Oracle MASTER - David Simons and Lisa Karrer

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Lisa Karrer
Religious Thought in World Perspective / Independent Project Essay
Professor Matthew Bingley
May 3, 2013
The Phenomenology of the Pythia and the Metaphysical as Industry in Ancient Greece
In this three-part essay, I will begin by examining elements of magic and religious
practices in primitive western cultures, up to and including the Iron Age; citing evidence of early
Celtic kings, sacred rituals and human sacrifice. This primitive period predates the emergence of
the organized hierarchy known as the Greek Pantheon. I will then explore and discuss early
writings, histories and myths pertaining to Greek religion, referencing current scientific and
archaeological research, which may help to trace an arc from primitive violence-based religious
rituals to more civilized human codes of morality and altruistic consciousness. This link may
shed light on the emergence of the Oracle of Delphi; she served Greece for nearly 2,000 years,
as divine medium between the god Apollo and the temple priest; together they were a highly
successful Greek trinity. The priest’s historically significant role was to interpret the Pythia’s
enigmatic messages, uttered (often incoherently) while in psychotropic trance, and deliver her
response in finished verse or prose to paying supplicants, among them kings, rulers and highranking statesmen; in turn they showered the Oracle with untold wealth and treasure. I will
discuss how this sacred trinity; Apollo<>Pythia<>Priest, contributed to the rich period of the
Golden Age of Greece, and the impact this made on civilized western cultural thought. Finally,
I will examine how this trinity may have laid the groundwork for future religious industry,
expropriation and opportunistic capitalism; how metaphysical wealth became the financial
formula for monotheism, which started by plundering Delphi and annihilating Greek polytheism.
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Part One – Prehistory: Primitive Ritual and Human Sacrifice
In weaving together the two main strands of this essay: the phenomenology of the Greek
Oracle of Delphi, and the religion-based financial industry that emerged during her two-century
reign, we must first examine historic precedents and scholarly (archaeological, scientific and
theological) studies of magical rites and sacred ritual in pre-existing primitive cultures. How
might primitive rituals and early religious practices have led, or contributed to, the phenomenon
of the sacred Pythia in Greece? Tracing this evolution of primitive religious practice reveals
pathways pointing towards Greek polytheism, and the eventual establishment of the divine
Oracle of Delphi. Further evidence reveals how her impacting power and unparalleled cultural,
moral, political and financial influence came to define and fuel the Golden Age of Greece.
Finally, I will discuss how this period in Greek history ushered in the global practice of religion
as financial industry.
Primitive societies were focused mainly on survival. In contrast to nomadic tribes, whose
diet consisted mainly of meat, agrarian communities for the most part settled and stayed in one
place. As a result, community land boundaries evolved, through communal hunting, crop
growing, living and procreating in one primary location. As groups began to cohere and
cohabitate, they vacillated between embedded prehistoric savage impulse and an evolving social
impulse; functioning and working together in a socially fueled environment increased a group’s
chances for survival.
“The religious impulse is directed…to the conservation and promotion of life” (Harrison
1). Everyday communal life in these early societies came to be framed by rituals defining the
group’s limitations, rather than it’s choices. Magical actions and practices such as tabus and their
representative symbolic totems evolved, defining and illustrating individual and societal rules,
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prohibitions and do’s and don’ts, which in turn justified exogamous sexual boundaries and
altruistic group gestures, further establishing tribal bloodlines and land boundaries.
In Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Jane Ellen Harrison describes the theory
of “expulsion and impulsion” (Harrison 1), the concept of out with the bad, in with the good,
stemming from a primitive magical ritual called “The Driving Out of Famine” (Harrison 1). This
early magical act was an attempt to control natural forces without appealing to a god. Harrison
posits that early communities were primarily involved in the struggle between good
(food/fertility), evil (hunger/barrenness), and the evolutionary impulse for exogamy. The clan or
tribal patriarch would routinely expel his male offspring, forcing sexual relations to occur outside
the primary family, insuring the elder’s dominance while maintaining a healthy gene pool and
adequate food supply. In some instances this practice would backfire; the elder would find
himself outnumbered and the younger males would assert their dominance, killing off the
patriarch instead.
These societal challenges provoked powerful tabus, represented by symbolically
recognizable totems indicating a group’s rights (impulsion/praise) and wrongs
(expulsion/blame), all of which served the primary goal: to sustain life and expand kin groups.
Magic eventually made room for, or gave way to, religion. Harrison describes the distinction
between these two practices: “religion is social, magic is or may be individual, religion is of the
group however small, magic of the single unit” (Harrison 5). How did primitive communities
manage to take these next steps, to organize themselves, function religiously (or magically)
within their self-invented parameters, and accomplish their societal tasks?
“The performance of ritual grows out of anxiety” (Burkert 36). Primitive tabu, totems and
ritual sacrifice gradually emerged to allay group anxiety, stemming from the “selfish” desire for
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sustenance and a fear of death and the unknown. The range of experience produced by desire
and/or fear affects the human body in a biological sense; when extreme states such as hunger,
adrenalin, exhaustion, euphoria or grief are present, an individual can physically (and
psychically) travel from a known feeling of “profane time, ordinary temporal duration” to an
unknown experience of “sacred time…primordial mythical time made present” (Eliade 68). This
confusing either/or state, of straddling both the mundane (profane) and the hyperaware (sacred),
triggers an overwhelming feeling of ambivalence in the form of unbearable attraction/repulsion
to the event. Experiencing this “sacred” threshold in turn sparks a powerful sense of otherness in
the individual, a state of being impossible to articulate or rationalize in primitive culture, and
equally difficult to put into words in contemporary culture.
