Arist.
Aristotle
Ath. Pol.
Constitution of the Athenians
Pol.
Politics
Rh.
Rhetoric
Ath.
Athenaeus
Aul. Gell.
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BaBesch
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BCH
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Cae.
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Callim.
Callimachus
Hymn 4
Hymn to Delos
Ia.
Iambi
C&M
Classica et Mediaevalia: Revue Danoise de Philologie et d’Histoire
Cic.
Cicero
Div.
On Divination
Font.
For Fonteio
CID
Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes
ClAnt
Classical Antiquity
Claud.
Claudian
IV Cons. Hon.
De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti
Clem. Al.
Clement of Alexandria
Protr.
Protrepticus (Exhortation)
Cod. Theod.
Codex Theodosianus
CPh
Classical Philology
CQ
Classical Quarterly
CRAI
Comptes-Rendus des Séances: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Dem.
Demosthenes
Dio Cass.
Dio Cassius
Dio Chrys.
Dio Chrysostom
Diod. Sic.
Diodorus Siculus
Diog. Laert.
Diogenes Laertius
Dion. Hal.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Ant. Rom.
Antiquitates Romanae (Roman Antiquities)
Eur.
Euripides
Andr.
Andromache
IT
Iphigenia in Tauris
Phoen.
Phoenissae
Euseb.
Eusebius
Praep. evang.
Praeparatio evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel)
FD
Fouilles de Delphes
FGrH
Fragmente der griechischen Historiker F. Jacoby. Berlin.
1923–
G&R
Greece and Rome
GRBS
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies
Heliod.
Heliodorus
Aeth.
Aethiopica
Hes.
Hesiod
Theog.
Theogony
Hdt.
Herodotus Histories
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Homeric Hymn to Apollo
Hom. Hymn Hermes
Homeric Hymn to Hermes
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Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
IG
Inscriptiones Graecae
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Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts
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Epit.
Epitome
Juv.
Juvenal
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Lucian
Lucian
Bis. Acc.
Bis Accusatus (The Double Indictment)
J. Conf.
Jupiter Confutatus (Jupiter/Zeus cross-examined)
J. Trag.
Jupiter Tragoedus (Jupiter/Zeus rants)
Philopat.
Philopatris (The Patriot)
Mart.
Martial
MDAI
Istanbuler Mitteilungen (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut)
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MHR
Mediterranean Historical Review
NC
Numismatic Chronicle
Origen
Origen
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Paus.
Pausanias Description of Greece
Philoch.
Philochorus
Pind.
Pindar
Pyth.
Pythian Odes
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Nemean Odes
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Plato
Ap.
Apology
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Charmides
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Prudentius
RA
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REA
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REG
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RFIC
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SCI
Scripta Classica Israelica
SEG
Supplementum epigraphicum Graecum
SGDI
Sammlung der griechischen Dialektinschriften H. Collitz and Fr. Bechtel. Gottingen. 1899.
Syll3
Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum (third edition)
Simon.
Simonides
Soph.
Sophocles
OT
Oedipus Tyrannus (Oedipus the King)
Stat.
Statius
Theb.
Thebai
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Silvae
Strabo
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Tacitus
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Annales
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Varro
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Virgil
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Xenophon
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Anabas
is
Ap.
Apology of Socrates
Cyr.
Cyropaedia
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Hellenica
Mem.
Memorabilia
ZPE
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
Key
Parke and Wormell + No. in bold: Oracular consultation reference number from Parke and Wormell 1956b.
Scott + No. in bold: Monumental dedication reference number from Scott 2010.
Jacquemin + No. in bold. Monumental dedication reference number from Jacquemin 1999.
Guide de Delphes + No. in bold: Monumental dedication reference number from Bommelaer 1991.
NOTES
PROLOGUE
1. Quote from the Memorandum of Justification for the Recommendation by United Nations International Committee on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) that Delphi be listed as a World Heritage site, 6 March 1986. Full text can be viewed online: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/393/documents/ (1987 Advisory Body Evaluation)—last accessed 17.6.13.
