Pythia

For other uses, see Pythia (disambiguation).
The Pythia (/pi/,[1] Ancient Greek:
turies BC) treat the process as common knowledge with
no need to explain. Those who discussed the oracle in
any detail are from 1st century BC to 4th century AD and
give conicting stories.[5] One of the main stories claimed
that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state in-
duced by vapours rising from a chasm in the rock, and
that she spoke gibberish which priests interpreted as the
enigmatic prophecies and turned them into poetic dactylic
hexameters preserved in Greek literature.[6] This idea,
however, has been challenged by scholars such as Joseph
Fontenrose and Lisa Maurizio, who argue that the ancient
sources uniformly represent the Pythia speaking intelligi-
bly, and giving prophecies in her own voice.[7] Herodotus,
writing in the fth century BC describes the Pythia speak-
ing in dactylic hexameters.[8][9]

Lycurgus Consulting the Pythia (1835/1845), as imagined by 1 Origins of the Oracle

Eugne Delacroix.
The Delphic oracle may have been present in some form
[pyti.a]), was the name of the High Priestess of the in Late Mycenaean times[10] from 1400 BC, and there is
Temple of Apollo at Delphi who also served as the ora- evidence that Apollo took over the shrine with the arrival
cle, commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi. of priests from Delos in the 8th century, from an earlier
The name Pythia is derived from Pytho, which in myth dedication to Gaia.[11]
was the original name of Delphi. In etymology the Greeks The 8th-century reformulation of the Oracle at Delphi as
derived this place name from the verb, (pthein) a shrine to Apollo seems associated with the rise in im-
to rot, which refers to the sickly sweet smell of the portance of the city of Corinth and the importance of sites
decomposition of the body of the monstrous Python af- in the Corinthian Gulf.[12]
ter she was slain by Apollo.[2] Pythia was the House of The earliest account of the origin of the Delphic oracle is
Snakes.
provided in the Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo, which
The Pythia was established at the latest in the 8th cen- recent scholarship dates within a narrow range, c. 580
tury BC,[3] and was widely credited for her prophecies 570 BC.[13] It describes in detail how Apollo chose his
inspired by being lled by the spirit of the god (or rst priests, whom he selected in their swift ship"; they
enthusiasmos), in this case Apollo. The Pythian priest- were "Cretans from Minos city of Knossos who were
ess emerged pre-eminent by the end of 7th century BC voyaging to sandy Pylos. But Apollo, who had Delphin-
and would continue to be consulted until the 4th cen- ios as one of his cult epithets,[14] leapt into the ship in the
tury AD.[4] During this period the Delphic Oracle was form of a dolphin (delphys, gen. delphinos). Dolphin-
the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Apollo revealed himself to the terried Cretans, and bade
Greeks, and she was without doubt the most powerful them follow him up to the place where you will have
woman of the classical world. The oracle is one of rich oerings. The Cretans danced in time and fol-
the best-documented religious institutions of the classi- lowed, singing I Paion, like the paeans of the Cretans in
cal Greeks. Authors who mention the oracle include whose breasts the divine Muse has placed honey-voiced
Aeschylus, Aristotle, Clement of Alexandria, Diodorus, singing.[14] Paean seems to have been the name by
Diogenes, Euripides, Herodotus, Julian, Justin, Livy, which Apollo was known in Mycenaean times.
Lucan, Nepos, Ovid, Pausanias, Pindar, Plato, Plutarch, G.L. Huxley observes, If the hymn to (Delphic) Apollo
Sophocles, Strabo, Thucydides and Xenophon. conveys a historical message, it is above all that there were
Nevertheless, details of how the Pythia operated are miss- once Cretan priests at Delphi.[15] Robin Lane Fox notes
ing as authors from the classical period (6th to 4th cen- that Cretan bronzes are found at Delphi from the eighth

1
2 2 ORGANIZATION OF THE ORACLE

prophecy, Apollo, allegedly seized the temple and ex-

pelled the twin guardian serpents of Gaia, whose bodies
he wrapped around the caduceus. Later myths stated that
Phoebe or Themis had given the site to Apollo, ratio-
nalizing its seizure by priests of the new god, but presum-
ably, having to retain the priestesses of the original oracle
because of the long tradition. Apparently Poseidon was
mollied by the gift of a new site in Troizen.
Diodorus also explained how, initially, the Pythia was an
appropriately clad young virgin, for great emphasis was
placed on the Oracles chastity and purity to be reserved
for union with the god Apollo.[21] But he reports one story
as follows:[22]

Echecrates the Thessalian, having arrived

at the shrine and beheld the virgin who uttered
the oracle, became enamoured of her because
of her beauty, carried her away and violated
her; and that the Delphians because of this de-
plorable occurrence passed a law that in the fu-
ture a virgin should no longer prophesy but that
an elderly woman of fty would declare the Or-
acles and that she would be dressed in the cos-
tume of a virgin, as a sort of reminder of the
The omphalos in museum of Delphi prophetess of olden times.

The scholar Martin Litcheld West writes that the Pythia

century onwards, and Cretan sculptures are dedicated as shows many traits of shamanistic practices, likely inher-
late as ca 620600 BC: ""Dedications at the site cannot ited or inuenced from Central Asian practices, although
establish the identity of its priesthood, he observes, but there is no evidence of any Central Asian association at
for once we have an explicit text to set beside the archae- this time. He cites the Pythia sitting in a cauldron on a
ological evidence.[16] An early visitor to these dells of tripod, while making her prophecies in an ecstatic trance
Parnassus, at the end of the eighth century, was Hesiod, state, like shamans, and her unintelligible utterings.[23]
who was shown the omphalos. The tripod was perforated with holes; and as she inhaled
There are also many later stories of the origins of the Del- the vapors, her gure would seem to enlarge, her hair
phic Oracle. One late explanation, which is rst related stood on end, her complexion changed, her heart panted,
by the 1st century BC writer, Diodorus Siculus, tells of her bosom swelled and her voice became seemingly more
[24]
a goat herder named Coretas, who noticed one day that than human. Examining the records, it has been sug-
one of his goats, who fell into a crack in the earth, was be- gested that the seizures associated with oracular utter-
having strangely. On entering the chasm, he found him- ances was an exhausting process and may have shortened
self lled with a divine presence and could see outside the life of the woman chosen to be the oracle.
of the present into the past and the future. Excited by
his discovery he shared it with nearby villagers. Many
started visiting the site to experience the convulsions and 2 Organization of the Oracle
inspirational trances, though some were said to disappear
into the cleft due to their frenzied state.[17] A shrine was
2.1 The priestess
erected at the site, where people began worshiping in the
late Bronze Age, by 1600 BC. After the deaths of a num- Since the rst operation of the oracle of Delphi Temple,
ber of men, the villagers chose a single young woman it was believed that the god lived within a laurel (his holy
as the liaison for the divine inspirations. Eventually she plant) and gave oracles for the future with the rustling
spoke on behalf of gods.[18] of the leaves. It was also said that the art of divination
According to earlier myths,[19] the oce of the oracle was had been taught to the god by the three winged sisters
initially possessed by the goddesses Themis and Phoebe, of Parnassus, the Thriae, at the time when Apollo was
and the site was initially sacred to Gaia. Subsequently, grazing his cattle there. The Thriae used to have a Kliro-
it was believed to be sacred to Poseidon, the Earth- manteion (oracle by lot) in that area in the past and it is
shaker god of earthquakes. During the Greek Dark Age, possible that such was the rst oracle of Delphi, i.e. us-
from the 11th to the 9th century BC,[20] a new god of ing the lot (throwing lots in a container and pulling a lot,
2.2 Other ociants 3