In describing the characteristics of sacred power, Gerardus van der Leeuw writes:
“...power awakens a profound feeling of awe which manifests itself both as fear and as being
attracted...physical shuddering, ghostly horror, fear, sudden terror, reverence, humility,
adoration, profound apprehension, enthusiasm – all these lie in nuce (in a nut) within the awe
experienced in the presence of Power” (Livingston 55). How did our primitive kin come to terms
with these contradictory and constantly shifting states of mental and physical being, when
confronted with this overwhelming “power”?
As with most species, human beings in groups instinctually form ranking hierarchies.
One stunning historical example is the Celts, “an early Indo-European people who from the 2nd
millennium BC to the 1st century BC spread over much of Europe” (Guisepi, Celts). The
primitive Celts were a violent and superstitious culture, fearsome fighters and conquerors, who
in time came to control Indo-European trade routes. They are believed to have initiated the Iron
Age, and were strongly linked to the Greeks, trading fine iron works for bronze and pottery. The
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Celts developed a sophisticated religious system; the gods they invented and worshipped were
associated with aspects of the natural and supernatural world. Their religious fertility rites
involved both human and animal sacrifice, with precious stone and metal works included as
ritual offerings to the gods: sacred items such as swords, jewelry and hair ornaments.
Early Greek writers describe how Celtic priests would stab a man through the gut, and
foretell the future by reading the twitching of his limbs, and the manner in which his blood
flowed out from the wound. This primitive practice of augury foreshadows the role of the Oracle,
and mirrors the special manner in which goats or other animals were killed prior to each Oracular
divination. The Greek sacrifice was overseen and observed closely by the temple priest; if the
animal didn't tremble or shiver in a particular way as it died, the priest might postpone the
prophecy, until a more auspicious moment presented itself.
We “utterly forget that our gods are man-begotten” (Harrison 30). The Celts apparently
practiced community sanctioned ritual sacrifice of a scapegoat, as insurance against famine and
hardship. For them, watery bogs were sacred entranceways to the supernatural. Neither land nor
water, the bogs were mysterious, treacherous and symbolically ambiguous; an unreal place. The
bogs represented the sacred threshold, a “gateway to another world” (Nova/The Perfect Corpse).
Archaeologists have found a number of grisly corpses perfectly preserved in bogs in Ireland and
Denmark, known as Bog Bodies. Famous examples include Old Croghan Man, Clonicaven and
Gaelic Man from Ireland; Tollund Man and Huldrmos Woman from Denmark (Nova). These
bodies, some missing heads, lower torsos or extremities, “show evidence of violent, gruesome
death dating back approximately 2000 years” (Nova). Sphagnum grass and moss in the bogs
delays physical decomposition, tans and preserves the skin, organs, hair, and soft tissues. After
examining physical evidence such as stomach contents, talismanic jewelry and hair ornaments,
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and cross-mapping the burial locations of Bog Bodies found in Ireland, it is believed these
corpses belonged to the upper echelons of primitive societies, perhaps local kings or tribal chiefs.
“Well manicured hands, styled hair and a good diet are a commonly recurring feature among
Bog Bodies” (Nova). Archaeological scientists suggest the Bog Bodies were ritually (violently)
sacrificed at specific land boundaries, to insure fertile crops and an auspicious climate of fair
weather and good fortune for the community. A question arises: were these seemingly refined
and well-nourished people specially cared for as a preparation for sacrifice, to ensure the highestquality offering to the god?
In terms of hierarchical structure, Celtic culture is an example of how primitive religion
used communally elected king figures as scapegoats. By projecting the needs of the group onto a
high-ranking member of the community, that person becomes responsible for bearing the
burdens of his kinfolk. An ancient king was responsible for delivering good climate and fertile
crops, and for insuring the protection of the clan. If he didn’t succeed, or grew too old, it meant
his power was weakening; he would then be deposed (or sacrificed) to make way for a newer,
younger, stronger king.
Religion is “a function of our human nature [which] grows and shifts with Human
Growth” (Harrison 5). As human beings evolved group awareness, they began learning how to
project outside of themselves, to perceive the bigger picture around them, to use and develop
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their imaginations. Primitive groups believed that by paying off the externalized gods or beings
they invented, offering a sacrifice (human, animal or symbolic), the community would achieve
stability; in examining the later period of the Oracle, I will discuss how this primitive sacrificial
exchange gradually took the form of money and precious objects.
Primitive practices and rituals were historically transformed by the evolution of Greek
Religion, with its organized polytheistic mythology of Olympian gods. This powerful and
seminal religious formula combined the outward projection of super-beings with the emerging
concept of gods as distantly and distinctly divine, omniscient, all-powerful scapegoats. The
sacred family of Olympic gods created an external dynamic that finally placed human beings
firmly apart from the divine, allowing them to sever themselves from the responsibilities and
ramifications of living, to shift and project their existential burdens outward and upward, onto
something greater than themselves. “The more completely segregated is the god the better he
serves as a safety valve” (Harrison 33).
The primitive history of ritual sets the stage for the phenomenon of the Oracle, a human
being who could communicate directly with a god (in Delphi this was Apollo, the youthful god
whose many powers included truth, prophecy, music and the arts). The Oracle, in close
collaboration with the temple priest, could dispense powerful prophecies without suffering
consequences or punishment; these mere humans were only the messengers, the mediums
through which Apollo spoke. This refined system gradually erased the need for violent human
sacrifice, substituting animal offerings instead, and ushered in a fantastic period of rational
thought, philosophy, human moral codes, literature and the arts.
