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#pythia – @theoi-crow on Tumblr
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A Crow for the Theoi

@theoi-crow / theoi-crow.tumblr.com

Nathan: He/Him, Ace, 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈, ENFP, Married to @delicatestar. Age: Millennial. Hellenic Polytheist.
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Anonymous asked:

any souce for the pythia being over fifty? i saw that websites claim that but they dont link to any initial source. p.s. i know late trad. pythias were older women, its the precise age that got me curios

Here's a link from Britannica that mentions her age.

I wrote an essay all about the Pythia a few years back for my Greek Religion class in college and through my research I learned there was a myth where the first Pythias were young virgins who kept getting kidnapped and SA'd so they made a rule in the temple of Delphi where only women over the age of 50 could be the Pythia in order to dissuade people from kidnapping her because to the ancient Greeks they were seen as undesirable (Aristophanes mentions this POV in Lysastrata: the women go on a sex strike and lock themselves away from the men and the men only have access to elderly women whom they didn't want).

I will look into my books to give you sources I used for my own essay but I try to stick to free sites online whenever I give sources on Tumblr in order to make the information both free and easy to access because the very frustrating truth is that most scholars keep credible information behind a paywall or you need to buy a book in order to access that information.

It's such BS how this information is only really accessible to people who have the economic means to pay for it but unfortunately Greco-Roman studies are jealously guarded by the "elite" who try to keep everyone else out of it by making it hard to access, especially for free and especially online.

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#ask nathan#greek gods#pythia#temple of delphi#oracle of delphi#temple of apollo
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aqua-regia009

Lux in Tenebris by Daniel Pawlowski

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theoi-crow

As an artist I know our art will mean different things to different people (especially when it's so creative like this) and I'm sorry if this was not the artist intended, or it offends but this art looks like a visual representation of how the Pythia in Delphi once worked.

An old woman whose mouth was used by the god of Prophecy and thus considered the mouthpiece of Apollo, whose soul was often intercepted by his spiritual crow as she carried the city of Delphi on her back.
#not my art#temple of delphi#Apollo#the pythia#pythia
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Friendly Reminder:
Oftentimes I bump into posts where people say "As the Pythia, Apollo says..." which is weird because the Pythia was never comprehensible. While I understand the modern appeal of wanting to be seen as the Pythia in the community, a lot of people forget the Pythia spoke in tongues and needed the priests of Apollo to translate what she was saying: (LINK)
Again, while I understand there are people who wish to be seen as "the voice of Apollo" let's not spread missinformation about how the ancient Greeks did it. Let's not forget that without the priests of Apollo translating, we would not understand what was being said.
Historic accuracy is very important and valuable!
GIF by raveyn-an-ort
#Apollo#temple of delphi#greek gods#pythia#the oracle#the Oracle of Delphi#the Pythia#delphi
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hermesia
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honorthegods

The Delphic Maxims

The Delphic Maxims are aphorisms believed to have been spoken by Apollo through the Pythia at Delphi in response to queries. 

The first three maxims were inscribed on the walls and/or columns* of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi as early as the 6th century BCE. It seems that the lettering was probably duplicated each time the temple was rebuilt (it was destroyed in the 4th century BCE, in the 1st century BCE, and again in the 1st century BCE) because Pliny and Plutarch describe the inscriptions as having been engraved in letters of gold. Ancient Greek writers were recording and interpreting the Maxims by the second half of the 6th century BCE.

*Ancient sources disagree on the location - the walls? the columns? the doors? the gate?