been a woman chosen from an inuential family, well ed-

ucated in geography, politics, history, philosophy, and the
arts. During later periods, however, uneducated peas-
ant women were chosen for the role, which may explain
why the poetic pentameter or hexameter prophecies of
the early period, later were made only in prose. Often the
priestesss answers to questions would be put into hexam-
eter by a priest. [29] The archaeologist John Hale reports
that:

the Pythia was (on occasion) a noble

of aristocratic family, sometimes a peasant,
sometimes rich, sometimes poor, sometimes
old, sometimes young, sometimes a very let-
tered and educated woman to whom some-
body like the high priest and the philosopher
Plutarch would dedicate essays, other times
who could not write her own name. So it seems
to have been aptitude rather than any ascribed
status that made these women eligible to be
Pythias and speak for the god.[30]

The job of a priestess, especially the Pythia, was a re-

spectable career for Greek women. Priestesses enjoyed
many liberties and rewards for their social position, such
as freedom from taxation, the right to own property and
attend public events, a salary and housing provided by the
Paestan red-gure bell-krater depicting the Delphic oracle sitting state, a wide range of duties depending on their aliation,
atop her tripod, circa 330 B.C. and often gold crowns.[31]
During the main period of the oracles popularity, as
many as three women served as Pythia, another vestige
the color and shape of which were of particular impor- of the triad, with two taking turns in giving prophecy and
tance). Three oracles had successively operated in Del- another kept in reserve.[32] Only one day of the month
phi the chthonion using egkoimisi (procedure that in- could the priestess be consulted.[29]
volved sleeping in the Holy place, so as to see a reveal- [33]
ing dream), the Kliromanteion and nally the Apollonian, Plutarch said that the Pythias life was shortened
with the laurel. But ever since the introduction of the through the service of Apollo. The sessions were said
cult of Dionysus at Delphi, the god that brought his fans to be exhausting. At the end of each period the Pythia
into ecstasy and madness, the Delphic god gave oracles would be like a runner after a race or a dancer after an
through Pythia, who also fell into a trance under the in- ecstatic dance, which may have had a physical eect on
uence of vapors and fumes coming from the opening, the health of the Pythia.
the inner sanctum of the Oracle. Pythia sat on top of a
tall gilded tripod that stood above the opening. In the
2.2 Other ociants
old days, Pythia was a virgin, young girl, but ever since
Echecrates from Thessaly fell in love, kidnapped and vi- Several other ociants served the oracle in addition to
olated a young and beautiful Pythia, a woman older than the Pythia.[34] After 200 BC at any given time there were
fty years old was chosen, but still a virgin who dressed two priests of Apollo, who were in charge of the entire
and wore jewelry to resemble a young maiden girl. Ac- sanctuary; Plutarch, who served as a priest during the
cording to tradition, Phemonoe was the rst Pythia.[25][26] late rst century and early second century CE, gives us
Though little is known of how the priestess was cho- the most information about the organization of the ora-
sen, the Pythia was probably selected, at the death of cle at that time. Before 200 BC, while the temple was
her predecessor, from amongst a guild of priestesses of dedicated to Apollo, there was probably only one priest
the temple. These women were all natives of Delphi and of Apollo. Priests were chosen from among the main cit-
were required to have had a sober life and be of good izens of Delphi, and were appointed for life. In addition
character.[27][28] Although some were married, upon as- to overseeing the oracle, priests would also conduct sac-
suming their role as the Pythia, the priestesses ceased all rices at other festivals of Apollo, and had charge of the
family responsibilities, marital relations, and individual Pythian games. Earlier arrangements, before the temple
identity. In the heyday of the oracle, the Pythia may have became dedicated to Apollo, are not documented.
4 2 ORGANIZATION OF THE ORACLE

