Deconstructing the oracle (480 BC/Athens)
LAPHAM’S QUARTERLY
IMAGE/All Empires History Forum
The Athenians had sent their envoys to Delphi to ask an oracle how they would fare against the Persians, and as soon as the customary rites were performed and they had entered the shrine and taken their seats, the priestess Aristonice uttered the following prophecy:
Why sit you, doomed ones? Fly to the
world’s end, leaving
Home and the heights your city circles like
a wheel.
The head shall not remain in its place, nor
the body,
Nor the feet beneath, nor the hands, nor
the parts between;
But all is ruined, for fire and the headlong
god of war
Speeding in a Syrian chariot shall bring you
low.
…
The Athenian envoys heard these words with dismay; indeed, they were about to abandon themselves to despair at the dreadful fate which was prophesied, when Timon, the son of Androbulus and one of the most distinguished men in Delphi, suggested that they should take branches of olive in their hands and, in the guise of suppliants, approach the oracle a second time. The Athenians acted upon this suggestion. “Lord Apollo,” they said, “can you not, in consideration of these olive boughs which we have brought you, give us some better prophecy about our country? Otherwise we will never leave the holy place but stay here till we die.”
Thereupon the prophetess uttered a second prophecy, which ran as follows:
Not wholly can Pallas win the heart of
Olympian Zeus,
Though she prays him with many prayers
and all her subtlety;
Yet will I speak to you this other word, as
firm as adamant:
Though all else shall be taken within the
bound of Cecrops
And the fastness of the holy mountain of
Cithaeron,
Yet Zeus the all-seeing grants to Athene’s
prayer
That the wooden wall only shall not fall, but
help you and your children.
…
This second answer seemed to be, as indeed it was, less menacing than the first, so the envoys wrote it down and returned to Athens. When it was made public upon their arrival in the city and the attempt to explain it began, among the various opinions which were expressed, there were two mutually exclusive interpretations. Some of the older men supposed that the prophecy meant that the Acropolis would escape destruction, on the grounds that the Acropolis was fenced in the old days with a thorn hedge, and that this was the “wooden wall” of the oracle. But others thought that by this expression the oracle meant the ships, and they urged in consequence that everything should be abandoned in favour of the immediate preparation of a fleet. There was, however, for those who believed “wooden wall” to mean ships, one disturbing thing—namely, the last two lines of the Priestess’ prophecy: “Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women’s sons/When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.” This was a very awkward statement and caused profound disturbance among all who took the wooden wall to signify ships; for the professional interpreters understood the lines to mean that they would be beaten at Salamis in a fight at sea. There was, however, a man in Athens who had recently made a name for himself—Themistocles, called Neocles’ son; he now came forward and declared that there was an important point in which the professional interpreters were mistaken. If, he maintained, the disaster referred to was to strike the Athenians, it would not have been expressed in such mild language. “Hateful Salamis” would surely have been a more likely phrase than “divine Salamis,” if the inhabitants of the country were doomed to destruction there. On the contrary, the true interpretation was that the oracle referred not to the Athenians but to their enemies. The “wooden wall” did indeed mean the ships, so he advised his countrymen to prepare at once to meet the invader at sea.
Lapham’s Quarterly for more
Aristonice (the Pythia)
Herodotus inquires
ANCIENT WORLDS
Aristonice_ gave advice to the power mad, and the lovelorn. She was but one of a long line of Pythian prognosticators at Delphi. Her often ambiguous words welded great influence around the ancient world. Delphi was tied to the other important orales via a passenger pigeon service. This allowed for the exchange of suficiant data to increase customer satisfaction and psychic accuracy.
Over it’s long history the requirements for the job of Pythia changed. At first all Pythia were young virgins until to many an unfortunate incident. Then the service of a mature woman dressed like a virgin was enlisted. The well dressed virgin of the period wore a short white dress above the knees and a purple veil over the face. Aristonice’s caeer as oracle occurred about 500 B.C. The Pythia had to be morally pure, with good nerves, and not be afraid of heights. Psychic service was a strenuous existence.
The job’s reward was prestige and good hours. The Pythia prophesied “live” only on the seventh day of the month, nine months a year. She was required to take an icy bath and watch a young goat get sprinkled with water. If the goat shivered, the oracle was opened for business. Then the Pythia priestess was seated on an iron tripod and dangled precariously above a deep chasm for hours. She may or may not have chewed laurel leaves and breathed fumes from the cave. Those things were just trappings. Aristonice was an adept medium who used her psychic powers to the fullest. Two other Pythias assisted her with hypnotic suggestion.
She gained fame at a critical time. This was just befor the begining of the war between the Greeks and the Persians. Twice the Athenian delegation paid the oracle fee only to learn that the Greeks would have to take it on the chin. She really stunned them when she predicted that the temple roof in Athens would drip blood and the statues would sweat with fear. They did, but this was all show biz. It was all a scheme cooked up by Themistocles. By enlisting the help of the most respected oracle in Greece, he frightened the Athenians into following his own naval battle stategy. This gave the greatly outnumbered Greeks victory over their Persian enemies.