias, Plutarch, Livy, Justin, Ovid, Lucan and Julian. The name of the Pythia derived from Pytho, which in myth was the original name of Delphi. The Greeks derived this place-name from the verb pythein (πύθειν, "to rot"), used of the decomposition of the body of the monstrous serpent Python after she was slain by Apollo. It is often said that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapors rising from the ground, and that she spoke gibberish which priests reshaped into the enigmatic prophecies preserved in Greek literature. This picture has been challenged by scholars such as Joseph Fontenrose and Lisa Maurizio, who show that the ancient sources uniformly represent the Pythia speaking intelligibly, and giving prophecies in her own voice. Recent geological investigations have shown the possibility that ethylene gas caused the Pythia's state of inspiration.
Origins of the Oracle There are many stories of the origins of the Delphic Oracle. One legend, which is first related by the 1st century BCE writer Diodorus Siculus, tells of a goat herder called Kouretas, who noticed one day that one of his goats, who fell into a crack in the earth was behaving strangely. On entering the chasm, he found himself filled with a divine presence and could see outside of the present into the past and the future. Excited by his discovery he shared it with nearby villagers. Many started visiting the site, until one of them was killed by the experience. From then, only young girls were allowed to approach the chasm and then in conditions regulated by a guild of priests and priestesses. According to legend, the office of the oracle was initially held by the Goddesses Themis and Phoebe, and the site was sacred to Gaia. Subsequently it was held sacred to Poseidon, the "Earth-shaker" god of earthquakes. During the Greek Dark Age, from the 11th to the 9th century BCE, the arrival of a new god of prophecy, saw the temple being seized by Apollo who expelled the twin guardian serpents of Gaia. Later myth stated that Phoebe or Themis had given the site to Apollo, rationalising its seizure by priests of the new God. Apparently Poseidon was molified by the gift of a new site in Troizen. Diodorus also explained how initially, the Pythia was a young virgin, but one consultant, Echecrates the Thessalian, having arrived at the shrine and beheld the virgin who uttered the oracle, became enamoured of her because of her beauty, carried her away and violated her; and the Delphians because of this deplorable occurrence passed a law that in future a virgin could no longer prophecy but that an elderly woman ... would declare the oracles and she would be dressed in the costume of a virgin as a sort of reminder of the prophetess of olden times. The scholar Martin Litchfield West writes that the Pythia at Delphi shows many traits of shamanistic practices, likely inherited or influenced from Central Asian practices, although there is no evidence of any Central Asian connection at this time. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a tripod, whilst making her prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state, like shamans, and her unintelligible utterings. Personnel The Pythia was probably selected, at the death of her predeccessor, from amongst a guild of priestesses of the Temple of Apollo, and was required to be a woman of good character. Although some were married, upon assuming their role as the Pythia, the priestesses ceased all family responsibilities, and individual identity. In the heyday of the oracle, the Pythia may have been a woman chosen from a prominent family, well educated in geography, politics, history, philosophy and the arts. In later periods, however, uneducated peasant women were chosen for the role, which may explain why the poetic pentameter or hexameter prophecies of the early period, later were made in prose. The archaeologist John Hale reports: the Pythia was (on occasion) a noble girl of aristocratic family, sometimes a peasant, sometimes rich, sometimes poor, sometimes old, sometimes young, sometimes a very lettered and educated woman to whom somebody like the high priest and the philosopher Plutarch would dedicate essays, other times a girl who could not write her own name. So it seems to have been aptitude rather than any ascribed status that made these women eligible to be Pythias and speak for the God. During the height of the oracle's popularity, as many as three women served as Pythia, with two taking turns in giving prophecy and another kept in reserve. Several other officials served the oracle in addition to the Pythia. After 200 BCE at any given time there were two priests of Apollo, who were in charge of the entire sanctuary; Plutarch, who served as a priest in the late first century and early second century AD, gives us the most information about the organization of the oracle. Before 200 BCE, there was probably only one priest of Apollo. Priests were chosen from among the leading citizens