*Ø* Blogmanac | May 28 | Purification of Pythia, ancient Greece
From about 1400 BCE, the shrine at Delphi, Greece, was sacred, probably to Gaia, the mother earth goddess, or to a snake goddess. Later, it became sanctified to Apollo (son of Zeus, god of the sun, light, youth, beauty, and prophesy), perhaps signifying a shift from matriarchal to patriarchal society, though this is uncertain and still a matter of academic enquiry and debate.
Delphi gained its name from the dolphin, and Apollo was said to have visited the place as one of those sea mammals that barely survive today’s polluted Ionian sea. Snakes were part of Delphic lore until c. 800 BCE when Apollo was said to have slain the serpent guarded the sanctuary, establishing the oracle anew. (Thus, Apollo became a dragon-slayer, like St George, St Martha and Hercules.)
The serpent’s name was Python, and had been made from mud and slime by Gaia. At first the oracle priestess (sometimes two in shifts) could only be consulted on one day a year. She might have become entranced, by a drug perhaps; she answered questions in hexameter verse.
The priestess, Pythia, seated on a tripod above a crack in the earth, went into a trance while chewing laurel leaves. The temple priests formulated the oracle from the glossolalia (‘speaking in tongues’, as it is sometimes known in the Christian tradition) which the priestess spoke in her ecstasy. Every four years (the third of each Olympiad), the Pythian Games were held in honour of the priestess, the winners receiving a laurel wreath from the city of Tempe; Apollo himself had insituted these games so the world would never forget his great feat in slaying Python.
The leaders of ancient Greece relied on the Delphic oracle for her progostications and clairvoyance. King Croesus once simultaneously asked seven oracles “What is the King of Lydia doing now?” Only the Delphic oracle answered correctly that he was cooking a tortoise and a lamb in a pot of bronze.
Scientists have found that ethylene, rising up through fissures in the rock beneath the shrine, was probably the sweet-smelling vapour that put the priestess in her trance. We know of this vapour from the first-century CE writer, Plutarch (c. 45-125 CE), who, as a temple priest, was familiar with the shrine and reported that the priestess was under the influence of such a vapour. In his day, however, the vapours were weaker than in previous centuries, which may be attributed to changes in the bedrock beneath this fabled place.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Click the thumb for larger image of Apollo slaying Python
Skeptical view of glossolalia
God versus goddess at Delphi
Geology of the Delphic Oracle
Delphic Oracle's Lips May Have Been Loosened by Gas Vapors
Women and the Pythian Games
From about 1400 BCE, the shrine at Delphi, Greece, was sacred, probably to Gaia, the mother earth goddess, or to a snake goddess. Later, it became sanctified to Apollo (son of Zeus, god of the sun, light, youth, beauty, and prophesy), perhaps signifying a shift from matriarchal to patriarchal society, though this is uncertain and still a matter of academic enquiry and debate.
Delphi gained its name from the dolphin, and Apollo was said to have visited the place as one of those sea mammals that barely survive today’s polluted Ionian sea. Snakes were part of Delphic lore until c. 800 BCE when Apollo was said to have slain the serpent guarded the sanctuary, establishing the oracle anew. (Thus, Apollo became a dragon-slayer, like St George, St Martha and Hercules.)
The serpent’s name was Python, and had been made from mud and slime by Gaia. At first the oracle priestess (sometimes two in shifts) could only be consulted on one day a year. She might have become entranced, by a drug perhaps; she answered questions in hexameter verse.
The priestess, Pythia, seated on a tripod above a crack in the earth, went into a trance while chewing laurel leaves. The temple priests formulated the oracle from the glossolalia (‘speaking in tongues’, as it is sometimes known in the Christian tradition) which the priestess spoke in her ecstasy. Every four years (the third of each Olympiad), the Pythian Games were held in honour of the priestess, the winners receiving a laurel wreath from the city of Tempe; Apollo himself had insituted these games so the world would never forget his great feat in slaying Python.
The leaders of ancient Greece relied on the Delphic oracle for her progostications and clairvoyance. King Croesus once simultaneously asked seven oracles “What is the King of Lydia doing now?” Only the Delphic oracle answered correctly that he was cooking a tortoise and a lamb in a pot of bronze.
Scientists have found that ethylene, rising up through fissures in the rock beneath the shrine, was probably the sweet-smelling vapour that put the priestess in her trance. We know of this vapour from the first-century CE writer, Plutarch (c. 45-125 CE), who, as a temple priest, was familiar with the shrine and reported that the priestess was under the influence of such a vapour. In his day, however, the vapours were weaker than in previous centuries, which may be attributed to changes in the bedrock beneath this fabled place.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Click the thumb for larger image of Apollo slaying Python
Skeptical view of glossolalia
God versus goddess at Delphi
Geology of the Delphic Oracle
Delphic Oracle's Lips May Have Been Loosened by Gas Vapors
Women and the Pythian Games
Pip Wilson posted item above at 2:42 PM | Permalink
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