Greek Oracles

Apollo, the most greek of all gods - even though he has his roots in western Asia Minor - can to a high degree be associated with the political, economic and cultural climax of the Ionian metropolis of Miletos in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. In two forms of his appearance the bi-polarity of the Milesian state religion is manifested. Apollo Delphinios, who displayed not only Greek, but also Cretan-Mycenaean as well as Hattic-Hittite traits, was the political god, the founder of the state and its future protector. Apollo Delphinios was worshipped in the heart of the city, in the Delphinion located in the agora. This was the place of citizen initiation, the location of the prytaneion, the original household with the sacred hearth and the seat of government of Miletos - all merged into one. The other Apollo, Apollo Didymeus, was the god of the oracle indigenous to Didyma and located 18 kilometers from Miletos. The spatial and imaginary fusion of both cults culminated in the ritual of the Milesian New Year festivities. Sacrificial offerings formed the beginning and end of the ritual in the Delphinion and Didyma and they were firmly connected to one another by a long state procession. As a result Didyma was part of the Milesian state and Apollo Didymeus became a 'Milesios', a "Milesian".
From a functional viewpoint Delphinios and Didymeus Milesios formed a complementary cultic couple, which can be considered specifically Milesian. This cultic couple sanctioned the Milesian colonisation in the Propontis and in the Black Sea regions, both highly successful ventures and in direct competition with the colonisation efforts of the closely related pan-Hellenic Apollo Pythios oracle in Delphi. Evidence of this is apparent from literary, epigraphic and archaeological sources concerning, for example, Borythenes-Olbie Polis, Kyzikos, Apollonia at Rhyndakos and Phasis.
Naukratis in the Nile delta constitutes a special and particularly complicated case as a colony. It cannot be described as a typical Milesian colony, even though ancient sources repeatedly attempted to do this, and even though the sanctuary of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in Naukratis actually dates back to the beginnings of the colony. It was here that both the oracle gods Apollo Didymeus from Miletos-Didyma and Apollo Pythios from Delphi encountered one another at the time when the pan-Hellenic polis of Naukratis, and the trading colony which belonged to it, were founded. This probably happened during the reign of the Pharaoh Amasis and with the approval of Delphi.

It is known from ancient sources that “laurel”, identified with sweet bay, was used at the ancient Greek oracle of Delphi. The Pythia, the priestess who spoke the prophecies, purportedly used “laurel” as a means to inspire her divine frenzy. However, the clinical symptoms of the Pythia, as described in ancient sources, cannot be attributed to the use of sweet bay, which is harmless. A review of contemporary toxicological literature indicates that it is oleander (bitter bay) that causes symptoms similar to those of the Pythia, while a closer examination of ancient literary texts indicates that oleander was often included under the generic term “laurel”. It is therefore likely that the “laurel” of Delphi actually concerned oleander, and that it was oleander, not sweet bay, that the Pythia used before the oracular procedure. This explanation could also shed light on other ancient accounts regarding the alleged “spirit” and the “chasm” of Delphi, accounts that have been the subject of intense debate and interdisciplinary research for the last one hundred years.

This paper studies the treatment of the Sibyl and Virgil in a speech attributed to Constantine the Great. Scholars generally focus on the role played by one or the other of these two figures in that writing. To do justice to the economy of the work, it seems necessary to keep them together. As a result, the Sibyl and Virgil serve as pagan counterparts to the witnesses of Moses and Daniel about the divinity of the Crucified. A prophetess initially attached to Apollinian oracular centers, the Sibyl becomes a prophetess of the one Christian God. That is illustrated by the famous acrostic poem Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour Cross that she is said to have uttered. As for Virgil, it is through the exegesis of the Fourth Eclogue, of which several verses are glossed and translated into Greek, that he is also Christianised.


Cet article étudie le traitement réservé à la Sibylle et à Virgile dans un discours attribué à l’empereur Constantin. La recherche s’interroge habituellement sur le rôle et la place de l’une ou l’autre des deux figures dans cet écrit. Pour rendre justice à l’économie de l’œuvre, il semble préférable de les tenir ensemble. Il en ressort que la Sibylle et Virgile servent de contreparties païennes aux témoignages de Moïse et Daniel sur la divinité du Crucifié. De prophétesse rattachée à des centres oraculaires apolliniens, la Sibylle devient prophétesse du seul vrai Dieu des chrétiens, ce qu’illustre le célèbre acrostiche Jésus Christ Fils de Dieu Sauveur Croix qu’elle aurait prononcé. Quant à Virgile, c’est par l’exégèse de la Quatrième Églogue, dont plusieurs vers sont glosés et traduits en grec, qu’il est lui aussi christianisé.

This study deals with the relations between the oracles of Delphi and Dodona as depicted in 5th-century Greek tragedy. In the first part we consider the wanderings of Io in Prome­theus Bound, those of Heracles in Sophocles’ Trachiniae, as well as the wanderings of Odysseus in the fragments of Sophocles’ Odysseus Thorn-Struck. These tragedies are characterized by a harmonious complementarity between the two oracles: Dodona, the an­cient oracle guaranteeing the sacred ties of the family, is placed at the end of the hero’s travels, while the Delphic oracle provides the initial motive and aim of the journey, namely expiation. In the second part our focus is on the (failed) wanderings of Orestes and Menoeceus in Euripides’ Andromache and Phoenissae respectively, where the harmonious consonance between the two oracles slides into a dissonant alterity: the goal of the journey is never reached, leading to the dissolution of family ties.

