Omphalos

So this morning we arose with every intention of going to Mycenae. We planned on taking the public bus, but the hotel staff really discouraged it. They seemed to be worried that we did not realize how long it would take and that we would need to change buses. I wanted to be like, "Dude - I'm from America, I drive almost an hour to work each day." In any event, we decided we did not have Mycenae well enough planned out, so we decided to go to Delphi and see the oracle instead.

Delphi is about a 3-hour bus ride from Athens. Delphi is an important site for the worship of Apollo because it is the location where he slew the Python. To the Greeks it was the center of the universe and they called it the omphalos, which means navel. Delphi is famous for the so-called Oracle of Delphi. Here is how it worked - Apollo would speak through a sibyl (priestess) called the Pythia. The story here is that sub-terranean fumes would make the sibyl high and she would babel nonsense as stoned people tend to do. The priests of Apollo would translate them in hexameter for the persons who had come to consult the oracle.

For years historians and archaeologists doubted the story about the gases, but recently evidence has been found to support the story. It turns out Delphi sits at the confluence of two tectonic plates. Their movement results in the release of vaporized gas. One of those gases may have been ethylene, which is hallucinogenic in certain concentrations. Considering that the sibyl was confined to a small room in the basement of the temple of Apollo, it seems the story is more and more plausible.

The oracles were often vague. My favorite story involves King Croesus of Lydia, a kingdom in central Turkey. Croesus decided it might be a fine idea to conquer the Persians but decided to consult the oracle at Delphi first. He made the trip and asked what would happen if he crossed the river Halys, which was the border between Lydia and Persia. The oracle replied, "A mighty kingdom will fall." Croesus, excited by the prophecy, went straight back to Lydia and gathered his forces to attack Cyrus and the Persians. The only problem was that the oracle meant the Lydian empire and not the Persian empire would fall. Croesus was routed and the Lydians became part of the Persian empire. The Greeks loved irony.

The site was lovely, and Mount Parnassus was beautiful with wonderful views of the valley below. We could even see the gulf of Corinth at some points. There was a lot of hiking, but the ruins were impressive. What's amazing is that there are stones stacked everywhere with Greek writing that they were not sure what do with.

Attached to the site was an incredible museum. People who wished to consult the oracle brought all sorts of offerings to gain access to the oracle, and different city-states built buildings on the grounds. Most of the artifacts in the museum were the result of these gifts by individuals or city-states. I will post many of the pictures in another blog post.

One question that comes up is: how accurate was the Oracle of Delphi? Donald Kagan, a classics professor at Yale University, makes a good point that it was pretty accurate. Not only

Greeks but all sorts of people came from far and wide to consult the oracle. People made enormous donations and spent large amounts of money to get ahead in the line to consult the oracle. If the oracle was not right often, then it would probably never achieve such a status.

Kagan believes that the priests collected information from the visitors. Perhaps while pilgrims waited to consult the Pythia, the priests sat down over a beer and talked with them about their homeland. In this way, the Oracle was a primitive information gathering device - a Wikipedia of its day, if you will.

One cool thing we found in the museum is pictured on the right. This is a letter written by the

Roman Emperor Cladius to the Delphians telling them that he had appointed Gallio, the proconsul of Corinth, to help them increase Delphi's status as a tourist destination. This is significant because it is this Gallio (who was also the brother of Seneca) that is mentioned in Acts 18 when Paul is in Corinth. The Jews of Corinth tried to make a legal case against Paul, but Gallio dismissed the case taking the view that it was an internal religious dispute. This decision probably became a precedent, allowing Paul to carry on his missionary activities without fear of Roman prosecution. The letter also helps us date Paul's activities in Corinth to 52 A.D.