Transcript Hoplite Warfare

Delphi and Olympia
Oracles and Athletes
Delphi (North-Central Greece)
Delphi and Parnassos
Site, Tradition, and Myth
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Lower Slopes of Mount Parnassos
About 2,000 feet above sea-level
Traditional connection with Minoans (cf. Delphic Hymn to
Apollo (lines 391-99, 514-23)
Archaeological artifacts from Middle Helladic Period
Growing Importance from Late Eighth Century (Late
Geometric)
Sanctuary
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Temenos (central area for worship) enclosed by wall
 Apollo’s temple
 Theater
 Twenty Treasuries (various poleis)
 Monuments (various poleis)
Sacred Way
Delphi- Sacred Way
Delphi- Theater
Delphi- Temple of Athena Pronoia
Delphi- Athenian Treasury
Oracles, Priests, and Pythia
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Omphalos (Navel-Stone): Center of Earth
Site of Apollo’s slaying of chthonian monster (Python)
Questions put by male prophet (?)
Pythia- intoxicated (?) priestess utters responses (possessed by
Apollo)
Recorded and interpreted by priests (?)
States and individuals consult (Amphictiony)
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War and peace, colonization, law codes
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Marriage, childlessness, commercial enterprises, ritual
purification
Delphi (Artist’s Reconstruction)
Consulting the Pythia
Pythia inhaling psychotropic vapors
The Delphic Oracle
John William Godward (1899)
Pythia, Adyton (“No Entry”),
and Pneuma (“Breath”)
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Strabo, Plutarch, and other ancient sources describe a chasm with
rising vapors in the room where the priestess (Pythia) pronounced the
oracle; the Pythia inhaled vapors and was possessed by Apollo
French archaeologists at Delphi (1892-1903) did not find chasm
beneath temple they hoped to find; declared ancient stories about
intoxicated priestesses a fiction
John Hale (archaeologist) and Jelle de Boer (geologist) reexamine the
site (beginning in 1996); find crossing faults (east-west, northwestsoutheast) intersecting at the adyton
Evidence for vaporized petrochemicals (ethylene) in bituminous
limestone released by fault activity and rising with spring water along
fault lines
For overview, see John R. Hale, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, Jeffrey P.
Chanton, and Henry A. Spiller, “Questioning the Delphic Oracle,”
Scientific American (August 2003) 66-73
Observations
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Male control (?)
 Priests may have posed questions
 Priests may have recorded answers (in verse)
 Priestess is intermediary
Triumph of Rationality (?)
 Apollo conquers chthonian monster
 Male (rationality) controls Female (emotion;
inspiration)
 But cf. the incorporation of Dionysus
Oracles and Ethics
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“Know thyself”; “Nothing too much”
Glaucus went to Delphi to consult the oracle. When he
asked the oracle if he might steal money by means of an
oath, the Pythia went after him...[oracle condemning the
suggestion]. When Glaucus heard that, he asked pardon
for the god for what he had suggested. But the Pythia said
that to tempt the god and to commit the sin were exactly
the same thing. (Herodotus, 6.86)
Sacred Games
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Pythian (Delphi)
Nemean (Argos-Peloponnesus)
Isthmian (Corinth)
Panathenaic (Athens)
Olympian (Peloponnesus)
Penteteric (four-yearly)
Charioteer at Delphi
Olympia
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Sanctuary of Zeus (Peloponnesian Elis)
Evidence for early occupation (Bronze Age pottery and
remains of houses)
Tradition: Founded by Heracles or Pelops
First Recorded Olympiad 776 BCE
Temples to Zeus and Hera
Eleven Treasuries (various poleis)
Olympia (North-Western Peloponnesus)
Olympia from the air
Olympia (Artist’s Reconstruction)
Olympiads
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Five days long: first day for sacrifices and religious
observances; fifth day for sacrifices and banquet
Preserved list of victors from 776 BCE to 217 CE
(Eusebius)
Running, jumping, wrestling, horse racing, chariot
racing, boxing, pentathlon, pankration
Statues of victorious athletes in Zeus’ temenos
Prize: Garland of Wild Olive
Epinician Odes of Pindar (Olympic, Pythian, Nemean,
Isthmian)
Olympia- Training Facility
Myron’s Diskobolos (“Discus Thrower”)
Roman Copy
Discussion Questions
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Consider the implications of the Panhellenic sanctuaries
for questions of power in the Greek polis. Compare and
contrast with the Bronze Age Minoan/Mycenaean worlds
In what ways would the sanctuaries at Delphi, Olympia,
and other Panhellenic sites have affected the world of the
Greek poleis?
Could we talk about this in terms of centrifugal and
centripedal forces for and against Panhellenism?