PRIESTESS (PYTHIA) OF
ANCIENT DELPHI
PART III
In
Part III, we will now explore the four-step process for persons seeking an
audience with the Oracle at Delphi, along with
the excavations commencing in 1892, and other investigative work completed by
various geologists.
In
the traditions associated with Apollo, the oracle only gave prophecies during
the nine warmest months of each year. On
the seventh day of each month, the oracle would undergo purification rites, including fasting, to ceremonially prepare the
Pythia for communications with the divine.
She would bathe in the Castalian
Spring then would drink the holier waters of the Kassotis, which flowed
closer to the temple, where a naiad
possessing magical powers was said to live. [1] She then descended into the adytum (Greek for “inaccessible”) and
mounted her tripod seat, holding laurel leaves and a dish of Kassotis Spring
water into which she gazed. Nearby was
the omphalos (Greek for “navel”), which was flanked by two
sold gold eagles representing the authority of Zeus, and the cleft from which emerged the sacred pneuma.
The experience of
supplicants (those seeking a consultation with the oracle)
Four-Stage Process Of The
Supplicant: It
would appear that the supplicant to the oracle would undergo a four-stage
process, typical of shamanic
journeys.
Journey to Delphi: Supplicants were motivated by some need to
undertake the long and sometimes arduous journey to come to Delphi
in order to consult the oracle. In some
cases the supplicants traveled great distances to consult the oracle.
Preparation of the
Supplicant: Supplicants were interviewed in preparation
of their presentation to the Oracle by the priests in attendance. The genuine cases were sorted and the
supplicant had to go through rituals involving the framing of their questions,
the presentation of gifts to the Oracle and a procession along the Sacred Way carrying
laurel leaves to visit the temple, symbolic of the journey they had made.
Visit to the Oracle: The supplicant would then be led into the
temple to visit the adyton, put his question to the Pythia, receive his answer
and depart. The degree of preparation
already undergone would mean that the supplicant was already in a very aroused
and meditative state.
Return Home: Oracles were meant to give advice to shape
future action, which was meant to be implemented by the supplicant, or by those
that had sponsored the supplicant to visit the Oracle. The validity of the Oracular utterance was confirmed
by the consequences of the application of the oracle to the lives of those
people who sought Oracular guidance [2]
At
times when the Pythia was not available, supplicants could obtain guidance by
asking simple Yes-or-No questions to the priests. A response was returned through the tossing
of colored beans, one color designating “yes” another “no.” little else is known of this practice. [3]
Between
535 and 635 of the Oracles of Delphi are known to have survived since classical
times, of which over half are said to be accurate historically (see the article
Famous Oracular Statements from Delphi for some examples). [4]
Excavations
Beginning
during 1892, a team of French archaeologist directed by Theophile Homolle of
the College de France excavated the site at Delphi. Contrary to ancient literature, they could
find a fissure or possible means for the production of fumes which were said to
be inhaled by the Oracle. Later, Adolphe Paul Oppe published an
influential article [32] in 1904, which made three crucial claims: No chasm or vapor ever existed; no natural
gas could create prophetic visions; and the recorded incidents of a priestess
undergoing violent and often deadly reactions was inconsistent with the more
customary reports. [5]
Other
scholars such as Frederick Poulson, E.R. Dodds, Joseph Fontenrose, and Saul
Levin all stated that there were no vapors and no chasm. For the decades to follow, scientists and
scholars believed the ancient descriptions of a sacred, inspiring pneuma to be
false.
However,
a subsequent re-examination of the French excavation has shown that this
consensus may have been mistaken. Broad
(2007) demonstrates that a French photograph of the excavated interior of the
temple clearly depicts a springlike pool as well as a number of small vertical
fissures, indicating numerous pathways by which vapors could enter the base of
the temple. [6]
During
the 1980s, the interdisciplinary team of geologists Jelle Zeilinga de Boar,
archaeologist John Rl Hale, forensic chemist Jeffrey P. Chanton, and
toxicologist Henry R. Spiller [7] investigated the site at Delphi using this
photograph and other sources as evidence, as part of a United Nations survey of
all active faults in Greece [5]
Jelle
Zeilinga de Boar saw evidence of a fault line in Delphi
that lay under the ruined temple. During
several expeditions, they discovered two major fault lines, one lying
north-south, the Kerna fault, and the other lying east-west, the Delphic fault,
which parallels the shore of the Corinthian Gulf. The rift of the Gulf of Corinth is one of the
most geologically active sites on Earth; shifts there impose immense strains on
nearby fault lines, such as those below Delphi. The two faults cross one another, and they
intersect right below where the adyton was probably located. (The actual, original oracle chamber had been
destroyed by the moving faults, but there is strong structural evidence that
indicates where it was most likely located. [8]
Footnotes
1. Broad, W.J. (2007), p.34-36
2. Fontenrose, Joseph (1981), “Delphic Oracle: Its Response and
Operations.” (Uni of Calif.
Press)
3. Broad, W.J. (2007), p. 38-40
4. Fontenrose, op cit
5. ab The Oracle at Delphi Medb
hErren
6. Broad, W.J. (2007), P 146-7.
7. Wikipedia-Pythia
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