The other ociants associated with the oracle are less priest Ion dancing on the highest point of Mount Parnas-
well known. These are the hosioi ("", holy ones) sus, going about his duties within the temple, and sprin-
and the prophtai ("", singular prophts). kling the temple oor with holy water. The purication
Prophts is the origin of the English word prophet, ceremonies always were performed on the seventh day of
but a better translation of the Greek word might be one the month, which was sacred to and associated with the
who speaks on behalf of another person. The prophetai god Apollo.[38] Then escorted by the Hosioi, an aristo-
are referred to in literary sources, but their function is cratic council of ve, with a crowd of oracular servants,
unclear; it has been suggested that they interpreted the they would arrive at the temple. Consultants, carrying
Pythias prophecies, or even reformatted her utterances laurel branches sacred to Apollo, approached the tem-
into verse, but it has also been argued that the term ple along the winding upward course of the Sacred Way,
prophts is a generic reference to any cult ocials of bringing a young goat kid for sacrice in the forecourt of
the sanctuary, including the Pythia.[35] There were ve the temple, and a monetary fee.
hosioi, whose responsibilities are unknown, but may have
Carved into the entrance of the temple were two phrases,
been involved in some manner with the operation of the which seem to have played an important part in the later
oracle.
temple ritual: (gnthi seautn = know
thyself) and (mdn gan = nothing in ex-
cess), and an enigmatic E. According to Plutarchs es-
2.3 Oracular procedure say on the meaning of the E at Delphithe only lit-
erary source for the inscription, there have been various
In the traditions associated with Apollo, the oracle only
interpretations of this letter.[39] It has been interpreted as
gave prophecies during the nine warmest months of each
the rst letter of ' (egga pra d'ata) =
year. During winter months, Apollo was said to have de-
make a pledge and mischief is nigh,[40] In ancient times,
serted his temple, his place being taken by his divine half-
the origin of these phrases was attributed to one or more
brother Dionysus, whose tomb was also within the tem-
of the Seven Sages of Greece.[41]
ple. It is not known whether the Oracle participated with
the Dionysian rites of the Maenads or Thyades in the Ko- Pythia would then remove her purple veil. She would
rykion cave on Mount Parnassos, although Plutarch[36] wear a short plain white dress. At the temple re to
informs us that his friend Clea was both a Priestess to Hestia, a live goat kid would be set in front of the Al-
Apollo and to the secret rites of Dionysus. The male tar and sprinkled with water. If the kid trembled from
priests seem to have had their own ceremonies to the dy- the hooves upward it was considered a good omen for
ing and resurrecting god. Apollo was said to return at the the oracle, but if it didn't, the enquirer was considered
beginning of spring, on the 7th day of the month of By- to have been rejected by the god and the consultation
sios, his birthday. This would reiterate the absences of was terminated.[42] The goat was then slaughtered and
the great goddess Demeter in winter also, which would upon sacrice, the animals organs, particularly its liver,
have been a part of the earliest traditions. were examined to ensure the signs were favourable, and
then burned outside on the altar of Chios. The rising
Once a month, thereafter, the oracle would undergo pu-
smoke was a signal that the oracle was open. The Ora-
rication rites, including fasting, to ceremonially prepare
cle then descended into the adyton (Greek for inacces-
the Pythia for communications with the divine. On the
sible) and mounted her tripod seat, holding laurel leaves
seventh day of each month, she would be led by two at-
and a dish of Kassotis spring water into which she gazed.
tended oracular priests, with her face veiled in purple.[37]
Nearby was the omphalos (Greek for navel), which was
A priest would then declaim:
anked by two solid gold eagles representing the author-
ity of Zeus, and the cleft from which emerged the sacred
Servant of the Delphian Apollo pneuma.
Go to the Castallian Spring Petitioners drew lots to determine the order of admission,
Wash in its silvery eddies, but representatives of a city-state or those who brought
And return cleansed to the temple. larger donations to Apollo were secured a higher place in
Guard your lips from oence line. Each person approaching the oracle was accompa-
nied with a proxenos specic to the state of the petitioner,
To those who ask for oracles.
whose job was to identify the citizen of their polis. This
Let the Gods answer come service too was paid for.
Pure from all private fault.
Plutarch describes the events of one session in which
the omens were ill-favored, but the Oracle was con-
The Pythia would then bathe naked in the Castalian sulted nonetheless. The priests proceeded to receive the
Spring then would drink the holier waters of the Cassotis, prophecy, but the result was a hysterical uncontrollable
which owed closer to the temple, where a naiad possess- reaction from the priestess that resulted in her death a few
ing magical powers was said to live. Euripides described days later.
this ritual purication ceremony, starting rst with the

At times when the Pythia was not available, consultants
could obtain guidance by asking simple Yes-or-No ques-
tions to the priests. A response was returned through the
tossing of colored beans, one color designating yes, an-
other no. Little else is known of this practice.[43]
Between 535 and 615 of the Oracles (statements) of Del-
phi are known to have survived since classical times, of
which over half are said to be accurate historically (see
the article Famous Oracular Statements from Delphi for
some examples).[44]
Cicero noted no expedition was undertaken, no colony
sent out, and no aair of any distinguished individuals
went on without the sanction of the oracle. The early fa-
thers of the Christian church could think of no explana-
tion for the oracles but that demons were allowed to assist
them to spread idolatry; so that the need for a savior would
be more evident. [45]
2.4 The experience of supplicants
View of Delphi with Sacricial Procession by Claude Lorrain.
In antiquity, the people who went to the Oracle to ask for
advice were known as consultants, literally, those who
seek counsel..[46] It would appear that the supplicant to
the oracle would undergo a four-stage process, typical of Modern photograph of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Del-
phi
shamanic journeys.
Step 1: Journey to Delphi Supplicants were
motivated by some need to undertake the long and
sometimes arduous journey to come to Delphi in or-
der to consult the oracle. This journey was moti-
vated by an awareness of the existence of the oracle,
the growing motivation on the part of the individual
or group to undertake the journey, and the gathering
of information about the oracle as providing answers
to important questions.
Step 2: Preparation of the Supplicant Suppli-
cants were interviewed in preparation of their pre-
sentation to the Oracle, by the priests in attendance.
The genuine cases were sorted and the supplicant
had to go through rituals involving the framing of
5
their questions, the presentation of gifts to the Or-
acle and a procession along the Sacred Way carry-
ing laurel leaves to visit the temple, symbolic of the
journey they had made.
Step 3: Visit to the Oracle The supplicant would
then be led into the temple to visit the adyton, put
his question to the Pythia, receive his answer and
depart. The degree of preparation already under-
gone would mean that the supplicant was already in
a very aroused and meditative state, similar to the
shamanic journey elaborated on in the article.
Step 4: Return Home Oracles were meant to
give advice to shape future action, that was meant
to be implemented by the supplicant, or by those
that had sponsored the supplicant to visit the Ora-
cle. The validity of the Oracular utterance was con-
rmed by the consequences of the application of the
oracle to the lives of those people who sought Orac-
ular guidance.[47]
3 Temple of Apollo
The ruins of the Temple of Delphi visible today date from
the 4th century BC, and are of a peripteral Doric build-
ing. It was erected on the remains of an earlier temple,
dated to the 6th century BC which itself was erected on
the site of a 7th-century BC construction attributed to the
architects Trophonios and Agamedes.[48]
The 6th-century BC temple was named the Temple
of Alcmonidae in tribute to the Athenian family who
funded its reconstruction following a re, which had de-
stroyed the original structure. The new building was a
Doric hexastyle temple of 6 by 15 columns. This tem-
ple was destroyed in 375 BC by an earthquake. The
pediment sculptures are a tribute to Praxias and Andros-
thenes of Athens. Of a similar proportion to the second
temple it retained the 6 by 15 column pattern around the
6 4 SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS

stylobate.[48] Inside was the adyton, the centre of the Del-

phic oracle and seat of Pythia. The temple had the state-
ment "Know thyself", one of the Delphic maxims, carved
into it (and some modern Greek writers say the rest were
carved into it), and the maxims were attributed to Apollo
and given through the oracle and/or the Seven Sages of
Greece (know thyself perhaps also being attributed to
other famous philosophers). The monument was partly
restored during 1938(?)1300.
The temple survived until AD 390, when the Roman em-
peror Theodosius I silenced the oracle by destroying the
temple and most of the statues and works of art to remove
all traces of Paganism.[49]

