The Opulent Shrine
Over the centuries, stories of the Pythia have been collected in texts devoted to myth, poetry, philosophy, history, and political science. In this episode, we explore the story of the Oracle of Delphi, her prophecies, and attempts by modern researchers to explain the oracle’s gift. Who was this priestess, and what power did she hold over the ancient Mediterranean world?
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben, with original music by Purple Planet.
Music
Purple Planet - End of Days
Purple Planet - In Doubt
Purple Planet - Redemption
Purple Planet - Vision of the Future
Purple Planet - Introspection
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Aeschylus. Eumenides, translated by E. D. A. Morshead. The Internet Classics Archive.
Herodotus. Histories, translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920.
Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo, translated by Hugh G. Evans-White. New York: Loeb Classical Library, 1914.
Plato. Apology. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Internet History Sourcebooks.
Secondary
Broad, William J. The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and the Science Behind Its Lost Secrets. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.
Campbell, Celia. “(Poetic) Licence to Kill: Apollo, the Python, and Nicander’s Theriaca in Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.” Greece and Rome 65, no. 2 (2018): 155-174.
Chappell, Mike. “Delphi and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo.” The Classical Quarterly 56, no. 2 (2006): 331–48.
de Boer, Jelle Z. “The Oracle at Delphi: The Pythia and the Pneuma, Intoxicating Gas Finds, and Hypotheses.” In Toxicology in Antiquity, second edition, edited by Philip Wexler, 141-149. Academic Press, 2019.
de Boer, Jelle Z., and J. R. Hale. “The Geological Origins of the Oracle at Delphi, Greece.” Geological Society, London, Special Publications 171, no. 1 (2000): 399-412.
Etiope, G., G. Papatheodorou, D. Christodoulou, M. Geraga, and P. Favali. “The Geological Links of the Ancient Delphic Oracle (Greece); a Reappraisal of Natural Gas Occurrence and Origin.” Geology (Boulder) 34, no. 10 (2006): 821-824.
Fairbanks, Arthur. “Herodotus and the Oracle at Delphi.” The Classical Journal 1, no. 2 (1906): 37-48.
Gregory, Timothy E. “Julian and the Last Oracle at Delphi.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 24, no. 4 (1983): 355-366.
Harissis, Haralampos V. “A Bittersweet Story: The True Nature of the Laurel of the Oracle of Delphi.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 57, no. 3 (2014): 351-360.
Holland, Leicester B. “The Mantic Mechanism at Delphi.” American Journal of Archaeology 37, no. 2 (1933): 201-214.
Kindt, Julia. “Delphic Oracle Stories and the Beginning of Historiography: Herodotus’ Croesus Logos.” Classical Philology 101, no. 1 (2006): 34–51.
Kindt, Julia. Revisiting Delphi: Religion and Storytelling in Ancient Greece. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. “The Delphic Oracle.” Greece & Rome 23, no. 1 (1976): 60-73.
Nagy, Gregory. “Theognis and Megara: A Poet’s Vision of His City.” In Theognis of Megara: Poetry and the Polis, edited by T. Figueria and G. Nagy, 22-81. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.
Parke, H.W. and D.E.W. Wormell. The Delphic Oracle. Oxford: Blackwell, 1956.
Salt, Alun, and Efrosyni Boutsikas. “Knowing When to Consult the Oracle at Delphi.” Antiquity 79, no. 305 (2005): 564-572.
Scott, Michael. “The Oracle at Delphi: Unknowability at the Heart of the Ancient Greek World.” Social Research 87, no. 1 (2020): 51-74.
Spiller, Henry A., John R. Hale & Jelle Z. De Boer. “The Delphic Oracle: A Multidisciplinary Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory.” Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology 40, no. 2 (2002): 189-196.
Stoneman, Richard. The Ancient Oracles: Making the Gods Speak. Yale University Press, 2011.
Strolonga, Polyxeni. “The Foundation of the Oracle at Delphi in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo.” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 51, no. 4 (2011): 529-551.
Vlad, Marilena. “Socrates’ Apology and the Philosophical Art of Divination: The Delphic Oracle.” International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 15, no. 1 (2021): 5-26.
Wood, Michael. The Road to Delphi: The Life and Afterlife of Oracles. Macmillan, 2004.