of Delphi, and were appointed for life. In addition to overseeing the oracle, priests would also conduct sacrifices at other festivals of Apollo, and had charge of the Pythian games. The other officials associated with the oracle are less well understood. These are the hosioi ("holy ones") and the prophētai (singular prophētēs). Prophētēs is the origin of the English word "prophet", but a better translation of the Greek word might be "one who speaks on behalf of another person."The prophetai are referred to in literary sources, but their function is unclear; it has been suggested that they interpreted the Pythia's prophecies, or even reshaped her utterances into verse, but it has also been argued that the term prophētēs is a generic reference to any cult personnel at the sanctuary, including the Pythia. There were five hosioi, whose responsibilities are unclear, but may have been involved in some way with the operation of the oracle. Oracular procedure The oracle gave prophecies only between spring and autumn. In the winter months, Apollo was said to have deserted his temple, his place being taken by his divine half-brother Dionysus, whose tomb was within the temple. It is not known whether the Oracle participated in the Dionysian rites of the Maenads or Thyades in the Korykion cave on Mount Parnassos, although Plutarch informs us that his friend Clea, was both a Priestess to Apollo and to the secret rites of Dionysus. The male priests seem to have had their own ceremonies to the dying and resurrecting God. Apollo was said to return at the beginning of Spring, on the 7th day of the month of Bysios, his birthday. Once a month thereafter the oracle would undergo special rites, including fasting, to prepare her for the event, on the seventh day of the month, sacred to Apollo. Washing in the Castalian Spring, she then received inspiration by drinking of the waters of the Kassotis from the naiad said to be living in the stream that ran beneath the adyton (a Greek word meaning "do not enter") of the temple where she sat. Descending into her chamber, she mounted her tripod seat, holding laurel leaves and a cauldron of the Kassotis water into which she gazed. Nearby was the omphalos, flanked by the two golden eagles of Zeus, and the cleft from which emerged the sacred pneuma. Consultants, carrying laurel branches sacred to Apollo approached the temple along the winding upwards course of the Sacred Way, bringing a goat for sacrifice in the forecourt of the Temple, and a gift of money for the oracle. Petitioners drew lots to determine the order of admission. The goat was first showered with water and observed to ensure that it shivered from the hooves upwards, an auspicious sign that the oracular reading could proceed. Upon sacrifice, the animal's organs, particularly its liver, were examined to ensure the signs were favourable. Between 535 and 615 of the Oracles of Delphi are known to have survived since ancient times, of which over half are said to be historically accurate (see the article Famous Oracular Statements from Delphi for some examples). At times when the Pythia was not operating, consultants obtained information from the future in other ways at the site, through the casting of lots, using a simple questioning "Yes/No" device, or by seeking counsel from dreams. Science and the Pythia There have been occasional attempts to find a scientific explanation for the Pythia's inspiration. Most commonly, these refer to Plutarch's observation that her oracular powers appeared to be linked to vapors from the Castalian Spring that surrounded her, together with the observation that sessions of prophesy would either take place in, or be preceded by a visit to, an enclosed chamber at the base of the temple. Plutarch had for a long period presided over the Delphic Oracle as a priest at the site. It has often been suggested that these vapors may have been hallucinogenic gases. The first excavation of Delphi conducted by a French team led by Theophile Homolle of the College de France from 1892 to 1894 and reported by Adolphe Paul Oppé in 1904, stated that there were no fissures and no possible means for the production of fumes. Oppé flatly stated that the French excavations had found no evidence for a chasm underneath the temple. Following this definitive statement, such scholars as Frederick Poulson, E.R. Dodds and Joseph Fontenrose, all stated that there was no vapours and no chasm. A recent reexamination of the French excavations, however, has shown the possibility that this consensus is mistaken. Broad (2006) demonstrates that a French photo of the south west corner of the temple, taken at the time where the team had excavated down to the bedrock, not only clearly demonstrated the presence of a water filled pit beneath the temple but also demonstrated numerous fissures, suggesting numerous pathways by which any intoxicating vapours present could enter the base of the temple. In 2001 evidence of the presence of ethylene, a