The unprecedented 2,000 year reign of the Oracle also ushered in the business and
marketing elements of successful organized religion, with numerous annual sacred festivals and
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holy days bringing in a steady stream of paying pilgrims, tourists, kings and heads of state.
Through the all-important temple priest, vast sums of money and treasures would change hands,
payment for the privilege of receiving divine messages and wisdom directly from god.
What auspicious conditions led to the phenomenal existence of the Oracle of Delphi? In
Part Two I will discuss the spectacular reign of the Pythia, and examine some of the religious,
scientific and cultural elements that contributed to this crucial golden period in the history of
divine wisdom and rational thought.
Part Two – The Oracle Emerges; The Golden Age of Greece
“Prehistory is like a giant jigsaw puzzle with more than
half its pieces destroyed or lost” (Eisler 29).
In examining the prehistory of Greek religion and the Oracle of Delphi, I discussed
ancient religious and magical rituals and fertility rites focusing on human sacrifice, practiced by
primitive groups in an effort to insure the survival of the community. In The Creation of the
Sacred, Burkert describes the principle of pars proto toto, “accepting the small loss in order to
save the whole” (Burkert 51). This loss can refer to human life, as well as less extreme examples.
Although primitive cultures did substitute animals or symbolic items as sacred offerings, the
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premeditated violence involved in rituals of human sacrifice raises a salient question: how did
primitive societies progress and bring themselves “to a stage of social, cultural, and moral
development considered to be more advanced: a civilized society” (New Oxford American
Dictionary)? How can a group that religiously sanctions murder of its own members truly
progress and advance? A possible solution from a scientific perspective may be that, in order to
evolve, survive and expand as a species, primitive human beings instinctively and selectively
sought out altruistic alternatives to this extreme and violent practice. “We must note the
primitive beginnings of theology…how god rose out of the rite” (Harrison 26).
Our contemporary world is highly civilized in terms of technology, science, mathematics,
philosophy, literature and the arts, and many of these advances can be traced back to the Golden
Age of ancient Greece, 800 – 300 BCE. Yet looking at world cultures today, we still find human
sacrifice practiced in religious and government sanctioned holy wars, suicide bombers and acts
of terrorism, ethnic cleansing and pogroms, Islamic honor killings, torture of war prisoners and
capital punishment. How can we rationalize these mirror-opposites, whereby civilized, morally
coded cultures exist in tandem with primitively barbaric religious practices? Adding to this irony
is our current global accessibility to each other; the world is becoming smaller. How can we
sustain these bipolar cultural and religious disparities on a shrinking planet? Has our world
essentially changed, since the iron age in 700 BCE? How do we make sense of this imbalance?
We may begin to answer some of these questions by examining elements of ancient Greek
religion.
In attempting to pinpoint the genesis of Greek theology, Burkert writes: “An adequate
account of Greek religion is nowadays an impossibility in more ways than one: the evidence is
beyond the command of any one individual, methodology is hotly contested, and the subject
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itself is far from well defined. The beginnings lie in the darkness of prehistory” (Burkert 7). It is
generally known that Greek religion ended in approximately 393CE with “the triumph of
Christianity and the devastations of the barbarian migrations” (Burkert 7). Historians of Greek
theology look back to myth and sacred ritual to trace the invention of the pantheistic gods, or
“theoi…the future lies on the knees of the gods” (Burkert 272). Though the Olympic gods were
commonly recognized by all Greeks, religious practices and traditions of worship differed from
tribe to tribe and village to village. “Would it not be more correct to speak in the plural of Greek
religions?” (Burkert 8).
The Olympian pantheon was a mythological council of gods who resided in the cloudy
peaks of Mt. Olympus. They evolved as a family of super personas with human shapes;
externalized, distant gods that ordinary citizens could relate to and project their mortal concerns
upon. As agrarian communities put down roots that established stable Greek communities, a rich
period of cultural expansion and thought began to germinate. Along with this quantum growth
came questions about the nature of being; many individuals found themselves struggling and
searching for answers. This system of religious outreach, looking out and upwards at gods in the
unattainable heavens, helped alleviate societal pressures of existential anxiety, fear, dread and
guilt that were becoming manifest in the new birth of civilized thought. Greek intellectual
society progressed to the point where the existence of reality and independent thought were
becoming a given. Greeks “sought to know the future, to outwit the gods, to wage war on
destiny” (Broad 4).
Separating mortals from immortals gave birth to cosmogony, and removed human beings
from the dreadful notion of controlling their own destiny; “the ordering of a primal chaos
through the conflict of divine forces” (Livingston 223). Jane Ellen Harrison succinctly defines
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the giving over of these tasks to the gods: “The function of theology is to keep the conflict that
would be submerged in the sphere of the conscious and prevent its development into a
mischievous subliminal complex” (Harrison 33). Lifting the burdens of personal responsibility,
guilt and blame also opened the windows of physical and psychic space and time, making room
for huge leaps in individual thought and ushering in philosophy, the sciences, math, technology
and inventions, visual art, literature, poetry, drama, and civilized moral codes; all the elements
that defined the Golden Age of Greece.
In exploring this momentous step from primitive to civilized group behavior, the Oracle
of Delphi stands out as a major player. In his book The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden
Message of Ancient Delphi, William J. Broad cites ancient literary sources such as Homer,
Aristotle, Diodorus and Plutarch. These enlightened men explained why the sacred Oracle, the
attending priest and the temple were considered the “Center of the Universe”, in terms of their
profound effect on shaping Greek culture and advanced moral codes. How do we begin to piece
together the series of events that brought the Oracle of Delphi (and in turn the Golden Age of
Greece) into being?