The scarcity of our knowledge about the cult activity in the area of Molossia, in Epirus, is notorious. Two epigraphic references concerning the cult of Artemis Hegemona are studied in this research. On the one hand, an oracular consultation records the response that the pilgrim received. On the other, a white limestone plaque found in the temple of Rodotopi bears a dedicatory to this goddess. Until now, there has not been any analysis concerning both documents. This document aims to contribute to this aspect.

Dans cet article, je me propose de réfléchir au rôle et à la fonction de la pseudépigraphie dans les Oracula Sibyllina, une collection de textes poétiques à caractère politique et religieux écrits en grec entre le IIe siècle avant J.-C. et le VIIe siècle de notre ère. À cet effet, je recours à Michel Foucault et à sa réflexion sur la notion d’auteur, dont je tente de vérifier la pertinence pour comprendre les raisons qui ont poussé des juifs et des chrétiens à faire appel à des figures identifiées comme païennes pour transmettre leur message. Ce faisant, j’espère trouver des clés permettant de cerner les motivations et intentions des auteurs de ces textes. J’illustre mon propos par l’étude de quelques morceaux choisis du recueil.

In this article, I propose to reflect on the role and the function of pseudepigraphy in the Oracula Sibyllina, a collection of poetic texts of a political and religious nature written in Greek between the second century BC and the seventh century AD. To this end, I use Michel Foucault and his reflections on the notion of authorship and try to test its relevance to understand the reasons that led Jews and Christians to summon figures identified as pagans to convey their message. In doing so, I hope to better identify the intentions and motivations of the authors. I illustrate my points by studying some excerpts from the collection.

Trophonios at Lebadeia (Boeotia) was indeed a second range divinity, but his cult and oracle were undoubtebly among the best documented of Greek antiquity, and by far better known to us than Delphic or any other Apollinian oracle. The manner of his revelation (an altered state of consciousness) was directly linked to mystery cults (according to the ancient evidence itself), at least from the 5th century BC. It was thoroughly studied by many philosophical schools in relation to near-death experiences and to the voyage of the soul, espacially by the Peripathetics and the middle platonism (Plutarch).

It is known from ancient sources that “laurel”, identified as sweet bay, was used by the ancient Greek oracle of Delphi. The Pythia, or priestess, who made the prophecies, is said to have used “laurel” to bring about a divine frenzy, although the manifestations of this frenzy described in ancient sources cannot be attributed to the use of sweet bay, which is harmless. A review of the contemporary toxicological literature, however, indicates that it is oleander that causes symptoms similar to those displayed by the Pythia, while a closer examination of ancient literary texts indicates that oleander was often included under the generic term “laurel”. It is therefore likely that the “laurel” of Delphi was actually oleander, and that it was oleander, not sweet bay, that was used by the Pythia. This explanation could also shed light on other ancient accounts regarding the alleged “spirit” and the “chasm” of Delphi, accounts that have been the subject of intense debate and interdisciplinary research for the last one hundred years.

Abstract

The Oracle of Delphi, one of the most important pagan institutions of the classical world, presented the Early Church Fathers with an interesting challenge in their conflict with paganism over the souls in the Roman Empire. Although it continued to be an institution of local importance that offered inquirers the opportunity to receive divine word, the Oracle had long since been a provincial backwater, requiring Imperial patronage, at times, that revived the sanctuary temporarily, but not to its former glory. Even Plutarch, whose time saw the most noteworthy revival, acknowledged that the Oracle was a mere shadow then of what it once was in a work called On the Obsolescence of Oracles (Mor. 409A–438F). Although the actual institution presented no hindrance to the advancement of Christianity, nevertheless, the Early Church Fathers attacked it with arguments ranging from the irreverent to the obscene. According to them, Apollo, the god of Delphi, had led astray and betrayed his faithful with ambiguous oracles (Eus. PE 5.20–21; Clem. Alex. Ex. Gr. 38P); the Oracle was inspired by daemones, which they argued were misanthropic by nature (Eus. PE 4.9–10; Origen Cels. 3.28; 7.6,35; 8.62); the prophecy at Delphi was done by women, who were assumed to be less capable than men in about every way (Origen Cels. 7.5–6); and the production of prophecy was the result of sexual intercourse between Apollo and his priestess (Origen Cels. 3.25, 7.3–4; John Chys. Ep. Cor. Homil. 29.2). The interesting fact is that none of these indictments were the original creations of the Early Church Fathers; they were already found in the pagan (reverent or skeptical) literary tradition about the Delphic Oracle. Thus, Emperor Julian’s lament, when he said, “We are shot by arrows fletched from our own wings,” seems to be a very accurate metaphor for the religious conflict of the day (Theodoret HE 3.4). However, it is apparent that this type of religious conflict is different from the physical type, like the destruction of temples of which we hear pagans like Libanius lament (Pro Temp. 107-9). The Early Church Fathers assaulted the Delphic Oracle using the literary tradition that had developed around it, Roger Lipsey’s (2001, p. 2) “the Delphi of the Mind,” but did not call for the destruction of the physical site of the Oracle, “the Delphi of Fact,” which they knew had fallen into obsolescence (Clem. Alex. Protr. 2.1; Eus. PE 5.16; Greg. Naz. Or. 5.32). They, in fact, used the Delphic literary tradition of the Classical and Hellenistic periods as a lever with which to extirpate a few of the deep roots of the Greco-Roman religion that had grown into minds of many of the ancients and had outlasted the seed from which they had grown, “the Delphi of Fact,” by several centuries. Their struggle was truly “not against flesh and blood” (Eph. 6:12); it was against a literary tradition that was as real and living to the ancients.

In 2015, an oracle well was unearthed during excavations by the speaker in the Athenian Kerameikos. The unexpected find is of major importance for our knowledeg of religion in Athens and of Greek religion in general. In the talk, the  find will be presented in full length.