4 Scientic explanations

4.1 Fumes and vapors

There have been many attempts to nd a scientic ex-

planation for the Pythias inspiration. However, most
commonly,[50] these refer to an observation made by
Plutarch, who presided as high priest at Delphi for sev-
eral years, who stated that her oracular powers appeared
to be associated with vapors from the Kerna spring waters
that owed under the temple. It has often been suggested
that these vapors may have been hallucinogenic gases.
Recent geological investigations have shown that gas
emissions from a geologic chasm in the earth could have
inspired the Delphic Oracle to connect with the divine.
Some researchers suggest the possibility that ethylene
gas caused the Pythias state of inspiration. Traces of
ethylene have been found in the waters of the Castal-
lian spring, which is now largely diverted for the town
water supply of the town of modern Delphi. However, Priestess of Delphi (1891) by John Collier, showing the Pythia
Lehoux argues[51] that ethylene is impossible and ben- sitting on a tripod with vapor rising from a crack in the earth
zene is crucially underdetermined. Others argue instead beneath her
that methane might have been the gas emitted from the
chasm, or CO2 and H2 S, arguing that the chasm itself
might have been a seismic ground rupture.[52][53] the alleged spirit and chasm of Delphi, that have been the
subject of intense debate and interdisciplinary research
An alternative theory based on review of contemporary for the last hundred years.[54]
toxicological literature indicates that it is oleander that
causes symptoms similar to those of the Pythia. Pythia
used oleander as a complement during the oracular pro-
cedure, chewing its leaves and inhaling their smoke. The
4.2 Excavations
toxic substances of oleander resulted in symptoms sim-
ilar to those of epilepsy, the sacred disease, which Beginning during 1892, a team of French archaeologists
amounted to the possession of the Pythia by the spirit of directed by Thophile Homolle of the Collge de France
Apollo, an event that made the Pythia his spokesperson, excavated the site at Delphi. Contrary to ancient litera-
and subsequently, his prophetess. The oleander fumes ture, they found no ssure and no possible means for the
(the spirit of Apollo) could have originated in a brazier production of fumes.
located in an underground chamber (the antron) and have Adolphe Paul Opp published an inuential article[55] in
escaped through an opening (the chasm) in the temples 1904, which made three crucial claims: No chasm or va-
oor. This hypothesis perfectly ts the ndings of the por ever existed; no natural gas could create prophetic
archaeological excavations that revealed an underground visions; and the recorded incidents of a priestess under-
space under the temple. This explanation sheds light on going violent and often deadly reactions was inconsis-
4.3 Illusions in the adyton 7