The name Delphi comes from the Greek delph or delphis, meaning hollow or womb. The
temple at Delphi sat in a hollow in the shadow of Mt. Parnassus, where a freshwater spring
“added to the site's allure” (Broad 22). The earliest evidence of the temple dates to approximately
1600 BCE.
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According to accounts by historians Diodorus and Plutarch (who was also a temple priest
at Delphi), a goatherd named Coretas noticed his goats behaving in a frenzy by the side of the
mountain. When he and other goatherds approached they saw a fissure in the rockface with
vapors rising out, and they were all immediately affected. Word spread; people began traveling
to the site, and “had convulsive ravings or fell into inspirational trances” (Broad 21). Area
residents closed off the site and built the first shrine; they felt “the vapors put mortals in contact
with the gods” (Broad 21). This direct line to the gods was probably considered risky and
dangerous for commoners (deaths and disappearances were reported); eventually the “local
authorities designated one woman as the exclusive conduit for the divine madness” (Broad 21).
Of the many sanctuaries that came to be dedicated to “the wandering god” Apollo,
(Broad 19), the female Pythia at Delphi was an exception; most temple prophets, oracles and
seers were male. “We might stumble across the seemingly curious information that leaders from
all over the Greek world traveled to Delphi, where a priestess called the Pythoness advised them
on the most important social and political questions of their time. But for the most part, women
are hardly mentioned in what we read” (Harrision 106). Why was a woman chosen? The site at
Delphi had early associations with the (then nearly defunct) earth goddess Gaia, “the mother of
all living things and the primordial source of all divination” (Broad 24); this dangling pagan
thread may partly account for the induction of a female Oracle at Delphi. Eisler also mentions
that the temple site in Delphi was “originally identified with the worship of the Goddess (Gaia)”,
suggesting a linking of Oracular tradition: Aeschylus writings specify that the (earth) Goddess
was revered as the “primeval prophetess” (Eisler 70).
The upper level of the temple housed precious objects made for public worship and
devotion, and was full of space and light. The Oracle’s sanctum, the Holy of holies, was in a
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small dank chamber in the bowels of the temple. This dark place is where the divine Pythia sat in
trance on her tripod, holding a branch of laurel and straddling a cleft where “mystic pneuma”
(Broad 20), or fumes, wafted up from the depths of the earth. Another name for the Pythia’s
chamber is adyton, which means do not enter. The ancient geographer Strabo (c. 64 B.C. - 25
A.D.) writes: "the seat of the oracle is a cavern hollowed down in the depths...from which arises
pneuma [breath, vapor, gas] that inspires a divine state of possession" (Greece-Private Tours).
“It was said that when the Oracle answered questions she was always in a trance, at times in a
frenzy, occasionally foaming at the mouth” (Broad 20).
The adyton was restricted, accessed only by the Oracle and the priest. High-ranking
citizens and messengers of kings, rulers and statesmen (and occasionally ordinary pilgrims) paid
a sum to ask a single question of the Oracle; only men were allowed this privilege. After
auspiciously sacrificing an animal such as a goat in the presence of the temple priest; the goat
had to tremble “in just the right way…mirroring the Oracle’s divine tremors” (Broad 38), visitors
were placed in a separate anteroom to await the Pythia’s response. The answer was delivered by
the temple priest; who was in charge of “interpreting” the Pythia’s incoherent ravings and setting
down the answers in writing, in hexameter or prose verse. These answers were often in the form
of puzzles or riddles, and often took the efforts of many men to decipher.
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The Pythia’s appearances followed the sacred calendar of Apollo, with religious festival
days occurring monthly and annually in spring, summer and autumn. Apollo’s main festival
events took place on the 7th day of each month, with other less auspicious days scattered
throughout the year. In The Sacred and the Profane, Mircea Eliade writes: “there are intervals of
a sacred time, the time of festivals (by far the greater part of which are periodical)…Religious
participation in a festival implies emerging from ordinary temporal duration and integration of
the mythical time reactualized by the festival itself. Hence sacred time is indefinitely
recoverable, indefinitely repeatable” (Eliade 68, 69). Thus, paying supplicants could always
expect the most auspicious signs and oracular prophecies on these sacred festival days. The poet
Pindar (c. 522–443 BCE) wrote: “Apollo knows the end supreme of all things, and all the ways
that lead thereto; the number of leaves that the earth putteth forth in spring; the number of the
sands that in the sea and the rivers are driven before the waves and the rushing winds; that which
is to be, and whence is to come” (Broad 19).
Apollo was a very popular god, credited with omniscience, sympathy and prophetic
ability; he was considered a superior member of the pantheon. “Scholars call Apollo the most
Greek of the Greek gods” (Broad 19). In myth, Apollo claimed Delphi as his sacred home after
slaying a giant snake. The title of Pythia comes from “Pytho, the Greek word for “to rot”, a
reference to the decay of the snake’s body” (Broad 27). Apollo was also called hagnos, meaning
“sacred pure” (Burkert 271). This derives from the word hagnon, signifying rites and festivals
associated with particular gods. The word hagnos “constitutes as it were a protective cloak which
no indignity can penetrate…a field of forces that demands reverence and distance” (Burkert
271). This force field of impenetrability that surrounded Apollo extended also to the Oracle and
her priest, assuring their personal well-being even when delivering prophesies of war, or crucial
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matters of state that a king or Archon (ruler) may find distressing or devastating. In her win-win
partnership with Apollo, the Pythia became a super star; by 750 BCE the Oracle at Delphi had
become a major “tourist” attraction.
