Pythiai and Inspired Divination in the Delphic Oracle: Can Cognitive Sciences Provide Us with an Access to “Dead Minds”?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i1.24Keywords:
cognition, Delphic oracle, Pyhtia, spirit possessionAbstract
The aim of this article is to deepen our knowledge of mantic procedures used at Delphi, especially with respect to the mental state of the Pythia, which was induced in the course of oracular sessions. The first section provides a short reconstruction of the Delphic oracular session based on the information gleaned from historical and (to lesser extent) archaeological sources. The second section aims for clarification of some contentious points, which are still the subject of intensive scholarly debates and controversies. They concern particularly questions about the authorship of pronounced oracles and the method by which the Pythia brought about her reputed mantic abilities. The third section raises a question about how and to what degree our knowledge about the history of the Delphic oracle and the Pythia’s behaviour in the course of oracular consultations is deepened by looking at it from the perspective of cognitive psychology. A cognitive perspective can, perhaps, give us useful material for possible comparisons based on analogically similar cases of spirit possession currently studied anthropologically, psychologically, and neurologically.
References
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Arnott, G. W. 1989. “Nechung: A Modern Parallel to the Delphic oracle?” Greece and Rome 36: 152–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500029727
Athanassiadi, P. 1989–1990. “The Fate of Oracles in Late Antiquity: Didyma and Delphi”. Deltion christianikes archaiologikes etaireias (n.s.) 15: 271–78.
Bonner, C. 1943. “The Technique of Exorcism”. Harvard Theological Review 36: 39–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000029072
Bouche-Leclerque, A. 1880. Histoire de la Divination dans l’Antiquite III. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
Bourguignon, E. (ed.). 1973. Religion, Altered State of Consciousness, and Social Change. Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press.
Bousquet, J. 1940. “H. W. Parke, The Delphic oracle”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 64: 226–29.
Bowden, H. 2003. “Oracles for Sale”. In Herodotus and His World, edited by Peter Derow and Robert Parker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 256–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253746.003.0015
—2005. Classical Athens and the Delphic oracle: Divination and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, E. 2007. The Mind Possessed: The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Brazilian Religious Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323351.001.0001
Compton, T. 1994. “The Herodotean Mantic Session at Delphi”. Rheinisches Museum 137: 217–23.
Courby, F. M. 1915. Fouilles de Delphes II.1. Topographie et Architecture: La Terasse du Temple. Paris: Fontemoing.
Crahay, R. 1956. La Litterature Oraculaire chez Herodote. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Crapanzano, V., and V. Garrison (eds). 1977. Case Studies in Spirit Possession. New York: Wiley.
Dempsey, T. 1918. The Delphic oracle, Its Early History, Influence and Fall. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Daux, G. 1949. “Un reglement cultuel d’Andros (Veme siecle avant J-C.)”. Hesperia 18: 58–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/146991
De Boer, J. Z., J. R. Hale and J. Chanton. 2001. “New Evidence for the Geological Origins of the Ancient Delphic oracle”. Geology 29: 707–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613 (2001)029<0707:NEFTGO>2.0.CO;2
Dodds, E. R. 1951. The Greeks and the Irrational. Los Angeles and Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Etiope, G. et al. 2006. “The Geological Links of the Ancient Delphic oracle (Greece): A Reappraisal of Natural Gas Occurrence and Origin”. Geology 34: 821–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G22824.1
Evans, J. A. S. 1982. “The Oracle of the ‘Wooden Wal’”. Classical Journal 78: 24–29.
Farnell, L. R. 1907. The Cults of the Greek States IV. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fehrle, E. 1905. Die Kultische Keuschheit im Altertum. Giessen: A. Topelmann.
Flaceliere, R. 1938. “Le fonctionnement de l’oracle de Delphes au temps de Plutarque”. In Etudes d’Archeologie Grecque: A Robert Werner, ed. Yves Beguinon. Gand: Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 69–107.
—1950. “Le Delire de la Pythie est-il une Legende?” Revue des etudes anciennes 52: 306–24.
—1965. Greek Oracles. London: Elek Books.