tent with the more customary reports. Opp explained the rock.[62]
away all the ancient testimony as being reports of gullible
travelers fooled by wily local guides who, Opp believed,
invented the details of a chasm and a vapor in the rst 4.3 Illusions in the adyton
place.[56]
It has been disputed as to how the adyton was organized,
In accordance with this denitive statement, such scholars
but it appears clear that this temple was unlike any other
as Frederick Poulson, E.R. Dodds, Joseph Fontenrose,
in ancient Greece. The small chamber was located below
and Saul Levin all stated that there were no vapors and
the general oor of the temple and oset to one side, per-
no chasm. For the decades to follow, scientists and
haps constructed specically over the crossing faults.[63]
scholars believed the ancient descriptions of a sacred,
The intimate chamber allowed the escaping vapors to be
inspiring pneuma to be fallacious. During 1950, the
contained in quarters close enough to provoke intoxicat-
French hellenist Pierre Amandry, who had worked at
ing eects. Plutarch reports that the temple was lled
Delphi and later directed the French excavations there,
with a sweet smell when the deity was present:
concurred with Opp's pronouncements, claiming that
gaseous emissions were not even possible in a volcanic
zone such as Delphi. Neither Opp nor Amandry were Not often nor regularly, but occasionally
geologists, though, and no geologists had been involved and fortuitously, the room in which they seat
in the debate up to that point.[55] the gods consultants is lled with a fragrance
and breeze, as if the adyton were sending forth
Subsequent re-examination of the French excavations,
the essences of the sweetest and most expen-
however, has shown that this consensus may have been
sive perfumes from a spring (Plutarch Moralia
mistaken. Broad (2007) demonstrates that a French pho-
437c).
tograph of the excavated interior of the temple clearly
depicts a springlike pool as well as a number of small
vertical ssures, indicating numerous pathways by which De Boers research caused him to speculate ethylene as
vapors could enter the base of the temple.[57] a gas known to possess this sweet odor.[64] Toxicolo-
gist Henry R. Spiller specied that inhalation of even a
During the 1980s, the interdisciplinary team of geologist
small amount of ethylene can cause both benign trances
Jelle Zeilinga de Boer,[58] archaeologist John R. Hale,[59]
and euphoric psychedelic experiences. Other eects in-
forensic chemist Jerey P. Chanton,[60] and toxicologist
clude physical detachment, loss of inhibitions, the reliev-
Henry R. Spiller[61] investigated the site at Delphi using
ing of pain, and rapidly changing moods without dulling
this photograph and other sources as evidence, as part of
[56] consciousness. He also noted that excessive doses can
a United Nations survey of all active faults in Greece.
cause confusion, agitation, delirium, and loss of muscle
Jelle Zeilinga de Boer saw evidence of a fault line in Del- coordination.[65]
phi that lay under the ruined temple. During several ex-
Anesthesiologist Isabella Herb found that a dose of 20%
peditions, they discovered two major fault lines, one ly-
ethylene gas administered to a subject was a threshold. A
ing north-south, the Kerna fault, and the other lying east-
dosage higher than 20% caused unconsciousness. With
west, the Delphic fault, which parallels the shore of the
less than 20% a trance was induced where the subject
Corinthian Gulf. The rift of the Gulf of Corinth is one of
could sit up, hear questions and answer them logically,
the most geologically active sites on Earth; shifts there
although the tone of their voice might be altered, their
impose immense strains on nearby fault lines, such as
speech pattern could be changed, and they may have lost
those below Delphi. The two faults cross one another,
some awareness of their hands and feet (with some it was
and they intersect right below where the adyton was prob-
possible to have poked a pin or pricked them with a knife
ably located. (The actual, original oracle chamber had
and they would not feel it). When patients were removed
been destroyed by the moving faults, but there is strong
from the area where the gas accumulated they had no rec-
structural evidence that indicates where it was most likely
ollection of what had happened, or what they had said.
located.)[62]
With a dosage of more than 20% the patient lost control
They also found evidence for underground passages and over the movement of their limbs and may thrash wildly,
chambers, and drains for spring water. Additionally, they groaning in strange voices, losing balance and frequently
discovered at the site formations of travertine, a form of repeatedly falling. All of these symptoms match the ex-
calcite created when water ows through limestone and perience of the Pythia in action, as related by Plutarch,
dissolves calcium carbonate, which is later redeposited. who witnessed many prophecies.[66]
Further investigation revealed that deep beneath the Del-
During 2001, water samples from the nearby springs
phi region lies bituminous deposit, rich in hydrocarbons
yielded evidence of the presence of the hallucinogenic
and full of pitch, that has a petrochemical content as high
hydrocarbon. The Kerna spring, originating uphill from
as 20%. Friction created by earthquakes heat the bitu-
the temple, yielded 0.3 parts per million of ethylene.[67]
minous layers resulting in vaporization of the hydrocar-
Presently, the waters of the Kerma spring are diverted
bons which rise to the surface through small ssures in
from the temple for use by the nearby modern town of
8 6 NOTES
Delphi. It is unknown the degree to which ethylene or
other gases would be detected at the temple should these
waters still ow freely, as they did in the ancient world.[68]
Chunks of travertine, calcareous rock formed of mineral
spring deposits, were also extracted from the temple and
tested, but no traces of ethylene were identied. The na-
ture of the hydrocarbon accounts for this. Ethylene is
extremely light and volatile, having a highly reactive na-
ture, and therefore could have presumably escaped the
rock long ago. By testing the samples from the spring wa-
ter, the team was at least able to identify the substances
current presence at the site, giving them insight that a pre-
sumably larger quantity existed in the waters thousands of
years earlier.[69]
Frequent earthquakes produced by the fact that Greece
lies at the intersection of three separate tectonic plates
seem to have been responsible for the observed cracking
of the limestone, and the opening up of new channels by
which hydrocarbons enter the owing waters of the Kas-
sotis. This would cause the amounts of ethylene emitted
to uctuate, increasing or decreasing the potency of the
drug released, over time. It has been suggested that the
decrease of importance of the Oracle after the era of Ro-
man Emperor Hadrian was due in part to the fact that
there had not been an earthquake in the area for a signif-
icant time.
4.4 Venom
Another interpretation, by art historian Merlin Stone,
suggests the use of venom rather than ethylene. She in-
dicates that when people, after having been immunized
against snake-bite, are bitten by a venomous snake, partic-
ularly by a krait, cobra, or another elapid, they experience
an emotional and mental state that has been compared to
the eects of hallucinogenic substances.[70]
These explanations are not mutually exclusive and each
may have occurred at dierent times. [10] see discussion in Deitrich, Bernard C. (1992), Di-
5 See also
Delphic maxims
List of oracular statements from Delphi
Theia mania, a concept used to describe the Pythias
divine inspiration in Platos Phaedrus.
The Apollonian and Dionysian, concept of human
dichotomy.
Delphi method, a structured communication tech-
nique, unrelated to the Oracle of Delphi.
6 Notes
[1] ""Pythia main entry Random House Dictionary (Amer-
ican), further down Collins Dictionary (British)". Dictio-
nary.com.
[2] Homeric Hymn to Apollo 363369.
[3] Athletes and Oracles: The Transformation of Olympia
and Delphi in the Eighth Century BC; Morgan C. 1990,
p. 148.
[4] Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World;
Michael Scott, Princeton University Press, p. 30
[5] Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World;
Michael Scott, Princeton University Press, p.11
[6] For an example, see Lewis Farnell, The Cults of the Greek
States, 1907, vol. IV, p.189. But all this came to be
merely considered as an accessory, leading up to the great
moment when the Pythoness ascended into the tripod,
and, lled with the divine aatus which at least the lat-
ter ages believed to ascend in vapour from a ssure in the
ground, burst forth into wild utterance, which was proba-
bly some kind of articulate speech, and which the
[Osioi], 'the holy ones, who, with the prophet, sat around
the tripod, knew well how to interpret. ... What was
essential to Delphic divination, then, was the frenzy of
the Pythoness and the sounds which she uttered in this
state which were interpreted by the [Osioi] and
the 'prophet' according to some conventional code of their
own.
[7] Fontenrose 1978, pp. 196227; Maurizio 2001, pp. 38
54.
[8] Mikalson, Jon D. Herodotus and Religion in the Per-
sian Wars. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2003. ISBN
9780807827987. page 55
[9] Herodotus. The Histories. Godley, A. D., translator.
Harvard University Press. 1920. Book one, chapter 65.
(1922)
vine Madness and Conict at Delphi (Kernos 5)
PDF at https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=
Mycenaean+Delphi&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=
[11] Fortenrose. J. (1959) Python. A Study of Delphic Myth
and Its Origins, (Berkeley)
[12] Forrest, W.G. (1957), Colonisation and the Rise of Del-
phi (Historia: Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte Bd. 6, H.
2 (Apr., 1957), pp. 160175)
[13] Martin L. West, Homeric Hymns, pp 912, gives a sum-
mary for this dating, at or soon after the inauguration of
chariot-racing at the Pythian Games, 582 BC; M. Chap-
pell, Delphi and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo", Classical
Quarterly 56 (2006:331-48)
[14] As Robin Lane Fox observes in discussing this origin of
the Delphic priesthood, in Travelling Heroes in the Epic
Age of Homer, 2008:341.