potential hallucinogen, was found in the temple's local geology and nearby springs by an interdisciplinary team of geologist Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, archaeologist John R. Hale, forensic chemist Jeffrey P. Chanton, and toxicologist Henry R. Spiller. Ethylene in the highest concentrations was found in the waters of the Kerna spring, immediately above the temple. Although in small quantities, currently the waters of the Kerma spring are diverted from the site for use by the nearby modern town of Delphi. It is currently unknown the degree to which ethylene or other gases would be produced at the temple should these waters be allowed to run free, as they did in the ancient world. It has also recently been shown that the temple of Delphi lies exactly on the intersection of two major fault lines, the north-south, Kerna fault and another east-west Delphic fault paralleling the shore of the Corinthian Gulf, and overlies a local geology of limestone with about 20% of its volume comprised of layers of bituminous tars rich in hydrocarbons. The Rift of the Gulf of Corinth is one of the most geologically active sites on Earth. Earth movements there impose immense strains on the earth at accompanying fault lines, heating the rocks and leading to the expulsion of the lighter gasses. It has been disputed as to how the adyton was organised, but it appears clear that the Apollo temple was unlike any other in Ancient Greece, in that the supplicant descended a short flight of stairs below the general floor of the temple to enter the Sanctuary of the Oracle. It would appear that a natural cleft or chasm at the intersection of fault lines was enlarged to create the adyton off the centre of the temple, and the flowing waters of the underground springs, would accumulate the gas, concentrating it in the enclosed space. Plutarch reports that the temple of Apollo was filled with a sweet smell when the god was present: Not often nor regularly, but occasionally and fortuitously, the room in which the seat the god's consulatants is filled with a fragrance and breeze, as if the adyton were sending forth the essences of the sweetest and most expensive perfumes from a spring (Plutarch Moralia 437c). Only ethylene of all of the hydrocarbons has such an odour. Inhalation of ethylene in an enclosed space in which the Pythia was separated from the consultant by a screen or curtain of some kind, it was argued, exposed the Pythia to sufficiently high concentrations of the narcotic gas to induce a mildly euphoric or trance-like state. Frequent earthquakes, produced by the fact that Greece lies at the intersection of three separate tectonic plates, seem to have been responsible for the observed cracking of the limestone, and the opening up of new channels by which hydrocarbons enter the flowing waters of the Kassotis. This would cause the amounts of ethylene emitted to fluctuate, increasing or decreasing the potency of the drug released, over time. It has been suggested that the decline in the importance of the Oracle after Hadrian was in part due to the fact that there had not been an earthquake in the area for a significant length of time. In the early 20th century, an anaesthesiologist named Isabella Herb found that a dose of 20% ethylene gas administered to a subject was a clear threshold. A dosage higher than 20% caused unconsciousness. With less than 20% a trance was induced where the subject could sit up, hear questions and answer them logically, although the tone of their voice might be altered, their speech pattern could be changed, and they may have lost some awareness of their hands and feet, (with some it was possible to have poked a pin or pricked them with a knife and they would not feel it). When patients were removed from the area where the gas accumulated they had no recollection of what had happened, or what they had said. With a dosage of more than 20% the patient lost control over the movement of their limbs and may thrash wildly, groaning in strange voices, losing balance and frequently repeatedly falling. In such cases, studies show that shortly thereafter the person dies. According to Plutarch, who witnessed many prophecies, all of these symptoms match the experience of the Pythia in action. Plutarch said that the Pythia's life was shortened through the service of Apollo. The sessions were said to be exhausting. At the end of each period the Pythia would be like a runner after a race or a dancer after an ecstatic dance. It clearly had a physical effect on the health of the Pythia. Dr. Henry A. Spiller, the toxicologist of the team, who directs the Kentucky Regional Poison Center, says "In the first stages, it (the ethylene found) produces disembodied euphoria, an altered mental status and a pleasant sensation. It's what street people would call getting high. The greater the dose, the deeper you go." Notes Ancient sources Modern sources | ||||||||
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