Re-Visiting Delphi

The word oracle comes from the Latin verb orare, “to speak.”  In our time the word is associated with the largest database management company in the world, the Oracle Corporation. However, in 800 B.C., an oracle was a person who provided wise and insightful counsel and prophetic predictions, inspired by the gods.  The word, Oracle, also referred to the place of the oracle—and such a place was Delphi, the ancient religious sanctuary dedicated to the Greek god Apollo.  Delphi was the place of the Oracle of Delphi—the priestess Pythia.

Pilgrims (heads of State and ordinary folk) visited Delphi to ask their questions, to seek guidance, and to peer into the future. Pythia, the priestess, would hear the question relayed to her by other priests—then she would inhale methane gas (which causes hallucinations) that spewed from a chasm in the ground, fall into a trance, mutter incomprehensible words, which the Apollo priests would then translate for the pilgrim.  Now that may all seem rather silly to us, but the ancient Greeks believed the Oracle of Delphi had existed since the dawn of time and had predicted various historical events, including the Trojan War.  Indeed, the Greeks viewed Delphi as the “center” or “navel” of the world.

The Delphic Oracle had considerable influence for centuries. The Roman emperor Hadrian was fascinated by the place.  I’m fascinated by the fact that Pythia, a female,  was held as the supreme authority both civilly, religiously and politically in the male-dominated society of that time.  Perhaps we ought to consider a Pythia in our time?

I have had the privilege and joy to walk the “Sacred Way,” that path traveled by the ancients to the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. I cannot describe the mystical “feel” of that path, or the sense I had of walking on hallowed ground.  It was as “spirit-filled” as my walk along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.  The Pythia and Apollo’s priest were no longer available to receive my questions, to give me guidance, or to help me peer into the future, but the ruins of Delphi remain and the stones cry out still.  They cry out the need we humans have for oracles, for a Pythia—a portal, a door, a window, through which the gods (God) can speak directly to us.  

Strange as it may seem, as I re-visited Delphi this morning, the fifth verse of the hymn, “O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing” echoed within with some added words of my own:  He/She/the Oracle speaks, and listening to his/her voice, new life the dead receive; the mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor are now relieved.  Our need for an oracle, a place to ask our questions, to seek guidance, and to peer into the future remains as crucial in this moment of time as it did for those who walked the “Sacred Way” 2800 years ago to the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.