2. Heliod. Aeth. For discussion of the novel, see: Feuillatre 1966, Hunter 1998.
3. Heliod. Aeth. 2.26–27; Pouilloux 1983, Weir 2004: 77–78, Baumbach 2008: 182.
4. For discussions of the veracity of Heliodorus’s account: Feuillatre 1966: 45–70, Pouilloux 1984.
5. For discussion of the date of the Aethiopica: Bowersock 1997: 149–60, Baumbach 2008: 167.
6. E.g., Strabo 9.3.3.
CHAPTER 1. ORACLE
1. “It happened just like at Delphi,” e.g., Hdt. 7.111. Amandry argued that the earliest oracular consultation at Delphi may in fact have been the reading of the rustling of leaves from a laurel tree at Delphi (not just any laurel tree, but the one that Daphne was transformed into when pursued by Apollo): Phylarchus FGrH 81F 32; Amandry 1950: 126–34.
2. Whereas at the oracular sanctuary of Dodona, questions and responses were often inscribed on lead tablets buried in the ground (and thus discoverable, and readable, today), at Delphi no such permanent records have survived, see Eidinow 2007. It is possible that archives of oracular responses were kept at Delphi: there is a zygastron referred to in inscriptions, but neither it, nor any responses, have ever been found: Flacelière 1961: 52.
3. Different accounts of same consultation: e.g., Thuc. 1.133–34 and Paus. 3.17.7 on Pausanias of Sparta. Different authorial styles: Herodotus’s passion for oracles and his use of them in his narrative: Kindt 2003, Kindt 2006. For discussion of the “use” of the Delphic oracle in other Athenian sources: Bowden 2005: 40–87. On the use of oracle stories in Pausanias: Habicht 1988, Elsner 2001, Elsner 2004, Hutton 2005a, Juul 2010. See also on the use of oracles in later literature: Busine 2005: 26–28.
4. All ahistorical accounts of oracle responses before fifth century BC, e.g., Fontenrose 1978: 11–195. Impossible to write a history after the fourth century BC: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 244. Middle path: Parke and Wormell 1956b: xxi.
5. The first Pythia was Phemonoe (meaning literally “prophetic mind”): Hes. Frag. 226; Strabo 9.3.5. Aristonice was Pythia at the time of the battle of Salamis in the fifth century BC: Hdt. 7.140. Periallus was the Pythia whom Cleomenes of Sparta bribed: Hdt. 6.66.
6. Plut. Mor. 405C. See Flacelière 1961: 42. By the third century AD, however, the post had become associated with the “priestly” families of Delphi: de la Coste-Messelière 1925: 83–86.
7. Chosen for life: Flacelière 1961: 42. See Roux 1976: 69. House to live in: FD III 5 50; Amandry 2000: 19. Multiple Pythias: Plut. Mor. 414B.
8. Diod. Sic. 16.26. See Flacelière 1961: 41. Pythia previously married: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 34.
9. Plut. Mor. 388E; Flacelière 1961: 39, Roux 1976: 175–76. Possibility of “special” consultations at other times: Price 1985: 134.
10. The lot oracle: Amandry 1939a, Amandry 1950: 25–36, Flacelière 1961: 39. Possibly a jar of black and white beans, the color indicating yes or no, selected at random by the Pythia: Price 1985: 132. These “lots” may have been kept in, and indeed consulted from, the tripod in which the Pythia was said to sit: Lucian Bis. Acc. 1. See also the early consultation by the Thessalians at Delphi about the choice of their king, which was said to have been performed with a lot oracle: Plut. Mor. 492A.
11. Amandry 1984c, Picard 1991: 261. See also Graf 2005.
12. Washing: Schol. Vet. on Eur. Phoen. 224. The Castalia was cleaned and fenced off in the third century BC: Colin 1899: 567. Burning barley: Plut. Mor. 397A. Only laurel wood was used on the sacred hearth: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 26. See Flacelière 1961: 43, Fontenrose 1978: 224.
13. Plut. Mor. 435B, 437B, 438A. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 30. Plutarch intimates that, occasionally, huge efforts were made to ensure the goat shuddered, including pouring a good deal of cold water over the animal: Plut. Mor. 438B. At the same time, Plutarch goes on to show how this bending of the rules led to an unsatisfactory consultation in which the Pythia’s voice was odd, ending with everyone running from the temple in fear and the Pythia dying a few days later.
14. Chian promanteia: Inscribed in the third century BC, when the Chians undertook a refit of their dedication (first made in the late sixth century BC): Courby 1927: 124. Several consulters with promanteia, see Eur. Ion 908.
