Lives of the Necromancers | Page 8

prediction of future events, is what is recorded
of oracles. Finding the insatiable curiosity of mankind as to what was
to happen hereafter, and the general desire they felt to be guided in
their conduct by an anticipation of things to come, the priests pretty
generally took advantage of this passion, to increase their emoluments
and offerings, and the more effectually to inspire the rest of their
species with veneration and a willing submission to their authority. The
oracle was delivered in a temple, or some sacred place; and in this
particular we plainly discover that mixture of nature and art, of genuine
enthusiasm and contriving craft, which is so frequently exemplified in
the character of man.
DELPHI.
The oracle of Apollo at Delphi is the most remarkable; and respecting it
we are furnished with the greatest body of particulars. The locality of
this oracle is said to have been occasioned by the following
circumstance. A goat-herd fed his flocks on the acclivity of mount
Parnassus. As the animals wandered here and there in pursuit of food,
they happened to approach a deep and long chasm which appeared in
the rock. From this chasm a vapour issued; and the goats had no sooner
inhaled a portion of the vapour, than they began to play and frisk about

with singular agility. The goat-herd, observing this, and curious to
discover the cause, held his head over the chasm; when, in a short time,
the fumes having ascended to his brain, he threw himself into a variety
of strange attitudes, and uttered words, which probably he did not
understand himself, but which were supposed to convey a prophetic
meaning.
This phenomenon was taken advantage of, and a temple to Apollo was
erected on the spot. The credulous many believed that here was
obviously a centre and focus of divine inspiration. On this mountain
Apollo was said to have slain the serpent Python. The apartment of the
oracle was immediately over the chasm from which the vapour issued.
A priestess delivered the responses, who was called Pythia, probably in
commemoration of the exploit which had been performed by Apollo.
She sat upon a tripod, or three-legged stool, perforated with holes, over
the seat of the vapours. After a time, her figure enlarged itself, her hair
stood on end, her complexion and features became altered, her heart
panted and her bosom swelled, and her voice grew more than human.
In this condition she uttered a number of wild and incoherent phrases,
which were supposed to be dictated by the God. The questions which
were offered by those who came to consult the oracle were then
proposed to her, and her answers taken down by the priest, whose
office was to arrange and methodize them, and put them into hexameter
verse, after which they were delivered to the votaries. The priestess
could only be consulted on one day in every month.
Great ingenuity and contrivance were no doubt required to uphold the
credit of the oracle; and no less boldness and self-collectedness on the
part of those by whom the machinery was conducted. Like the
conjurors of modern times, they took care to be extensively informed as
to all such matters respecting which the oracle was likely to be
consulted. They listened probably to the Pythia with a superstitious
reverence for the incoherent sentences she uttered. She, like them, spent
her life in being trained for the office to which she was devoted. All
that was rambling and inapplicable in her wild declamation they
consigned to oblivion. Whatever seemed to bear on the question
proposed they preserved. The persons by whom the responses were
digested into hexameter verse, had of course a commission attended
with great discretionary power. They, as Horace remarks on another

occasion, [2] divided what it was judicious to say, from what it was
prudent to omit, dwelt upon one thing, and slurred over and
accommodated another, just as would best suit the purpose they had in
hand. Beside this, for the most part they clothed the apparent meaning
of the oracle in obscurity, and often devised sentences of ambiguous
interpretation, that might suit with opposite issues, whichever might
happen to fall out. This was perfectly consistent with a high degree of
enthusiasm on the part of the priest. However confident he might be in
some things, he could not but of necessity feel that his prognostics were
surrounded with uncertainty. Whatever decisions of the oracle were
frustrated by the event, and we know that there were many of this sort,
were speedily forgotten; while those which succeeded, were conveyed
from shore to shore, and repeated by every echo. Nor is it surprising
that the transmitters of the sentences of the God should in time arrive at
an extraordinary degree of sagacity and skill. The