Flower, M. A. 2008. The Seer in Ancient Greece. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520252295.001.0001
Fontenrose, J. 1978. The Delphic oracle: Its Responses and Operations with a Catalogue of Responses. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Foster, J., and D. Lehoux. 2007. “The Delphic oracle and the Ethylene-Intoxication Hypothesis”. Clinical Toxicology 45: 85–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15563650601120800
Hale, J. R., et al. 2003. “Questioning the Delphic oracle”. Scientific American 289: 67–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0803-66
Holland, L. B. 1938. “The Mantic Mechanism at Delphi”. American Journal of Archaeology 37: 201–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/498438
Johnston, S. I. 2008. Ancient Greek Divination. Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley and Blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444302998
Kehoe, A. B., and D. H. Giletti. 1981. “Women’s Preponderance in Possession Cults: The Calcium-Deficiency Hypothesis Extended”. American Anthropologist 83: 549–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1981.83.3.02a00030
Klass, M. 2003. Mind Over Mind: The Anthropology and Psychology of Spirit Possession. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.
La Coste-Messeliere, P. de. 1925. “Inscriptions de Delphes”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 49: 61–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1925.2972
—1969. “Topographie Delphique”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 93: 730–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1969.4894
Latte, K. 1940. “The Coming of the Pythia”. Harvard Theological Review 33: 9–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000018642
Lehoux, D. 2007. “Drugs and the Delphic oracle”. Classical World 101: 41–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/clw.2007.0094
Lewis, I. M. 2003 [1971]. Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession. London and New York: Routledge.
Malkin, I. 1989. “Delphoi and the Founding of Social Order in Archaic Greece”. Metis 4: 129–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/metis.1989.933
Manetti, G. 1993. Theories of Signs in Classical Antiquity. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.
Maurizio, L. 1995. “Anthropology and Spirit Possession: A Reconsideration of the Pythia’s Role at Delphi”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 115: 69–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/631644
—1997. “Delphic oracle as Oral Performances: Authenticity and Historical Evidence”. Classical Antiquity 17: 308–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25011067
McLeod, W. E. 1961. “Oral Bards at Delphi”. Transactions of the American Philological Association 92: 317–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/283818
Mikalson, J. D. 2005. Ancient Greek Religion. Malden and Oxford: Blackwell.
Mischel, W., and F. Mischel. 1958. “Psychological Aspects of Spirit Possession”. American Anthropologist 60: 219–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1958.60.2.02a00040
Mussies, G. 1988. “Identification and Self-Identification of Gods in Classical and Hellenistic Times”. In Knowledge of God in the Graeco-Roman World, edited by Roelf van der Broek, Tjitze Baarda and Jaap Mansfeld. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1–18.
Morgan, C. 1990. Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century bc. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nebesky-Wojkovitz, R. de. 1956. Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities. Den Haag: Mouton.
Oohashi, T., et al. 2002. “Electroencephalographic Measurement of Possession Trance in the Field”. Clinical Neurophysiology 113: 435–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1388-2457(02)00002-0
Oppe, A. P. 1904. “The Chasm at Delphi”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 24: 214–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/624030
Oesterreich, Traugott K. 1930 [1921]. Possession: Demonical and Other Amon Primitive Races in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times. London: Kegan Paul.
Parke, H. W. 1943. “The Days for Consulting the Delphic oracle”. Classical Quarterly 37: 19–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800026215
—1967. The Oracles of Zeus: Dodona, Olympia, Ammon. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
—1985. The Oracles of Apollo in Asia Minor. London: Croom Helm.
Parke, H. W., and Donald E. W. Wormell. 1956a. The Delphic oracle I. The History. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
—1956b. The Delphic oracle. II. The Oracular Responses. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Parker, R. 1985. “Greek States and Greek Oracles”. In Crux. Essays in Greek History Presented to G. E. M. de St. Croix on his 75th Birthday, edited by Paul A. Cartledge and David F. Harvey. London: Duckworth, 298–326.