Apollo was said not to be present at Delphi in winter; during the cold season the temple
celebrated profane and secretive Dionysian rites instead (Dionysus was seen as Apollo’s dark
brother, his alter ego). Though historians believe that some Oracles took part in these rites, in
general they were not required to serve at the temple in winter. Scientists conjecture that cold
winter weather decreased the flow of ethylene gases in the limestone floor of the Oracle’s
chamber, affecting her ability to attain trance and prophesize; another practical consideration
could be that cold weather made it harder for pilgrims and supplicants to travel to Delphi. Later
in this essay, I will briefly discuss recent scientific and geological research that sheds further
light on the religious and cultural phenomenon of Delphi.
“Greek religion might almost be called a religion without priests” (Burkert 95). This
statement is true, in that there were no formal religious services led by priests, but because of the
unprecedented powers granted to the Oracle during most of her reign, the priests had profoundly
impacting roles in shaping Greece during its Golden Age. “Thus was she able to determine the
fate of Kings” (Broad 47). Because only the priest was present when the Pythia uttered her
prophecy, this crucial piece of the puzzle remains a charged mystery. Were the priests actually
“surrogate visionaries” (Broad 239)? To what degree did the priests control and shape the
Oracle's responses? Who took the lead, the Oracle or the priest? Plutarch offers some clues: “It is
impossible for the unlettered man who has never read verse to talk like a poet. Even so the
maiden who now serves the god here was born of as lawful and honorable wedlock as anyone,
and her life has been in all respects proper; but, having been brought up in the home of poor
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peasants, she brings nothing with her as the result of technical skill or of any other expertness or
faculty, as she goes down into the shrine. On the contrary, just as Xenophon believes that a bride
should have seen as little as possible before she proceeds to her husband's house, so this girl,
inexperienced and uninformed about practically everything, a pure, virgin soul, becomes the
associate of the god” (Broad 33-34).
“The Oracle was said to be an unremarkable person in normal life” (Broad 20). Did a
Pythia receive any special training for her sacred role, or was she “simply a lamp awaiting divine
illumination” (Broad 34)? Scholars believe that over the centuries, Delphic Pythias differed
widely in age, experience and intellectual ability. Young women were considered too sexually
charged, too risky for the job (there were rapes reported), and were replaced by middle aged,
mature women who were either widowed, chose celibacy, or set aside their marital duties to
serve the temple. Though as priest Plutarch himself befriended, greatly admired and respected
the “cultured and intelligent” Oracle Clea (Broad 33), he writes that it is “ultimately the god, not
the medium, who radiated wisdom and insight” (Broad 34).
The renowned Plutarch wore many hats in ancient Greece: historian, biographer, essayist,
priest, magistrate, and Archon (governor) of his birth town Chaeronea; he was also granted
Roman citizenship, further demonstrating his brilliant talents of statesmanship. Though in
modern times we are meant to believe that in his role as Delphic priest, Plutarch was deeply and
religiously devoted to serving Apollo, is it possible that he chose to project religious myth into
the timeline of history, to disguise and defuse the significance of his own role in shaping Greece?
The Oracle and her priests are generally recognized as “teachers of an enlightened
morality, an early manifestation of what we might call humanism. The Pythia emphasized the
importance of intention and making inner evaluations of guilt and innocence, what came to be
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known as conscience” (Broad 47). This era of humanism, and the Golden Age that emerged from
it, is perhaps one of the most significant contributions made towards shaping our current world
culture. It seems unlikely that an uneducated woman in a drugged and vulnerable state would
have the intellectual tools to articulate these important lessons in morality. However, temple
priests were by and large well educated and literate.
Everything happens for a reason. What kept the Oracle of Delphi so powerful for so
long? Harrison writes that “it is possible to have a living and vigorous religion without a
theology” (Harrison 27). Looking at the many fragments that contribute to the puzzle of early
Greek religion, can the Oracle’s reign be perceived through Harrison’s lens? Since the late
1800’s, there has been much intense speculation as to where myth and reality meet during this
prolonged period. In the “unpacking” of the history and mythology surrounding Delphi, a
“Designing Principle” (Truby 25) can be found; this is essentially the strategy behind the story.
The designing principle offers a strategic point of intersection, where sciences such as
geophysics, archaeology and chemistry can interlink with what is already known, presumed or
supposed by historians and academic scholars.
In the 1980’s, an American geophysicist named Jelle de Boer stumbled upon the Delphic
ruins, while on a surveying expedition for the Greek government. He immediately noticed that
the site sat upon numerous active “fault scarps” (Broad 123), cross-hatched along the surface of
the land, indicating a place where earthquakes occur. De Boer was fascinated, but assumed this
geologic anomaly was common knowledge, and continued his survey across Greece. In fact, it
wasn’t common knowledge. Several years later, by chance, he met an American archaeologist
named John R. Hale. In an unrelated conversation, De Boer mentioned seeing the Delphic faults,
and Hale, familiar with the history of research at Delphi, realized the potential for a great
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scientific breakthrough.
The two men began a major research project that would last for nearly three decades,
eventually inviting chemist Jeffrey P. Chanton and toxicologist Henry A. Spiller to join their
team. The scientists cross-referenced seismic, topographical, geological and aerial maps,
surveyed underwater tectonic plates, collected and sampled limestone and travertine samples
from the site, and reenacted the effects of ethelyne gas in controlled experiments. Their extensive
and thorough findings refuted an earlier French expedition’s claim, that the sacred pneuma was
just a myth, with no evidence supporting the existence of a cleft beneath the temple. Presenting
their extensive body of scientific proof of this cleft, and of the ethylene gases that were once
present there, de Boer proposed that, “For the ancient Greeks, the rumblings of the earth had
helped inspire their religious life” (Broad 175). In this instance, contemporary science “lent a
modern voice to the proposition that the earth itself played a role in her [the Oracle’s] ecstatic
union with Apollo” (Broad 187). Chemist Jeff Chanton saw their research as “reinforcing the
respectability of pure mysticism…potentially closer to the real order of the universe than modern
religious orthodoxies. ‘Science may try to plumb mysticism’, he argued, ‘but never grasp its
truths.’” (Broad 244).
