Pythia

Pythia (/ˈpɪθiə/;^[1] Ancient Greek: Πυθία [pyːˈtʰíaː]) was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythoness.^[2]

The name Pythia is derived from Pytho, which in myth was the original name of Delphi. Etymologically, the Greeks derived this place name from the verb πύθειν (púthein) 'to rot', which refers to the sickly sweet smell from the decomposing body of the monstrous Python after it was slain by Apollo.^[3]

The Pythia was established at the latest in the 8th century BC,^[4] (though some estimates date the shrine to as early as 1400 BC),^[5]^[6]^[7] and was widely credited for her prophecies uttered under divine possession (enthusiasmos) by Apollo. The Pythian priestess emerged pre-eminent by the end of the 7th century BC and continued to be consulted until the late 4th century AD.^[8] During this period, the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks, and she was among the most powerful women of the classical world. The oracle is one of the best-documented religious institutions of the classical Greeks. Authors who mention the oracle include Aeschylus, Aristotle, Clement of Alexandria, Diodorus, Diogenes, Euripides, Herodotus, Julian, Justin, Livy, Lucan, Nepos, Ovid, Pausanias, Pindar, Plato, Plutarch, Sophocles, Strabo, Thucydides, and Xenophon.

Nevertheless, details of how the Pythia operated are scarce, missing, or non-existent, as authors from the classical period (6th to 4th centuries BC) treat the process as common knowledge with no need to explain. Those who discussed the oracle in any detail are from 1st century BC to 4th century AD and give conflicting stories.^[9] One of the main stories claimed that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapours rising from a chasm in the rock, and that she spoke gibberish which priests interpreted as the enigmatic prophecies and turned them into poetic dactylic hexameters preserved in Greek literature.^[10] This idea, however, has been challenged by scholars such as Joseph Fontenrose and Lisa Maurizio, who argue that the ancient sources uniformly represent the Pythia speaking intelligibly, and giving prophecies in her own voice.^[11] Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, describes the Pythia speaking in dactylic hexameters.^[12]^[13]

^ "'Pythia main entry Random House Dictionary (American), further down Collins Dictionary (British)". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-02-23.
^ wiktionary:Pythoness
^ Homeric Hymn to Apallo 363–369.
^ Morgan, C. (1990). Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century BC. p. 148.
^ "The Greeks - The Oracle at Delphi". www.pbs.org. Archived from the original on 2021-06-26. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
^ October 2006, Heather Whipps 31 (31 October 2006). "New Theory on What Got the Oracle of Delphi High". livescience.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "Delphic Oracle's Lips May Have Been Loosened by Gas Vapors". Science. August 14, 2001. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021.
^ Michael Scott. Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton University Press, p. 30.
^ Michael Scott. Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton University Press, p. 11.
^ For an example, see Lewis Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States Archived 2023-06-20 at the Wayback Machine, 1907, vol. IV, p. 189. "But all this came to be merely considered as an accessory, leading up to the great moment when the Pythoness ascended into the tripod, and, filled with the divine afflatus which at least the latter ages believed to ascend in vapour from a fissure in the ground, burst forth into wild utterance, which was probably some kind of articulate speech, and which the Ὅσιοι [Osioi], 'the holy ones', who, with the prophet, sat around the tripod, knew well how to interpret. ... What was essential to Delphic divination, then, was the frenzy of the Pythoness and the sounds which she uttered in this state which were interpreted by the Ὅσιοι [Osioi] and the 'prophet' according to some conventional code of their own."
^ Fontenrose 1978, pp. 196–227; Maurizio 2001, pp. 38–54.
^ Mikalson, Jon D. Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2003. ISBN 9780807827987. p. 55.
^ Herodotus. The Histories. Godley, A. D., translator. Harvard University Press. 1920. Book one, chapter 65. (1922)

[1] "'Pythia main entry Random House Dictionary (American), further down Collins Dictionary (British)". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-02-23.

[2] wiktionary:Pythoness

[3] Homeric Hymn to Apallo 363–369.

[4] Morgan, C. (1990). Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century BC. p. 148.

[5] "The Greeks - The Oracle at Delphi". www.pbs.org. Archived from the original on 2021-06-26. Retrieved 2021-05-24.

[6] October 2006, Heather Whipps 31 (31 October 2006). "New Theory on What Got the Oracle of Delphi High". livescience.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[7] "Delphic Oracle's Lips May Have Been Loosened by Gas Vapors". Science. August 14, 2001. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021.

[8] Michael Scott. Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton University Press, p. 30.

[9] Michael Scott. Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton University Press, p. 11.

[10] For an example, see Lewis Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States Archived 2023-06-20 at the Wayback Machine, 1907, vol. IV, p. 189. "But all this came to be merely considered as an accessory, leading up to the great moment when the Pythoness ascended into the tripod, and, filled with the divine afflatus which at least the latter ages believed to ascend in vapour from a fissure in the ground, burst forth into wild utterance, which was probably some kind of articulate speech, and which the Ὅσιοι [Osioi], 'the holy ones', who, with the prophet, sat around the tripod, knew well how to interpret. ... What was essential to Delphic divination, then, was the frenzy of the Pythoness and the sounds which she uttered in this state which were interpreted by the Ὅσιοι [Osioi] and the 'prophet' according to some conventional code of their own."

[11] Fontenrose 1978, pp. 196–227; Maurizio 2001, pp. 38–54.

[12] Mikalson, Jon D. Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2003. ISBN 9780807827987. p. 55.

[13] Herodotus. The Histories. Godley, A. D., translator. Harvard University Press. 1920. Book one, chapter 65. (1922)

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