Piccardi, L. 2000. “Active Faulting at Delphi, Greece: Seismotectonic Remarks and a Hypothesis for the Geological Environment of a Myth”. Geology 28: 651–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(200028<651:AFADGS>2.0.CO;2
Piccardi, L., et al. 2008. “Scent of a Myth: Tectonic, Geochemistry and Geomythology at Delphi (Greece)”. Journal of the Geological Society 165: 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/0016-76492007-055
Pouilloux, J. 1952. “Promanties Collectives et Protocole Delphique”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 76: 484–513. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1952.2462
Pressel, E. 1973. “Umbanda in Sao Paulo: Religious Innovation in a Developing Society”. In Religion, Altered State of Consciousness, and Social Change, ed. Erika Burguignon. Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press, 264–318.
Price, S. R. F. 1985. “Delphi and Divination”. In Greek Religion and Society, edited by Patricia E. Easterling and John V. Muir. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 128–54.
Robertson, N. 1987. “The True Meaning of the ‘Wooden Wall’”. Classical Philology 82: 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/367018
Rohde, E. 1898 [1894]. Psyche: Seelencult und Unsterblichkeitglaube der Griechen II. Leipzig –Tubingen: Mohr [Paul Siebeck].
Roux, G. 1976. Delphes: Son Oracle et Ses Dieux. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Rosenberger, V. 2001. Griechische Orakel: Eine Kulturgeschichte. Stuttgart: Theiss.
Sechrist, D. 2003. “It’s a Gas: Has a Team of U.S. Scientists Solved the Mystery behind the Strange Powers of the Oracle at Delphi?” Current Science 88: 6–7.
Sissa, G. 1990. Greek Virginity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. 1987. “Myth as History: The Previous Owners of the Delphic oracle”. In Interpretations of Greek Mythology, ed. Jan Bremmer. London: Croom Helm, 215–41.
Spiller, H. A., J. R. Hale and J. Z. de Boer. 2002. “The Delphic oracle: A Multidisciplinary Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory”. Clinical Toxicology 40: 189–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/CLT-120004410
Swain, S. 1991. “Plutarch, Hadrian and Delphi”. Historia 40: 318–30.
Todd, O. J. 1939. “An Inelegant Greek Verse”. Classical Quarterly 33: 163–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800022357
Ward, C. A. 1989. “The Cross-Cultural Study of Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health”. In Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health, ed. Colleen A. Ward. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 15–35.
Whittaker, C. R. 1965. “The Delphic oracle: Belief and Behaviour in Ancient Greece and Africa”. Harvard Theological Review 57: 21–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000019040
Will, E. 1942. “Sur la Nature du Pneuma Delphique”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 66: 161–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1942.2643
—1997. “Recherches sur la cella du temple de Delphes”. In Oracles et Propheties dans l’Antiquite: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg 15-17 juin 1995, ed. Jean-Georges Heintz. Paris: De Boccard, 271–82.
Arnott, G. W. 1989. “Nechung: A Modern Parallel to the Delphic oracle?” Greece and Rome 36: 152–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500029727
Athanassiadi, P. 1989–1990. “The Fate of Oracles in Late Antiquity: Didyma and Delphi”. Deltion christianikes archaiologikes etaireias (n.s.) 15: 271–78.
Bonner, C. 1943. “The Technique of Exorcism”. Harvard Theological Review 36: 39–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000029072
Bouche-Leclerque, A. 1880. Histoire de la Divination dans l’Antiquite III. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
Bourguignon, E. (ed.). 1973. Religion, Altered State of Consciousness, and Social Change. Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press.
Bousquet, J. 1940. “H. W. Parke, The Delphic oracle”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 64: 226–29.
Bowden, H. 2003. “Oracles for Sale”. In Herodotus and His World, edited by Peter Derow and Robert Parker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 256–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253746.003.0015
—2005. Classical Athens and the Delphic oracle: Divination and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, E. 2007. The Mind Possessed: The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Brazilian Religious Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323351.001.0001
Compton, T. 1994. “The Herodotean Mantic Session at Delphi”. Rheinisches Museum 137: 217–23.
Courby, F. M. 1915. Fouilles de Delphes II.1. Topographie et Architecture: La Terasse du Temple. Paris: Fontemoing.
Crahay, R. 1956. La Litterature Oraculaire chez Herodote. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Crapanzano, V., and V. Garrison (eds). 1977. Case Studies in Spirit Possession. New York: Wiley.
