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Lycurgus Consulting the Pythia (1835/1845), as imagined by Eugène Delacroix.. Pythia was the priestess presiding over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi.There are more than 500 supposed oracular statements which have survived from various sources referring to the oracle at Delphi.
Delphi among the main Greek sanctuaries. Delphi (/ ˈ d ɛ l f aɪ, ˈ d ɛ l f i /; [1] Greek: Δελφοί), [a] in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world.
Another popular theory held that the maxims were first spoken by the Delphic oracle, and therefore represented the wisdom of the god Apollo. [10] Clearchus of Soli , among others, attempted to reconcile the two accounts by claiming that Chilon, enquiring of the oracle what was best to be learnt, received the answer "Know thyself", and ...
The god may speak in ravings caused by ingestion of a substance, or in the ordinary conversation of an unsuspecting priestess. The oracle at Delphi: According to Bonnefoy, [35] theolepsy is the possession by a god, which may be further qualified by the god's name: phoibolepsy or pytholepsy for Apollo, panolepsy for Pan, [36] nympholepsy for ...
The word oracle comes from the Latin verb ōrāre, "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, oracle may also refer to the site of the oracle, and the oracular utterances themselves, are called khrēsmoí (χρησμοί) in Greek.
Since the first operation of the oracle of the Temple of Delphi, it was believed that the god lived within a laurel (his holy plant) and gave oracles for the future with the rustling of the leaves. It was also said that the art of divination had been taught to the god by the three winged sisters of Parnassus, the Thriae, at the time when Apollo ...
According to the Ancient Greek myths regarding the founding of the Delphic Oracle, the god Zeus, in his attempt to locate the center of the Earth, launched two eagles from the two ends of the world, and the eagles, starting simultaneously and flying at equal speed, crossed their paths above the area of Delphi, and so was the place where Zeus ...
The priestess of the oracle at Delphi became known as the Pythia, after the place-name Pytho, which Greeks explained as named after the rotting (πύθειν) of the slain serpent's corpse in the strength of Hyperion (day) or Helios (the sun). [12] Karl Kerenyi notes that the older tales mentioned two dragons who were perhaps intentionally ...