The ancient Greeks had little more than their own powers of observation and intelligence
to arrive at their seminal theories, many of which are now proven scientific data. Early Greek
philosophers were our earliest scientists; they “conceived of the world as a living, divine
organism” and put forth the idea that “the world evolved from a single material substance”
(Livingston 236). Eventually, inevitably, the cultural and technological acceleration of the
Golden Age of Greece led to its downfall. New inventions and technologies were followed by
stronger weaponry and more sophisticated strategies of war by opposing groups, including the
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sacking and plundering of Delphi, with of its vast stores of wealth. Christianity also rose to
power and literally annihilated the notion of religious pluralism, razing the temple site and
ending the reign of the Oracle.
In the third section I will examine the period of the Oracle as a burgeoning metaphysical
financial industry; describe how the temple went about accumulating its vast stores of wealth,
and explore how this marketing system gave birth to religion + capital = religious capitalism.
Part Three: Apollo + Oracle + Priest = Extravagant Wealth
In Part three of my study I will examine how the Oracle of Delphi came to be a thriving
financial industry, and describe the system by which high-ranking religious “customers”, as well
as common folk, could pay for the privilege of sacred prophecy. This period also marked
hierarchical advantages for those who could afford to pay more: “Since the sanctuary only served
the public a few days over nine months out of the year, great sums were paid by the more
affluent ones in order to bypass the long line of pilgrims” (Sakoulas). I will also discuss some of
the financial benefits, rewards and favors enjoyed by the Pythia, the priest, and those working in
Greek temple life.
In a sacred bargain between a religious supplicant and their god, a payment must be
made. In primitive cultures this payment took the form of ritual sacrifice. The sacrifice could be
anything: a human being or an animal, a body part, a symbolic object. A ritual offering can be
made before or after the fact; the supplicant or community may ask for something, offer their
gratitude for having received something, or express atonement, “expiation, the making of
amends for defilement or transgression” (Livingston 116).
The act of sacrifice also has deeply altruistic roots. By rationalizing the concept of ritual
sacrifice as an offering made in gratitude or homage, one invokes the ancient rule of do-ut-des, “I
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give that thou mayest give” (Livingston 115), which implies the giver altruistically (rationally)
expects something in return. E.B. Tylor defined this ritual of obligation in three stages: “gift
giving; homage; and abnegation or renunciation” (Livingston 115). In this scenario the mortal
gift giver propitiates the divine receiver, to placate and win over the divine one’s favor. The
sacrificial object becomes a threshold linking the profane to the sacred: “it is on the threshold
that sacrifices to the guardian divinities are offered” (Eliade 25).
In Delphi, the Oracle and her temple came to personify this numinous threshold linking
profane to sacred; the Pythia served as a divine mortal bridge to the immortal god Apollo. In her
position as sacred medium, the Pythia shouldered the weight of fate and destiny in a close
collaboration with the temple priest. The priest’s role as intermediary was the crucial link that
made this formula work. Highly educated temple priests combined strong intellect with skill,
sensitivity and wisdom. They utilized these talents to interpret the Oracle’s often incoherent
answers, creating a literary account of Apollo’s cryptic, riddling prophecies. These answers were
given by the priest to the paying supplicant, written out by him in hexameter verse or prose,
depending on the time period. Though reportedly a number of Pythias were intelligent and
articulate middle-aged women (when not in trance), clearly, the priest had a crucial role in the
successes in Delphi. The Pythia and her priests were credited with shaping Greek culture and
policy; in her enigmatic answers she directed supplicants towards enlightened morality and
respect for human life, These two sacred gatekeepers changed social behavior: “She emphasized
the importance of intention and making inner evaluations of guilt and innocence, what came to
be known as conscience” (Broad 47). Was moral reformation primarily engineered by the temple
priests? There is little evidence to indicate otherwise. What really took place in the Adyton?
With the Oracular practice of religious tithing and animal offerings, the sacrifice ritual
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became much more civilized, largely removing societal dictums for extreme measures such as
ritualized human killings (of course, holy wars would eventually provide untold numbers of
human sacrifice). All sacred transactions had to go through the Oracle via the temple priest,
though the Pythia herself was probably not involved in these transactions. Reference sources
concerning the methods by which the Delphic temple organized its financial affairs are scattered,
but owing to its unprecedented wealth organized systems were gradually set in place. “The
Oracle’s successes in prognostication and earthly rewards were seen as so great that Delphi had
become synonymous with extravagant wealth. In the Iliad, Achilles sings of “the treasures of
rocky Pytho...riches came from thankful supplicants who had set up colonies overseas and sent
back tithes and gifts as their settlements prospered. Such ventures, while rooted in political and
financial ambitions, were deeply religious in character” (Broad 27).
What made this “deeply religious” enterprise so lucrative? “The ancient people of the
Mediterranean had such faith in Pythia's view of the future that no major decision was made
without consulting the Oracle of Delphi first. Greek and foreign dignitaries, heads of state, and
common folk made the pilgrimage to the Delphi sanctuary, and paid great sums for Pythia's
oracles” (Sonntag).