[15] Huxley, Cretan Paiawones". Greek, Roman and Byzan-
tine Studies 16 (1975:119-24) p. 122, noted by Fox
2008:343.
[16] Fox 2008:342.
[17] Diodorus Siculus 16.26.14.
[18] Broad, W. J. (2007), p.21. It was also said that the young
woman was given a tripod on which to be seated, which
acted on behalf of her own safety during her frenzied
states.
[19] Smiths Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and
Mythology notes on this point Ovid, Metamorphoses i.
321, iv. 642; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica iv. 800;
Servius, commentary on the Aeneid iv. 246; pseudo-
Apollodorus, Bibliotheke i. 4. 1 ; Pausanias x. 5.
3; Aeschylus, The Eumenides opening lines; see excerpts
in translation at Theoi Project: Themis.
[20] D. S. Robertson, The Delphian Succession in the Open-
ing of the Eumenides The Classical Review 55. 2
(September 1941, pp. 6970) p. 69, reasoning that in the
three great allotments of oracular powers at Delphi, corre-
sponding to the three generations of the gods, Ouranos,
as was tting, gave the oracle to his wife Gaia and Kro-
nos appropriately allotted it to his sister Themis. In Zeus
turn to make the gift, however, Aeschylus could not re-
port that the oracle was given directly to Apollo, who had
not yet been born, Robertson notes, and thus Phoebe was
interposed. However, the usual modern reconstruction of
the sacred sites pre-Olympian history does not indicate
dedications to these earlier gods.
[21] Broad, W. J. (2007), p.30-31
[22] Diod. Sic. 16.26.6
[23] Martin Litcheld West, The Orphic Poems, p.147. The
Pythia resembles a shamaness at least to the extent that she
communicates with her [deity] while in a state of trance,
and conveys as much to those present by uttering unin-
telligible words. [cf. Spirit Language, Mircea Eliade].
It is particularly striking that she sits on a cauldron sup-
ported by a tripod, reiterating the triad of the great god-
dess. This eccentric perch can hardly be explained except
as a symbolic boiling, and, as such, it looks very much
like a reminiscence of the initiatory boiling of the shaman
translated from hallucinatory experience into concrete vi-
sual terms. It was in this same cauldron, probably, that the
Titans boiled Dionysus in the version of the story known
to Callimachus and Euphorion, and his remains were in-
terred close by.
[24] William Godwin (1876). Lives of the Necromancers.
p. 11.
[25] , the Oracle of Delphi, Greece, in W.G. McGuire, D.R.
. Griths, P Hancock, and I.S. Stewart, eds. The Archae-
, , 2004, 176. ology of Geological Catastrophes. (Geological Society of
[26] , , . , works. History Channel documentary Oracle at Delphi,
, , 1984, 758. Secrets Revealed, 2003, and in William J. Broad, The Or-
[27] Broad, W. J. (2007), p.31-32
9
[28] Herbert W Parke, History of the Delphic Oracle and H.W.
Parke and D.E.W. Wormell The Delphic oracle, 1956 Vol-
ume 1: The history attempt the complicated reconstruc-
tion of the oracles institutions; a recent comparison of
the process of select at Delphi with Near Eastern ora-
cles is part of Herbert B. Human, The Oracular Pro-
cess: Delphi and the Near East Vetus Testamentum 57.4,
(2007:44960).
[29] Godwin 1876, p. 11.
[30] quoted in an interview on the radio program The Ark,
transcript available.
[31] Broad, W. J. (2007), p.32
[32] Plutarch Moralia 414b.
[33] Plutarch On the Failure of Oracles. Pene-
lope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
[34] On the temple personnel, see Roux 1976, pp. 5463.
[35] Bowden 2005, pp. 1516; see also Herodotus 8.36,
Euripides Ion 413416.
[36] Plutarch, op cit
[37] Vandenberg, Phillip, (2007) Mysteries of the Oracles
(Tauris Parke Publications)
[38] Broad, W. J. (2007), p.34-36.
[39] Hodge, A. Trevor. The Mystery of Apollos E at Delphi,
American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 85, No. 1. (Jan.,
1981), pp. 8384.
[40] Plato, Charmides 164d165a.
[41] Plato, Protagoras 343ab.
[42] Jon D. (2011). Ancient Greek Religion. John Wiley &
Sons. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-4443-5819-3.
[43] Broad, W. J. (2007), p.38-40
[44] Fontenrose, op cit
[45] Godwin 1876, p. 12.
[46] http://www.wisecounselresearch.com/research/
portrait-gallery/delphic-oracle sighted 14/5/2013
[47] Fontenrose, Joseph (1981), Delphic Oracle: Its Re-
sponses and Operations. (Uni of Calif. Press)
[48] Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Ancient-Greece.org
[49] Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Bod, Inter-
national Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe;
Page 185;
[50] J.Z. De Boer, and J. R. Hale. The Geological Origins of
London) 2000. Popular accounts in A&E Television Net-
acle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Del-
phi. (New York: Penguin) 2006.
10
[51] Lehoux, 2007
[52] Piccardi, 2000; Spiller et al., 2000; de Boer, et al., 2001;
Hale et al. 2003; Etiope et al., 2006; Piccardi et al., 2008.
[53] Mason, Betsy. The Prophet of Gases in ScienceNow Daily
News 2 October 2006. Retrieved 11 October 2006.
[54] Harissis 2015
[55] Delphi, the Oracle of Apollo from Adventures in Archae-
ology
[56] The Oracle at Delphi Medb hErren
[57] Broad W.J. (2007), pp. 1467: "[A] French photo of the
temples interior showed not only a spring-like pool but
ssures... in the bedrock, suggesting a specic pathway
by which intoxicating gases could have risen into the ora-
cles sanctum... What delighted de Boer so much was not
the verication of the spring-like pool at the heart of the
chasm, as the revelation of the bedrocks composition...
there right above the waterline, the photograph clearly
showed vertical ssures running through the bedrock. No
denial could hide that fact, no scholarly disclaimer could
deny the reality.... [The] cracks ...[showed] evidence of
tectonic jolts and protracted ows of mineralized water.
[58] Jelle Zeilinga de Boer Retrieved on 2006-10-01.
[59] John R. Hale Retrieved on 2006-10-01.
[60] Jerey P. Chanton Retrieved on 2006-10-01.
[61] Henry R. Spiller Retrieved on 2006-10-01.
[62] Broad (2007), p. 155-7
[63] In the French excavation report on the temple, Fernand
Courby shows that the adyton was unlike those found in
other temples as it was not central, but on the southwest-
ern side, interrupting the normal symmetry of the Doric
temple. It was divided into two areas, one small area 9
by 16 feet for the oracle, one for the supplicant. Modern
research reported by Broad (p. 37) suggests that both the
supplicant and the Pythia descended a ight of ve steps
into a small room within the temple with its own low ceil-
ing. Walter Miller has argued that the stone block of 3.54
feet, that Courby described as being part of the oor, was
in fact the site where the oracle sat. It showed a square
6 inch hole, that widened to 9 inches, immediately under
the triangular grooves for the tripod. Strange channels,
possibly to carry water from the spring, surrounded the
