Oracle Of Delphi

Freedom in Greece: The rise and Fall of Delphi
Delphi was one of the few institutions of the Greek world considered an authority throughout the Greek polis. A temple dedicated to Apollo, a god of light, truth, and divination. Its location was near a Mt. Parnassus and had a female priestess who answered the questions of the petitioner. The Oracle of Delphi being in a unique position was regarded as an arbiter for the Greeks it assisted in decisions such as war, colonization, and advice. How Delphi became a power comes from its connection to mythology as a holy site and connection to the mentality of the Greeks. The other factors that contributed to the rise come from its distinctive ceremony when making predicting. The main function of the oracle’s
The Oracle of Delphi was considered the most trustworthy of the Oracles throughout Greece. Delphi was home to another seer called the Delphi Sybil showing that prediction had a strong foundation in the Greek imagination. Looking at some of the popular and complete works in Greek mythology, divine predictors show the fear of the future and specifically of the future generation. A common prediction was that a child or grandchild would cause the death of the one asking for the prediction. In mythology, Acrisius came to fear Perseus because the Oracle’s prediction of killing him. This same situation was seen in Oedipus and the story provided by Herodotus of Cyrus. Grandfathers tried to do away with an infant that would cause their death, left to be exposed to the wild but ended up being taken care of by a farmer family. The story of creation comes from this idea of the new generation replacing the older generation with Cronus killing Uranus, and Zeus imprisoning his father and the titans. The true apex of this idea of the next generation replacing the old one can be seen in the story of Zeus and Athena. Zeus believed that if Metis gave birth a son, his son would replace him, so he ate her. He conceives her from his mind fully grown. Mythology preserves the knowledge and values maintained by a culture. A fear
Thucydides rather than Herodotus was a man that believed in a more systematic approach toward history. Therefore, Thucydides gives a drastic view on history in which he gives a more scientific view toward history. The best example of this comes from his idea that the plague of Athens came from a mix of old men talking and Oracle’s prediction. This was especially seen with the reason that the plague was seen to have originated from a prophecy. In the Peloponnesian war, “… the old men claiming that long ago it was recited, ‘A Dorian war will come, and with it plague.’… men shaped their memories in accordance with what they experienced.” In this passage, Thucydides talked about the manner in which the Athenians came to think that the word of the old man was to be associated with what an Oracle said about Sparta, which said that if they went to war they would win. Thucydides presents the manner in which rather than the prophecy being the direct event of what occurred, it was in the Athenians that created this connection. Thucydides therefore shows the objective mind that rather than accept the word of an Oracle, he presents the events in a human level. Rather than accept that the Oracle’s words as the truth, he found that it was a mix of old ideas. This mentality toward divination therefore presents the main idea that a perceived