Delphi was located on a main overland east-west trade route, with many people traveling
back and forth; it was also in proximity to farmlands and cities. Because of its central locale,
Delphi became a thriving religious destination for supplicants, pilgrims and travelers. The temple
(and its citizens) hosted monthly festivals to Apollo, with many other festival days noted on the
sacred schedule, and in winter Dionysus and the Bacchanalia held their wild nocturnal dances
and rituals. The temple also made money on non-religious days, by offering alternate (and
cheaper) methods of divine guidance to pilgrims; one such method was tossing beans: one color
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meant yes, a different color meant no; this early form of sacred gambling brings to mind the
image of the circus carnival barker: step right up, try your luck and throw the magic beans …
Also, though the temple was officially closed due to Apollo’s absence in the winter months,
certain Pythias are rumored to have been involved in (and encouraged) the orgiastic festivals of
Dionysus, which catered to a different set of believers. The Oracle is credited with the “growth
of Dionysian worship throughout the Greek world” (Broad 42).
Beginning in 525 BCE, Delphi’s wealth was stored in The Siphnian Treasury, with
“lavish offerings given to the priests and to various gods and goddesses. Entrance to the
treasuries was highly restricted: the only people allowed to enter them were selected visitors and
the administrators who oversaw the operations” (Flaten, Olsen, Gill).
In 1983 I lived for a short time on the Greek island of Sifnos, in the Cyclades. During my
visit, an islander told me that Sifnos was the first seat of the Delphic Oracle’s wealth; it wasn’t
until conducting this study that I realized what that actually meant. The significance of this
sacred treasury house is significant to this study, and merits a more detailed description:
“The Siphnian Treasury was a building dedicated to the Greek polis of Delphi by the
city-state of Siphnos. In ancient times, the people of Siphnos had gained enormous
wealth from their silver and gold mines, as Herodotus records in his Histories, and they
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vaunted their wealth in the construction of their treasury in Delphi, the first religious
structure in that holy site that was made entirely out of marble...the Treasure House was
not just the branch of a Siphnian bank in Delphi. It was a dedication to the god Apollo,
and therefore it was itself a holy site, a religious building designed to house the offerings
of the Siphnians, and as such a temple, with all the outward characteristics of a temple,
including its artful sculptural adornments. As a practical matter, however, the building
was used to house many lavish gifts given to the priests to be offered to Apollo, among
other gods and goddesses. [“The Siphnians also built a Treasure House, and this is why:
the island of Siphnos yielded gold-mines, and the god commanded them to bring a tithe of
the produce to Delphi, so they built a treasure-house and brought the tithe. When out of
insatiable greed they gave up this tribute, the sea flooded in and obliterated the mines.”
(Sonntag).
Please note the above phrases: “vaunted their wealth” and “out of insatiable greed”; when
comparing the ancients to contemporary cultures, these familiar allusions to avarice, corruption
and ulterior motives attached to the act of giving have become a hallmark and a formula of many
contemporary organized religious groups.
The Siphnian treasury was among western civilization’s first banks; the handsome
structure certainly resembles many early 20th century financial buildings. Kings, Archons,
governors, statesmen and land rulers all gave monumental amounts of currency, statuary,
precious metals and gifts to Apollo, in gratitude for a favorable prophecy or as investment
towards a propitious response. What became of all that wealth? Was it put to use? Towards the
end of the Oracle’s era, Delphi was plundered of its riches by encroaching religious and political
victors; but what of the period when the Oracle was a thriving industry? “As a practical matter,
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however, the building was used to house many lavish gifts given to the priests to be offered to
Apollo, among other gods and goddesses” (Sonntag). This quote (my italics) bodes the question:
in practical terms, were these riches simply kept locked away in the treasury as Apollo’s
possessions, or was this wealth utilized?
Because it is a holy site, the treasury is an early example of massive wealth combined
with unmatched religious status and power; this one-two punch set the stage for future religious
monopolies. The advantageous acquisition of land was also suggested in accounts of the
Oracle’s prophecies: “We have...tales in which the Oracle is depicted playing a visionary role
in picking choice locations for Colonists or in helping them defeat local adversaries” (Broad
28); as these settlements prospered, supplicants tithed their income to the Oracle. Acquisition
of wealth and land also defined early Christianity’s rise to power, spelling the end of the Greek
pantheon. Drawing a timeline from past to present, philosopher Avro Manhattan writes: “Pagan
temples were either closed, transformed into Christian shrines or demolished. The wealth of
sundry religions was mercilessly expropriated…Roman Catholicism is the richest of the rich,
the wealthiest institution on earth… she can rival - indeed, that she can put to shame - the
combined might of the most redoubtable financial trusts, of the most potent industrial supergiants, and of the most prosperous global corporation of the world…Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also.” “Matthew 6:21” (Manhattan).
By 6th Century BCE Delphi had become a global and terrestrial hub; “The one sanctuary
ruled them all” (Broad 28). The industry had become too powerful, too influential to be run from
within. The Amphictyony was created, comprised of a league of twenty-four men from twelve
Greek cities, representing “a large committee to oversee its actions” (Broad 49). This sounds like
an ancient version of an executive board, and according to written records the Amphictyony
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instituted many financial innovations and reforms; “It’s advent, as well as the continuing arrival
of treasures from abroad, attested to the role Apollo and his mouthpiece played in forging a
Greek national identity” (Broad 49). We see here the stunningly powerful effect the Oracle had
on Greece and also the world stage of that period. But how was this wealth used?