tripodal grooves. That these had in fact carried waters for
long periods was conrmed by the layers of travertine that
encrusted it. Nothing like this has been found at any other
Greek temple. Holland (1933) argues that these channels
and the hollow nature of the omphalos found by the French
would channel the vapors of intoxicant gases.
[64] Broad (2007), p. 172
[65] Broad (2007), p.212-4
[66] Interview with John R. Hale on the Delphic Oracle, ABC
News, Australia (Retrieved on 2006-04-20)
7 REFERENCES
[67] Broad (2007), p. 198. Methane (15.3 parts per million)
and ethane (0.2 ppm) were also detected in the Kerna
sample. However, the intoxicating eects of ethylene are
more powerful than those of methane or ethane.
[68] the Kerna Spring, once alive but now vanished since
Greek engineers had re-routed its waters to supply the
town of Delphi Tests from a number of nearby sites
showed the concentration of Ethylene at Kerna was ten
times that of other nearby springs. In an interview re-
ported in Broad (2006, p. 152), de Boer stated that the
Kerna sample, because of the springs rerouting, had to be
drawn from a citys holding tank... letting some of the gas
escape as it sat... and lessened the water concentrations.
If so the actual levels of the methane, ethane and ethylene
that came out of the ground would have been higher.
[69] Broad (2007), p. 194-5
[70] Stone, Merlin When God was a Woman, Mariner Books,
1978
7 References
7.1 Ancient sources
Herodotus, The Histories, at the Perseus Project
Homeric Hymn to Apollo, at the Perseus Project
Pausanias, Description of Greece, (ed. and translated
with commentary by Sir James Frazer), 1913 edi-
tion. Cf. v.5
Plutarch, De defectu oraculorum (On the Decline of
Oracles) and De Pythiae Oraculis (On the Oracles
of the Pythia), in Moralia, vol. 5 (Loeb Library,
Harvard University Press)
7.2 Modern sources
de Boer, Jelle Zeilinga, John Rigby Hale & Henry A.
Spiller, The Delphic Oracle: A Multidisciplinary
Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory. Clinical Tox-
icology 40.2 189196 (2000)
de Boer, Jelle Zeilinga, Jerey P. Chandon & John
Rigby Hale, New Evidence for the Geological Ori-
gins of the Ancient Delphic Oracle, Geology 29.8,
707711 (2001)
de Boer, Jelle Zeilinga, Jerey P. Chandon, John
Rigby Hale & Henry A. Spiller, "Questioning the
Delphic Oracle", Scientic American (August 2003)
Bouch-Leclercq, Auguste, Histoire de la divination
dans l'Antiquit, volumes I-IV, Paris (18791882)
Bowden, Hugh (2005). Classical Athens and the
Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy. Cam-
bridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53081-4.
7.2 Modern sources
Broad, William J. The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and
the Science Behind Its Lost Secrets, New York, Pen-
guin Press, ISBN 978-0-14-303859-7 (2007); hard-
cover edition The Oracle: the lost secrets and hidden
message of ancient Delphi, Penguin Press, ISBN 1-
59420-081-5 (2006)
Burkert, Walter Greek Religion, Harvard University
Press, ISBN 0-674-36280-2 (1985); Orig. in Ger-
man (1977)
Connelly, Joan Breton Portrait of a Priestess:
Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 2007, ISBN 0-691-12746-8
Courby, Fernand, Feuilles de Delphi: Tome 2, To-
pographie et Architecture, La Terrace du Temple
(1927)
Dempsey, T., Reverend, The Delphic oracle, its early
history, inuence and fall, Oxford, B.H. Blackwell
(1918)
Dodds, E. R. The Greeks and the Irrational, Berke-
ley, University of California Press (1963)
Etiope, G., D. Christodoulou, M. Geraga, P. Favali,
& G. Papatheodorou, The geological links of the
ancient Delphic Oracle (Greece): a reappraisal of
natural gas occurrence and origin, Geology, 34,
821824 (2006)
Farnell, Lewis Richard, The Cults of the Greek
States, Volumes I-V, Clarendon Press, (1896
1909); cf. especially, volume IV on the Pythoness
and Delphi
Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy, Python; a study of Delphic
myth and its origins, New York, Biblio & Tannen,
ISBN 0-8196-0285-X (1959; 1974)
Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy, The Delphic oracle, its
responses and operations, with a catalogue of re-
sponses, Berkeley : University of California Press,
ISBN 0-520-03360-4 (1978)
Foster J., Lehoux D.R., The Delphic Oracle and
the ethylene-intoxication hypothesis, Clinical Toxi-
cology, 45, 8589 (2007)
Golding, William, The Double Tongue, London,
Faber (1995). Posthumous, ctional novel by the
Nobel prize winner about a Pythia in the 1st century
BCE.
Goodrich, Norma Lorre, Priestesses, New York
: F. Watts, ISBN 0-531-15113-1 (1989); Harper
Collins, Perennial, ISBN 0-06-097316-1 (1990)
Guthrie, William Keith Chambers, The Greeks and
their Gods (1950)
Hall, Manly Palmer, The Secret Teachings of All
Ages, Cf Chapter 14, (1928)
11
Harissis H.V. 2015. A Bittersweet Story: The True
Nature of the Laurel of the Oracle of Delphi Per-
spectives in Biology and Medicine. Volume 57,
Number 3, Summer 2014, pp. 295-298.
Holland, Leicester B., The Mantic Mechanism at
Delphi, American Journal of Archaeology 37 pp.
201214 (1933)
Lehoux D.R., Drugs and the Delphic Oracle, Clas-
sical World, 101, 1, 4156 (2007)
Maass, E., De Sibyllarum Indicibus, Berlin (1879)
Maurizio, Lisa, The Voice at the Centre of the
World: The Pythias Ambiguity and Authority pp.
4650 in editors Andre Lardinois and Laura Mc-
Clure Making Silence Speak: Womens Voices in
Greek Literature and Society, Princeton University
Press (2001)
Mikalson, Jon D. Ancient Greek Religion. Black-
well Ancient Religions. Malden, MA: Blackwell
Pub, 2005.
Miller, Water, Daedalus and Thespis Vol 1, (1929)
Mitford, William, The History of Greece (1784); Cf.
v.1, Chapter III, Section 2, p. 177, Origin and
Progress of the Oracles
Morgan, Catherine. Athletes and Oracles, Cam-
bridge (1990)
Nilsson, Martin P. (Martin Persson). Cults, Myths,
Oracles, and Politics in Ancient Greece. With Two
Appendices: The Ionian Phylae, the Phratries. New
York, Cooper Square Publishers, 1972.
Parke, Herbert William, A History of the Del-
phic Oracle, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, ASIN
B002NZWT0Y (1939)
Parke, Herbert William, Sibyls and Sibylline
Prophecy in Classical Antiquity, Routledge, London,
ISBN 978-0-415-07638-8 (reprinted 1992)
Piccardi, Luigi, Active faulting at Delphi: seismo-
tectonic remarks and a hypothesis for the geologi-
cal environment of a myth, Geology, 28, 651654
(2000)
Piccardi L., C. Monti, F. Tassi O. Vaselli, D. Pa-
panastassiou & K. Gaki-Papanastassiou, Scent of a
myth: tectonics, geochemistry and geomythology at
Delphi (Greece)", Journal of the Geological Society,
London, 165, 518 (2008)
Potter, David Stone, Prophecy and history in the cri-
sis of the Roman Empire: a historical commentary
on the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle, Cf. Chapter 3
(1990)
12 8 EXTERNAL LINKS

