Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ORACULUM. ORACULUM. 83X
an altar an eternal fire, which was fed only with &rEXEia by tle Delphians. The Pythia always
fir-wood. (Aesch. Choeph. 1036; Plit. De El cp. spent three days, before she ascended the tripod,
Del/pS.) The inner roof of the temple was covered in preparing herself for the solemn act, and duilingr
all over with laurel garlands (Aesch. Esu1. 39), and this time she fasted, and bathed in the Castalian
upon the altar laurel was burnt as incense. In the well, and dressed ill a simple manner; she also
centre of this temple there was a small opening burnt in the temple laurel leaves and flour of barley
(XdTcrla) in the ground from which, from time to upon the altar of the god. (Schol. adEurip. PAoess.
time, an intoxicating sio ke arose, which was be- 230; Plut.. de Pyth. Or. c. 6.) Those who conlieved to come from the well of Cassotis. which stilted the oracle had to sacrifice a goat, or an ox,
vanished into the ground close by the sanctuary. or a sheep, and it was necessary that these victims
(Pans. x. 24. ~ 5.) Over this chasm there stood a should be healthy in body and soul, and to ascerhigh tripod, on which the Pythia, led into the tain this they had to nndergo. a peculiar scrutiny.
temple by the prophetes (WrposPrrTs), took hlr seat An ox received barley, and a sheep chick-peas, to
whenever the oracle was to be. consulted. The see whether they ate them witdl appetite; water
smoke rising from under the tripod affected her was poured over the goats,. and if this put them
brain in such a man.ner that she fell into a state of into a thorough tremble the victim was good.
delirious intoxication, and the sounds which she (Plnt. de Or. Def. 49..) The victim which was
uttered in this state were believed to contain the thus found eligible was called loar~?p. (Plut.
revelations of Apollo. These sounds were care- Qzuaest. Cr. 9.) Wachsmuth (HIellen. Alt. ii. p.
fully written down by the prophetes, and afterwards 588, 2d ed.) states that all who came to consult the
communicated to. the personswho had; come to con- oraclewooe laurel-garlands surrounded with ribands
suilt the oracle. (Diod., xvi. 26; Strabo, ix. p. of wool; but the passages from which this opinion
419, &c.; Plut. de Orac. Def.) is derived, only speak of such persons as came to
The Pythia (the 7rpoqrLms) was always a native the temple as suppliants.. (Herod. vii. 14; Aesch.
of Delphi (Eurip. Ion, 92), and when she had once Cloepls.. 1035.).
entered the service of the god she never left it, and The D.elphians, or more properly speaking the
was never allowed to marry. In early times she noble families of Delphi, had the superintendence
was alsways a young girl; but after one had been of the oracle. Among the Delphian aristocracy,
seduced by Echecrates the Thessalian, the Del- however, there were five families which traced
phians made a law that in future no one should their origin to Deucalion, and from each of these
be elected as prophetess who had not attained the one of the five priests, called o'Lots, was taken.
age of fifty years.; but in remembrance of former- (Eurip. Ion, 411; Plut. Quaest. Gr. c. 9. ) Three
days the old woman was always dressed as a of the names of these families only are known, viz.
maiden. (Diod. 1. c.) The Pythia was generally the Cleomantids, the Thracids (Diod. xvi. 24;
taken from some family of poor country-people. At Lycurg. c. Leocrat. p. 158), and the Laphriads.
first there was only one Pythia at a time; but when (Hesych. s. v.)
Greece was in its most flourishing state, and when The 0'ess,,together with the high priest or pro.
the number of those who came to,consult, theoracle phetes, held, their offices for life, and had the conwas very great, there were alwaays two Pythias trol of all, the affairs of the sanlctuary and of the
who took their seat on the tripod alternately, and sacrifices. (Herod, viii. 136.) That these noble
a third was kept in readiness in case some accident families had, an immense influence upon the oracle
should happen to either of the two others. (Plut. is manifest froslm numerous instances, and it is not
Quaest. Graec. c. 9.) The effect of the smoke on improbable tha,t they were its very soul, and that
the whole mental and physical constitution is said it was they who, dictated the pretended revelations
to have sometimes been so great, that in. her deli- of the god. (See especially, Lycurg. c. Leocrat. p.
rium she leaped from the tripod, was thrown into 1518; Herod. vii. 141, vi. 66; PItt. Per-icl. 21
convulsions, and after a few days died. (Plut. de Eurip. Ion, 1219, 1222, 1110.)
Orac. Def. c. 51.) Most of the oracular answers which are extant,
At first oracles were given only once every are in hexameters, and in the Ionic dialect. Someyear, on the seventh of the month of Bysius (pro- times, however, Doric forms also were used. (Her,. t.
bably the same as rhl0ios, or the month for con- iv,. 157, 159.) The hexameter was, according to
suiting), which was believed to be the birthday of some accounts, invented by Phemonoe, the first
Apollo (Plut. Qusaest. GC-. c. 9), but as this one Pythia. This metrical form was chosen, partly
day in the course of time was not found sufficient, because the words of the god were thus rendered
certain days in every month were set apart for the more venerable, and partly because it was easier to
purpose. (Plnt. Alex. 14.) The order, in which remember verse than prose. (Plut. dePytth. Or. 19.)
the persons who came to consult were admitted, Some of the oracular verses had metrical defects,
was determined by lot (Aesch. Eum. 32; Eurip. which the faithful among the Greeks accounted for
Ioin, 422); but the Delphian magistrates had the in an ingenious manner. (Plut. I. c. c. 5.) In the
power of granting the right of IIpootavseTa, i. e. the times of Theopompus, however, the custom of
right of consulting first, and without the order giving the oracles in verse seems to have gradually
being determined by lot, to such individuals or ceased; they were henceforth generally in prose,
states as had acquired claims on the gratitude of and in the Doric dialect spoken at Delphi. For
the Delphians, or whose political ascendancy seemed when the Greek states had lost their political
to give them higher claims than others. Such was liberty, there was little or no occasion to consult
the case with Croesus and the Lydians (Herod. the oracle on nmatters of a national or politics
i. 54), with the Lacedaemonians (Plut. Per. 21), nature, and the affairs of ordinary life, such as theo
and Philip of Macedonia. (Demosth. c. Ph.il. iii. sale of slaves, the cultivation of a field, marriages,
p. 119.) It appears that those who consulted the voyages, loans of nmcney, and the like, on which
oracle had to pay a certain fee, for Ierodotus the oracle was then mostly consulted, were littlh
states that the Lydians were honoured with calculated to be spoken of in lofty poetical straini
3u3