Dempsey, T. 1918. The Delphic oracle, Its Early History, Influence and Fall. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Daux, G. 1949. “Un reglement cultuel d’Andros (Veme siecle avant J-C.)”. Hesperia 18: 58–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/146991
De Boer, J. Z., J. R. Hale and J. Chanton. 2001. “New Evidence for the Geological Origins of the Ancient Delphic oracle”. Geology 29: 707–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613 (2001)029<0707:NEFTGO>2.0.CO;2
Dodds, E. R. 1951. The Greeks and the Irrational. Los Angeles and Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Etiope, G. et al. 2006. “The Geological Links of the Ancient Delphic oracle (Greece): A Reappraisal of Natural Gas Occurrence and Origin”. Geology 34: 821–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G22824.1
Evans, J. A. S. 1982. “The Oracle of the ‘Wooden Wal’”. Classical Journal 78: 24–29.
Farnell, L. R. 1907. The Cults of the Greek States IV. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fehrle, E. 1905. Die Kultische Keuschheit im Altertum. Giessen: A. Topelmann.
Flaceliere, R. 1938. “Le fonctionnement de l’oracle de Delphes au temps de Plutarque”. In Etudes d’Archeologie Grecque: A Robert Werner, ed. Yves Beguinon. Gand: Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 69–107.
—1950. “Le Delire de la Pythie est-il une Legende?” Revue des etudes anciennes 52: 306–24.
—1965. Greek Oracles. London: Elek Books.
Flower, M. A. 2008. The Seer in Ancient Greece. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520252295.001.0001
Fontenrose, J. 1978. The Delphic oracle: Its Responses and Operations with a Catalogue of Responses. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Foster, J., and D. Lehoux. 2007. “The Delphic oracle and the Ethylene-Intoxication Hypothesis”. Clinical Toxicology 45: 85–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15563650601120800
Hale, J. R., et al. 2003. “Questioning the Delphic oracle”. Scientific American 289: 67–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0803-66
Holland, L. B. 1938. “The Mantic Mechanism at Delphi”. American Journal of Archaeology 37: 201–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/498438
Johnston, S. I. 2008. Ancient Greek Divination. Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley and Blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444302998
Kehoe, A. B., and D. H. Giletti. 1981. “Women’s Preponderance in Possession Cults: The Calcium-Deficiency Hypothesis Extended”. American Anthropologist 83: 549–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1981.83.3.02a00030
Klass, M. 2003. Mind Over Mind: The Anthropology and Psychology of Spirit Possession. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.
La Coste-Messeliere, P. de. 1925. “Inscriptions de Delphes”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 49: 61–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1925.2972
—1969. “Topographie Delphique”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 93: 730–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1969.4894
Latte, K. 1940. “The Coming of the Pythia”. Harvard Theological Review 33: 9–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000018642
Lehoux, D. 2007. “Drugs and the Delphic oracle”. Classical World 101: 41–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/clw.2007.0094
Lewis, I. M. 2003 [1971]. Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession. London and New York: Routledge.
Malkin, I. 1989. “Delphoi and the Founding of Social Order in Archaic Greece”. Metis 4: 129–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/metis.1989.933
Manetti, G. 1993. Theories of Signs in Classical Antiquity. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.
Maurizio, L. 1995. “Anthropology and Spirit Possession: A Reconsideration of the Pythia’s Role at Delphi”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 115: 69–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/631644
—1997. “Delphic oracle as Oral Performances: Authenticity and Historical Evidence”. Classical Antiquity 17: 308–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25011067
McLeod, W. E. 1961. “Oral Bards at Delphi”. Transactions of the American Philological Association 92: 317–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/283818
Mikalson, J. D. 2005. Ancient Greek Religion. Malden and Oxford: Blackwell.
Mischel, W., and F. Mischel. 1958. “Psychological Aspects of Spirit Possession”. American Anthropologist 60: 219–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1958.60.2.02a00040
Mussies, G. 1988. “Identification and Self-Identification of Gods in Classical and Hellenistic Times”. In Knowledge of God in the Graeco-Roman World, edited by Roelf van der Broek, Tjitze Baarda and Jaap Mansfeld. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1–18.
Morgan, C. 1990. Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century bc. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nebesky-Wojkovitz, R. de. 1956. Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities. Den Haag: Mouton.
