Pythia
Pythia (Ancient Greek: Πυθία) was the title of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in central Greece. She served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was sometimes historically glossed in English as the Pythoness.
Quotes
[edit]- Πάντα λίθον κίνει.
- Turn every stone.
- Response to Polycrates, as the best means of finding a treasure buried by Xerxes' general Mardonius on the field of Platæa (c. 479 BC)
- Recorded by Zenobius, Epitome from the proverbs of Tarrhaeus and Didymus, cent. 5, sec. 63, in Parœmiographi Græci, vol. 1 (Göttingen, 1839) p. 146. Translated and explicated by J. S. Udal, Notes and Queries, ser. 4, vol. 5, no. 123 (7 May 1870) p. 457. Compare: Πάντα κινῆσαι πέτρον. — "To leave no stone unturned." Euripides, Heraclidæ, l. 1002
- Ἔπατε τῷ βασιλε̃ι· χαμαὶ πέσε δαίδαλος αὐλά.
οὐκέτι Φοῖβος ἔχει καλύβαν, οὐ μάντιδα δάφνην,
οὐ παγὰν λαλέουσαν, ἀπέσβετο καὶ λάλον ὕδωρ.- Tell the emperor that the Daidalic hall has fallen. No longer does Phoebus have his chamber, nor mantic laurel, nor prophetic spring and the speaking water has been silenced.
- To Oribasius on behalf of Julian the Apostate (AD 362)
- Recorded in Passio Artemii, xcvi, 1284, 45–7 · Cedrenus, i, 532, 8–10 [p. 304a]. Translated by Timothy E. Gregory, "Julian and the Last Oracle at Delphi", GRBS, 24 (1983) pp. 355-66. Poetic translation by Sir William Marris in The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation (1938) p. 628, no. 627
External links
[edit]
Encyclopedic article on Pythia on Wikipedia- Encyclopedic article on List of oracular statements from Delphi on Wikipedia