15. CID I 8. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 32, Flacelière 1961: 48.
16. CID I 13; Amandry 1950: 245 (XVI). For discussion: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 31–32. The Sciathus inscription also says that it costs one Aeginetan stater for “consultation by 2 beans,” which is the best evidence for the existence of a lot (or “bean”) oracle at Delphi.
17. Asclepiads: FD III 1 394 1.22–33.
18. Waiting area: Flacelière 1961: 40. Proxenos: Eur. Ion 228. See Sourvinou-Inwood 1990: 15. It is not unlike the practice in the Gulf States today, such as in the United Arab Emirates, where a local, native partner is needed if a foreigner or foreign business wishes to engage in any business venture in the country.
19. Daux 1949c, Parke and Wormell 1956a: 32–33.
20. Plut. Mor. 385A, 378D.
21. See Hdt. 8.37; Plut. Mor. 388E; Plut. Vit. Sull. 12; Vit. Tim. 8; Fontenrose 1978: 226–27, Price 1985: 135. Elsewhere in the temple it was said there were busts of Homer and Hesiod, as well as Pindar’s iron seat and numerous other precious dedications: Flacelière 1961: 58.
22. E.g., Parke and Wormell 1956a: 28.
23. Initial temple publication: Courby 1927. See (reprinted) discussions in: Amandry 2010b, Amandry 2010a. Latest plan: Amandry 2000: 20–21, Amandry and Hansen 2010: 315–21 (figure 18.19).
24. Painted by the Codrus painter, supposedly showing Aegeus before the Pythia or Themis: Fontenrose 1978: 204, Lissarrague 2000. This impression of the consultation is favored by Fontenrose 1978: 223.
25. There were two priests of Apollo in second–first centuries BC (SGDI 1684–2343), but three by first century AD: Amandry 2000: 18. Bowden thinks there was only one in classical times, drawn from among the leading families of Delphi: Bowden 2005: 14. It seems local Delphians may also have been selected by lot to accompany the priests during parts of the consultation process: Plut. Mor. 438B; Parke and Wormell 1956a: 30.
26. Prophetes: Hdt. 8.36, Eur. Ion 413–16. Hosioi: the earliest mention of these officials is in the second century BC. There were five hosioi in Plutarch’s day: Mor. 292D; Parke 1940. Women responsible for flame: Plut. Mor. 385C. Parke and Wormell argue that these were women who had “ceased from marital relations” and may have been the group from which a Pythian priestess was picked. Tending the flame was thus a kind of preselection round for being chosen as the Pythia: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 36. Plutarch also mentions a group of “versifiers”: “there used to be [men who would sit around the oracle] weaving hexameters and metres and rhythms extemporaneously as vessels for the oracles,” Plut. Mor. 407B. For more on personnel: Roux 1976: 54–63.
27. Fontenrose 1978: 218.
28. Asking the question: Eur. Andr. 1104; Schol. Ar. Plut. 39. Providing a
nswer in oral and written form: Eur. Ion 100; Hdt. 1.48; IG II2 1096. See Parke 1940, Parke and Wormell 1956a: 33, Price 1985: 136.
29. Amandry 1950: 129–30. Callimachus tells us she wore a bay-leaf crown and also held a bay sprig in her hand: Callim. Ia. 4.26–27.
30. Fontenrose 1978: 198–200.
31. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 19–20.
32. Diod. Sic. 16.26.
33. “Delightful fragrance”: Plut. Mor. 437C. Debate among friends: Plut. Mor. 432C–438D. Calm and peaceful: Plut. Mor. 759B. Bad consultation: Plut. Mor. 438B.
34. Strabo 9.3.5. Luc. 5.165–74; Fontenrose 1978: 208. The occasion of the consultation is that of Appius Claudius in 48 BC (see later chapters), and though the Pythia “rages,” her response is still clear and coherent. Pausanias 10.24.7. Lucian Bis.Acc.1. John Chrysostom The Homilies on the First Epistle to the Corinthians 29.1.
35. Pl. Phdr. 244A–245C, 265A–B. See Amandry 1950: 41–56, Flacelière 1961: 50, Fontenrose 1978: 204. “Intelligible and satisfying”: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 22.