Enter the mysterious world of ancient Greek mythology for a moment. Story goes like this: First there were the primal deities, which gave birth to the titans, which then gave birth to the Olympian gods. Zeus, king of the gods, sent out two eagles to find the center of the globe. One flew west and the other flew east. After some time, the two eagles converged at the same location: Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Greece. So Delphi was thought to be the center of the earth and was referred to as "the navel of the earth". To mark the spot, a conical stone marker was erected at that location. Gaea - one of the primal deities ruling the universe and mother of the titans that later sired the Greek gods - was the personification of the earth so a temple was built at Delphi to honor and worship Gaea. One of her offspring, Python - a serpentine earth-dragon - guarded and protected the temple and mountain. The temple was attended by priests and priestesses, and was led by a high priestess that served as a sooth-saying oracle called a pythia (derived from 'python'). Python became a leading enemy of the god Apollo, son of Zeus and god of the sun, music, archery, and prophecy among other attributes. Eventually Apollo fought against Python and killed him. Apollo then assumed the temple and oracle as his own.
Today, the temple of Apollo at Delphi lies in ruins. However, the temple was active for more than a millennia from around 1,400 BC until around 400 AD and is recorded or mentioned by many authors of antiquity including Herodotus, Euripides, Aristotle, Clement of Alexandria, Ovid, Plutarch, and Plato. People from all walks of life from shepherds and farmers to generals and kings came to the oracle of Delphi to learn their futures through prophecy.
It is said that when a petitioner would seek the oracle, after ceremonial preparation of petitioner and priests, a goat kid was brought before the altar. If it did not tremble, it was taken as a sign that the petitioner was rejected by Apollo and the petitioner was turned away. If the goat trembled, it was considered a good sign of the god's favor and the kid was sacrificed. Once the sacrifice was made, the pythia would sit on a tripod chair above the smoke and vapors. Entering the prophetic trance, the pythia would then relate the words of the god. Belief is somewhat split on whether the pythia spoke intelligibly in poetic form, or uttered gibberish which then was "translated" by the priests into the poetic form. Either way, many of the utterances were anecdotal, others were ambiguous and could be interpreted in opposing terms.
One such petitioner was Croesus, king of Lydia, who opposed the Persian king, Cyrus. The oracle reported to Croesus, "If Croesus goes to war, he will destroy a great empire." Upon his interpretation of the fortune, he raised his army and warred again Cyrus. Cyrus prevailed, and the great empire that was destroyed was Croesus' own.
The word pythia is derived from a Greek word meaning "to rot" and was said to refer to the sickening-sweet odor from the decomposition of the corpse of Python. This could hint at a presence of a natural aroma in the area. Ancients claimed that fumes and vapors arose from the rocks and springs that ran underneath temple at Delphi and underneath where the pythia would sit. It was assumed that these were hallucinogenic in nature as well as possibly inducing seizures which would describe reports of the physically violent nature of the ritual as recorded by some writers. Subsequent modern era investigations failed to find anything to support those claims of fissures and vapors. However more recently, archaeologists, geologists, toxicologists, and chemists have found that there is a fault line beneath Delphi as well as evidences of vertical fissures and sources of vapors that can rise from beneath the ground.
But even with this evidence, was it simply a case of hallucinogenics, charlatanry, and craftiness?
There is an interesting, and somewhat confusing, verse recorded in the bible in Acts 16. Luke records that Paul and Silas went to Derbe and Lystra. Luke was apparently present with Paul also because he uses the inclusive pronouns "we" and "us" for parts of the narrative making him an eye witness to this event. They met Timothy there, and Timothy became a disciple of Paul. Derbe and Lystra were located in what is modern day Turkey, which is near Greece separated by the Aegean Sea.
Luke writes in verses 16-18:
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
People often wonder at the purpose behind this. The girl was announcing truth, right? Let's look at one particular word in the text. The word translated as divination is none other than the Greek word pythia.
A spirit of Python. That verse is the only instance of this specific Greek word being used in the bible. Paul spoke directly to that spirit - that demon - and commanded it out of the girl to discontinue its harassment and confusion of their work to preach the gospel.
Many times God warns us in His Word to have nothing to do with those who practice divination, those who interpret omens, spiritists, mediums, conjurers, (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). At best these would-be fortune tellers are frauds; at worst they are demonic powers.
This passage seems to strongly indicate that the oracles of Delphi were not only the results of hallucinogenics and craftiness, but at times there was a power of demonic interaction. Paul recognized this spirit for what it was and rebuked it through the power of Christ.
[For a wonderfully entertaining and interesting lesson on this, check out the video Drive Thru History with Dave Stotts - Greece and the Word from Focus on the Family]
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[Originally written: January 8, 2017]
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