Another interesting aspect re: the question of Delphi’s wealth lies in the mid-6th Century,
when dry timber beams ignited and the temple burned down. “In an apparent first, [the
Amphictyony] solicited funds from the whole Greek world” (Broad 51). Heroditus wrote that
citizens of Delphi traveled from city to city soliciting funds, and also secured large donations
from Greeks living in Egypt, and from Egypt's King Amasis. This report suggests that the temple
didn’t draw from their own treasure coffers to rebuild; why not? Was this a deeply religious or
superstitious tenet (don’t touch Apollo’s gifts), or was it avarice (men in power hoarding the
wealth)? According to the Theodora Encyclopedia, the Amphictyony did utilize and invest to
increase the treasury: “Another task of the council was to supervise the treasury, to protect it
from thieves, and by investments to increase the capital. Naturally, too, it controlled the
expenditure. We find it, accordingly, in the 6th century B.C. contracting for the rebuilding of the
Delphic temple after it had been destroyed by fire” (Theodora). How much of Delphi’s wealth
did the Amphictyony control? In order to further secure the Oracle’s world status, the
Amphictyony issued silver coins depicting “Apollo holding a lyre while seated on the omphalos,
a conical stone that represented Delphi as the navel, or “center of the world” (Broad 29).
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Greek regional capitalism was in full swing by 595 BCE, when the nearby town of Crisa
began charging a toll to pilgrims traveling to Delphi; this levy was forbidden by the
Amphictyony; it meant less money would end up in the temple. The Amphictyony went to war
and wiped the town out, then cleared the area and let the lands “lie fallow and perpetually
uncultivated, dedicated not to man but to Apollo” (Broad 50). This militant gesture of autonomy
“was the cause of the first Sacred War” (Vin Daj). These shows of power were causally linked
with embedded religious belief in assuaging the gods, especially Apollo, who through the Oracle
had the potential of unleashing “a terrible power, manifested in the divine wrath. [For them], it
was not an idea, an abstract notion, a mere moral allegory” (Eliade 8); it was a fact of life.
Oracles were fantastic money-makers. “The Oracle of Delphi stood at the apex of this
sprawling, chaotic, feverish, metaphysical industry. Respect for the Oracle and her divine patron
translated into monumental wealth that must have staggered even the most resolute cynics.”
(Broad 16). As the successes and prestige of Delphi grew, many other towns and villages
followed suit, building their own temples, each with its own oracle, seer or sybil. Though the
Oracle of Delphi was the most powerful religiously driven enterprise, it was by no means the
only one. “Sanctuaries did a thriving business in divining gossip...coming up with visionary
answers to base curiosity” (Broad 42-43).
How did the Pythia herself benefit from her position? “Being the Oracle at Delphi, in
effect the high priestess of the land – was a chance to be extraordinary, to achieve exalted social,
spiritual, and financial status, to win wide respect for nurturing a vigorous, just society” (Broad
32). During the height of the Oracle’s power, the job benefits were significant. According to
scholars, the Oracle received housing and salary from the state, and an official residence in
Delphi; she had the right to own land, and was exempt from taxation. She was also invited to
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view public contests, and was guaranteed front row theatre seats. “By definition, the Oracle lived
in a lofty world where she enjoyed a unique independence from men and the often grim realities
of life for most Greek women” (Broad 33-34).
How did the priests benefit? Their singular role in the temple must have had many
monetary perks attached; also, priesthood was not a full time job. Priests such as Plutarch
concurrently held a number of high-ranking positions, with unprecedented access to powerful
individuals. All supplicants in Delphi, including representatives of kings and heads of state, came
through the priest, and he alone composed the answers uttered by the Pythia. On festival days the
priest collaborated (or controlled) the content of the messages the Pythia received; he shaped the
Oracle’s “ravings” into intelligible but enigmatic language, often written in verse form, that left
the recipient with a sort of symbolic word puzzle or koan, to analyze and interpret for
themselves. Like any good fortuneteller, the mysterious poetic wording of the prophecy left
room for a range of interpretations, leaving the deliverers of the message faultless. It was also
assured that precious gifts would continue to be given in gratitude, or to encourage further favors
and auspicious responses from Apollo. “Oracles were meant to give advice to shape future
action, that 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” (wiki).
The Oracle’s “spiritual fire was gradually extinguished as Apollo's worship was replaced
by a new religion imported from the East: Christianity” (Sakoulas). Her spectacular reign
spanned the period of 1600 BCE to 393 CE, paving the way for opportunistic religious
capitalism through the acquisition and expropriation of wealth and land, forging the template for
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future religious crusades, holy wars, pogroms and global terrorism. Is it purely coincidence that
the sacred trinity; Apollo<>Oracle<>Priest, should also be resonant in the Christian religion, as
Father<>Son<>Holy Ghost? This is another interesting question to explore, requiring an entirely
different study.
When proposing this independent study, I had little idea of the magnitude of my subject.
Another unexpected challenge, as Burkert and Harrison point out, is the frustrating lack of hard
evidence, coupled with the tantalizing mystery behind this very intriguing period in the history of
western civilization. The Oracle of Delphi presents a huge vacuum to the historian and the
scholar, which in turn is a rent in the universe of our intellectual evolution. Though scientists,
scholars and highly respected researchers in the field are able to give us crucial parts of the
puzzle of this period, we will never really know what happened in the Oracle’s chamber; the
degree to which she, or the priest, or both, created this ingenious way of guiding mankind and
humankind on the path to conscious thought and moral consciousness; meanwhile avoiding
personal injury or retribution from those who paid to hear their destinies returned in riddles;
leaving each supplicant with the ultimate responsibility: to interpret, divine and act on their own
fates. While it lasted, the Oracle of Delphi was a stunning and multilayered religious and cultural
system, successfully supporting and combining magic, myth, ritual, sacrifice, mystery, faith,
religious pluralism, intellectual thought, moralism, science, mathematics, literature and the arts,
tithing and bartering, sacred festivals, pilgrimages and a thriving marketplace. It was an amazing
time.
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