1.  Follow God 2.  Obey the law 3.  Worship the Gods 4.  Respect your parents 5.  Be overcome by justice 6.  Know what you have learned 7.  Perceive what you have heard 8.  Know yourself 9.  Intend to get married 10.  Know your opportunity 11.  Think as a mortal 12.  If you are a stranger, act like one 13.  Honor the hearth (or Hestia) 14.  Control yourself 15.  Help your friends 16.  Control anger 17.  Exercise prudence 18.  Honor providence 19.  Do not use an oath 20.  Love friendship 21.  Cling to discipline 22.  Pursue honor 23.  Long for wisdom 24.  Praise the good 25.  Find fault with no one 26.  Praise virtue 27.  Practice what is just 28.  Be kind to friends 29.  Watch out for your enemies 30.  Exercise nobility of character 31.  Shun evil 32.  Be impartial 33.  Guard what is yours 34.  Shun what belongs to others 35.  Listen to everyone 36.  Be (religiously) silent 37.  Do a favor for a friend 38.  Nothing to excess 39.  Use time sparingly 40.  Foresee the future 41.  Despise insolence 42.  Have respect for suppliants 43.  Be accommodating in everything 44.  Educate your children 45.  Give what you have 46.  Fear deceit 47.  Speak well of everyone 48.  Be a seeker of wisdom 49.  Choose what is holy 50.  Act when you know 51.  Shun murder 52.  Pray for things possible 53.  Consult the wise 54.  Test the character 55.  Give back what you have received 56.  Look down on no one 57.  Use your skill 58.  Do what you mean to do 59.  Honor a benefaction 60.  Be jealous of no one 61.  Be on your guard 62.  Praise hope 63.  Despise a slanderer 64.  Gain possessions justly 65.  Honor those who are good  66.  Know the judge 67.  Master wedding-feasts 68.  Recognize fortune 69.  Flee a pledge 70.  Speak plainly 71   Associate with your peers 72.  Govern your expenses 73.  Be happy with what you have 74.  Revere a sense of shame 75   Fulfill a favor 76.  Pray for happiness 77.  Be fond of fortune 78.  Observe what you have heard 79.  Work for what you can own 80.  Despise strife 81.  Detest disgrace 82 . Restrain the tongue 83.  Keep yourself from insolence 84.  Make just judgments 85.  Use what you have 86.  Judge incorruptibly 87.  Accuse only one who is present 88.  Tell when you know 89.  Eschew force 90.  Live without sorrow 91.  Live kindly among others 92.  Finish the race with confidence 93.  Deal kindly with everyone 94.  Do not curse your children 95.  Guide your spouse 96.  Benefit yourself 97.  Be courteous 98.  Give a timely response 99.  Struggle with glory 100.  Act without repenting 101.  Repent of your errors 102   Control the eye 103.  Give a timely counsel 104.  Act quickly 105.  Guard friendship 106.  Be grateful 107.  Pursue harmony 108.  Keep secret what should be secret 109.  Fear ruling 110.  Pursue what is profitable 111.  Accept due measure 112.  Do away with enmities 113.  Accept old age 114.  Do not boast in might 115.  Exercise (religious) silence 116.  Flee enmity 117.  Acquire wealth justly 118.  Do not abandon honor 119.  Despise evil 120.  Venture into danger prudently 121.  Do not tire of learning 122.  Do not stop to be thrifty 123.  Admire oracles 124.  Love whom you rear 125.  Do not oppose someone who is absent 126.  Respect the elderly 127.  Instruct the youngs 128.  Do not put your trust in wealth 129.  Respect yourself 130.  Do not begin to be insolent 131.  Crown your ancestors 132.  Die for your country 133.  Do not be discontented by life 134.  Do not ridicule the dead 135.  Share the load of the unfortunate 136.  Gratify without harming 137.  Grieve for no one 138.  Beget from noble routes 139.  Make promises to no one 140.  Do not wrong the dead 141.  Be well off as a mortal 142.  Do not trust fortune 143.  As a child be well-behaved 144.  As a youth, be self-disciplined 145.  As of middle-age be just 146.  As of old -age, be sensible 147.  On reaching the end, be without sorrow

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theoi-crow
These maxims were written during specific ancient times with political ties to those times, some of their meanings have changed:
for example: "9) Intend to get married" no longer means now what it meant back then.
Back then getting married was something needed in order for a man to legally participate in the politics around him.
What this maxim is actually saying is: "It is your civic duty to participate in the politics around you by voting/protesting-boycotting/doing everything in your power (and limits) to try and better the political environment around you."
That's why the story of Hippolytus is less about him being asexual and more about him refusing to grow up and participate in his civic duty even though he was not only the son of a king but refusing to prepare to take over when he eventually inherited the title as king from his aging father.

It is just asking you to be a good citizen and participate in politics, it no longer means you have to literally get married.

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#delphic maxims#apollo#long post#oracle of delphi#delphi#pythia
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chaoticworshipper
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lavender-and-cedarwood

“The paradox of the oracle (Delphi) was that because it forced people to interpret the vagueness of those utterances, the ‘ball’ was implicitly returned right back to those who sought its guidance. That way, rather than having the god (Apollo) clearly telling them what to do, people were indirectly lead to use their own intellectual faculties to come up with the answers best fitted for their particular challenges or problems.” - Know Thyself: Western Identity From Classical Greece to the Renaissance

So maybe Apollo wants us to use our noodles.

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piristephes

What an interesting approach to the Delphic Maxim "Know Thyself".

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theoi-crow
"The oracle neither conceals nor reveals but indicates." —Heraclitus in Plutarch's Moralia

Today, the term "Know Thyself" is a taken to mean a "deep and profound passage that makes one really look within themselves to find the truth..."

but in ancient times it was literally a WARNING:

You needed to know thyself in order to accurately interpret your given prophecy.
While researching and writing a paper on the Oracle of Delphi for my Greek religion class, I realized that receiving a prophecy was a small part of the visit to see the Oracle of Delphi in order to receive a prophecy given by Apollo but the BIGGEST part of getting said prophecy was: going back home to have a BIG debate with your polis in order to decipher WHAT THE PROPHECY MEANT.
Misinterpretation was literally the difference between life and death.
So to Know Thyself was to have the mental tools to accurately decipher what The Oracle meant.
GIF by zeph-of-the-crossroads
#apollo#oracle of delphi#pythia#temple of delphi#delphic apollo
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