Oohashi, T., et al. 2002. “Electroencephalographic Measurement of Possession Trance in the Field”. Clinical Neurophysiology 113: 435–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1388-2457(02)00002-0
Oppe, A. P. 1904. “The Chasm at Delphi”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 24: 214–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/624030
Oesterreich, Traugott K. 1930 [1921]. Possession: Demonical and Other Amon Primitive Races in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times. London: Kegan Paul.
Parke, H. W. 1943. “The Days for Consulting the Delphic oracle”. Classical Quarterly 37: 19–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800026215
—1967. The Oracles of Zeus: Dodona, Olympia, Ammon. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
—1985. The Oracles of Apollo in Asia Minor. London: Croom Helm.
Parke, H. W., and Donald E. W. Wormell. 1956a. The Delphic oracle I. The History. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
—1956b. The Delphic oracle. II. The Oracular Responses. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Parker, R. 1985. “Greek States and Greek Oracles”. In Crux. Essays in Greek History Presented to G. E. M. de St. Croix on his 75th Birthday, edited by Paul A. Cartledge and David F. Harvey. London: Duckworth, 298–326.
Piccardi, L. 2000. “Active Faulting at Delphi, Greece: Seismotectonic Remarks and a Hypothesis for the Geological Environment of a Myth”. Geology 28: 651–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(200028<651:AFADGS>2.0.CO;2
Piccardi, L., et al. 2008. “Scent of a Myth: Tectonic, Geochemistry and Geomythology at Delphi (Greece)”. Journal of the Geological Society 165: 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/0016-76492007-055
Pouilloux, J. 1952. “Promanties Collectives et Protocole Delphique”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 76: 484–513. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1952.2462
Pressel, E. 1973. “Umbanda in Sao Paulo: Religious Innovation in a Developing Society”. In Religion, Altered State of Consciousness, and Social Change, ed. Erika Burguignon. Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press, 264–318.
Price, S. R. F. 1985. “Delphi and Divination”. In Greek Religion and Society, edited by Patricia E. Easterling and John V. Muir. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 128–54.
Robertson, N. 1987. “The True Meaning of the ‘Wooden Wall’”. Classical Philology 82: 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/367018
Rohde, E. 1898 [1894]. Psyche: Seelencult und Unsterblichkeitglaube der Griechen II. Leipzig –Tubingen: Mohr [Paul Siebeck].
Roux, G. 1976. Delphes: Son Oracle et Ses Dieux. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Rosenberger, V. 2001. Griechische Orakel: Eine Kulturgeschichte. Stuttgart: Theiss.
Sechrist, D. 2003. “It’s a Gas: Has a Team of U.S. Scientists Solved the Mystery behind the Strange Powers of the Oracle at Delphi?” Current Science 88: 6–7.
Sissa, G. 1990. Greek Virginity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. 1987. “Myth as History: The Previous Owners of the Delphic oracle”. In Interpretations of Greek Mythology, ed. Jan Bremmer. London: Croom Helm, 215–41.
Spiller, H. A., J. R. Hale and J. Z. de Boer. 2002. “The Delphic oracle: A Multidisciplinary Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory”. Clinical Toxicology 40: 189–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/CLT-120004410
Swain, S. 1991. “Plutarch, Hadrian and Delphi”. Historia 40: 318–30.
Todd, O. J. 1939. “An Inelegant Greek Verse”. Classical Quarterly 33: 163–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800022357
Ward, C. A. 1989. “The Cross-Cultural Study of Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health”. In Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health, ed. Colleen A. Ward. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 15–35.
Whittaker, C. R. 1965. “The Delphic oracle: Belief and Behaviour in Ancient Greece and Africa”. Harvard Theological Review 57: 21–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0017816000019040
Will, E. 1942. “Sur la Nature du Pneuma Delphique”. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique 66: 161–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bch.1942.2643
Published
2014-01-23
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Articles
How to Cite
Chalupa, A. (2014). Pythiai and Inspired Divination in the Delphic Oracle: Can Cognitive Sciences Provide Us with an Access to “Dead Minds”?. Journal of Cognitive Historiography, 1(1), 24-51. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i1.24