Poulson, Frederick. Dephi Gleydenhall, London

(1920)
Rohde, Erwin, Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Be-
lief in Immortality among the Greeks, trans. from the
8th edn. by W. B. Hillis, Routledge & Kegan Paul,
London, (1925); reprinted by Routledge (2000); full
text in English

West, Martin Litcheld, The Orphic Poems, Oxford:

Clarendon Press ISBN 0-19-814854-2 (1983)

8 External links
Delphic Oracles Lips May Have Been Loosened by
Gas Vapors National Geographic August 14, 2001
 13

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1 Text
Pythia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia?oldid=783169460 Contributors: AxelBoldt, Jeronimo, Karen Johnson, William Avery,
Andygates, Camembert, Tucci528, Michael Hardy, Kalki, Tgeorgescu, Charles Matthews, Haukurth, David Shay, JimTheFrog, Wetman,
Carlossuarez46, Flauto Dolce, Rorro, HaeB, Xanzzibar, Bnn, Chinasaur, Thijs!, Antandrus, Beland, Thomas Veil, Billposer, Vishahu, Uk-
expat, Mike Rosoft, Rich Farmbrough, Bender235, El Juno, Kwamikagami, Giraedata, Jeodesic, Alansohn, Arthena, Groat, Maqs, Feezo,
Sburke, GeorgeTSLC, Twthmoses, Wikiklrsc, GregorB, Waldir, Ilya, Koavf, Ysangkok, Crazycomputers, Helios, EamonnPKeane, Sceptre,
Rtkat3, GusF, Odysses, Deucalionite, Lucky number 49, Codrinb, NielsenGW, Trolleymusic, SmackBot, John Croft, InverseHypercube,
KnowledgeOfSelf, AnOddName, The Gnome, Hugo-cs, Drn8, Chris the speller, Enkyklios, Rlevse, Thief12, Akhilleus, Clinkophonist,
Krich, Bowlhover, John D. Croft, Fuzzypeg, Terrasidius, SashatoBot, IronGargoyle, The Man in Question, Hu12, Ithakiboy, Chamberlian,
CmdrObot, Slp1, Chasingsol, Doug Weller, Codetiger, Roberta F., Thijs!bot, QuiteUnusual, Storkk, V-train, JAnDbot, MER-C, Cyn-
wolfe, Magioladitis, VoABot II, Albmont, Boabbriggs, Zyxwvutsrqp, Thompson.matthew, Dabizi~enwiki, Unclepea, Catoni52, Kostisl,
R'n'B, CommonsDelinker, Nev1, Eliz81, Icseaturtles, Elkost, Tarotcards, 83d40m, KylieTastic, Geeked, Redtigerxyz, Littleolive oil, Mar-
gacst, Shinju, Philip Trueman, Oshwah, Burpen, Guest9999, Lamro, Drutt, Edometheus, Macdonald-ross, SieBot, StAnselm, Nihil novi,
DavisGL, Flyer22 Reborn, Lightmouse, Amcfadgen, MarthaLu, Invertzoo, Martarius, ClueBot, PipepBot, Delehmes, Quackiv, Magician-
dude, RafaAzevedo, PixelBot, Lartoven, Sun Creator, Ngebendi, Thehelpfulone, Catalographer, Vegetator, Koolokamba, Neiltzg, Shoe-
makers Holiday, Maimai009, Addbot, Pointrau, Cupivistine Noscere?, MartinezMD, Laurinavicius, CanadianLinuxUser, KaiKemmann,
Erutuon, Tide rolls, LuK3, Leovizza, Jakeydee, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Legobot II, Victoriaearle, Lacrymocphale, AnomieBOT, Rubinbot, Pi-
ano non troppo, Materialscientist, Citation bot, ArthurBot, Samotnik, Xqbot, Lily20, St.nerol, Visualpleasure, Omnipaedista, Joaquin008,
Custoo, FrescoBot, LucienBOT, HRoestBot, Serols, Gracefoo, Pezanos, Lotje, Yong, Onel5969, Adexios, EmausBot, Harissis.h, Dcirovic,
ZroBot, Chubeka, Netha Hussain, Tot12, ChuispastonBot, ClueBot NG, MelbourneStar, Edomuret, Brynress74, Bahnheckl, Helpful
Pixie Bot, BG19bot, LouisAlain, Marcocapelle, Rjdeadly, Haymouse, ND68Larry, Hmainsbot1, Prohairesius, Gre regiment, SunCreator,
Hillbillyholiday, Epicgenius, JCfrmCali916, CensoredScribe, NottNott, DrRC, Noyster, Sublatus, ALCaddy, Kiana jones, Mac4904, Tul-
lyvallin, Sidharth2002, Postscriptum123, GeneralizationsAreBad, Fuglestad11, Engrisk, Adam9007, Clockchime, Ahocker, CLCStudent,
Lukethemenace, Bender the Bot, 72, Mattlollol, Katolophyromai and Anonymous: 209

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CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Laslovarga
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domain Contributors: CwGK1__DtsYMAA at Google Cultural Institute, zoom level maximum Original artist: Eugne Delacroix
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