De Pythiae oraculis

Plutarch’s essay on the changed custom at Delphi is quite as interesting for its digressions as for its treatment of the main topic. Portents, coincidences, history, a little philosophy, stories of persons like Croesus, Battus, Lysander, Rhodope, finally lead up to the statement that many oracles used to be delivered in prose, although still more in early times were delivered in verse; but the present age calls for simplicity and directness instead of the ancient obscurity and grandiloquence.

We possess a considerable body of Delphic oracles preserved in Greek literature, as, for example, the famous oracle of the wooden wall (Herodotus, vii. 141). Practically all of these are in hexameter verse. Many more records of oracles merely state that someone consulted the oracle and was told to perform a certain deed, or was told that something would or might happen, often with certain limitations. We have, therefore, no means of determining the truth of Plutarch’s statement, but there is little doubt that he is right. If we possessed his lost work, Χρησμῶν συναγωγή (no. 171 in Lamprias’s list), we should have more abundant data on which to base our decision.

The essay often exhibits Plutarch at his best. Hartman thinks that Plutarch hoped that the.work

The essay stands as no. 116 in Lamprias’s catalogue. It is found in only two mss. and in a few places the tradition leaves us in doubt, but, for the most part, the text is fairly clear.

The references to the topography and monuments of Delphi have become more intelligible since the site was excavated by the French. Pomtow, in the Berliner Pkilologische Wochenschrift, 1912, p. 1170, gives an account of the monuments visited by the company in this essay.

(The persons who take part in the dialogue are Basilocles and Philinus, who serve to introduce the later speakers; Diogenianus, Theon, Sarapion, Boethus, as well as Philinus himself and some professional guides.)

BASILOCLES. You people have kept it up till well into the evening, Philinus, escorting the foreign visitor around among the statues and votive offerings. For my part, I had almost given up waiting for you.

PHILINUS. The fact is, Basilocles, that wre went slowly, sowing words, and reaping them straightway with strife, like the men sprung from the Dragon’s teeth, words with meanings behind them of the contentious sort, which sprang up and flourished along our way.

BASILOCLES. Will it be necessary to call in someone else of those who were with you; or are you willing, as a favour, to relate in full what your conversation was and who took part in it?

PHILINUS. It looks, Basilocles, as if I shall have that to do. In fact, it would not be easy for you to find anyone of the others in the town, for I saw most of them once more on their way up to the Cory ei an cave and Lycoreia[*](Pausanias, x. 6. 2-3.) with the foreign visitor.

BASILOCLES. Our visitor is certainly eager to see the sights, and an unusually eager listener.

PHILINUS. But even more is he a scholar and a student. However, it is not this that most deserves our admiration, but a winning gentleness, and his willingness to argue and to raise questions, which comes from his intelligence, and shows no dissatisfaction nor contrariety with the answers. So, after being with him but a short time, one would say, O child of a goodly father! [*](Cf. Plato, Republic, 368 a.) You surely know Diogenianus, one of the best of men.

BASILOCLES. I never saw him myself, Philinus, but I have met many persons who expressed a strong approval of the man’s words and character, and who had other compliments of the same nature to say of the young man. But, my friend, what was the beginning and occasion of your conversation?

PHILINUS. The guides were going through their prearranged programme, paying no heed to us who begged that they would cut short their harangues and their expounding of most of the inscriptions. The appearance and technique of the statues had only a moderate attraction for the foreign visitor, who, apparently, was a connoisseur in works of art. He did, however, admire the patina of the bronze, for it bore no resemblance to verdigris or rust, but the bronze was smooth and shining with a deep blue tinge, so that it gave an added touch to the sea-captains[*](Presumably the thirty-seven statues of Lysander and his officers (erected after the battle of Aegospotami), which stood near the entrance inside the sacred precinct. Cf. Life of Lysander, chap. xviii. (443 a).) (for he had begun his sight-seeing with them), as they stood there with the true complexion of the sea and its deepest depths.

Was there, then, said he, some process of alloying and treating used by the artizans of early times for bronze, something like what is called the tempering of swords, on the disappearance of which bronze carne to have a respite from employment in war? As a matter of fact, he continued, it was not by art, as they say, but by accident that the Corinthian bronze[*](Tempering in the water of Peirene was held to be one important factor in the production of Corinthian bronze. Cf. e.g. Pausanias, ii. 3. 3. On the whole subject of Corinthian bronze, it is worth while to consult an article by T. Leslie Shear, A Hoard of Coins found in Corinth in 1930, in the American Journal of Archaeology, xxv. (1931) pp. 139-151, which records the results of chemical analyses of samples of the bronze.) acquired its beauty of colour; a fire consumed a house containing some gold and silver and a great store of copper, and when these were melted and fused together, the great mass of copper furnished a name because of its preponderance.

Theon, taking up the conversation, said, We have heard another more artful account, how a worker in bronze at Corinth, when he had come upon a hoard containing much gold, fearing detection, broke it off a little at a time and stealthily mixed it with his bronze, which thus acquired a wondrous composition. He sold it for a goodly price since it was very highly esteemed for its colour and beauty. However, both this story and that are fiction, but there was apparently some process of combination and preparation; for even now they alloy gold with silver[*](Making the ancient electrum, which was often used for coinage, plate, and similar purposes.) and produce a peculiar and extraordinary, and, to my eyes, a sickly paleness and an unlovely perversion.

What do you think, then, said Diogenianus, has been the cause of the colour of the bronze here?

Theon replied, When of the primal and simplest

All this I knew before Theognis’ day,[*](Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 495, Adespota, no. 461. Plutarch quotes this again in Moralia, 777 c.)

As Diogenianus assented, Theon said, And so also is it my desire, my young friend; let us, therefore, investigate together, and before anything else, if you will, the reason why olive-oil most of all the liquids covers bronze with rust. For, obviously, the oil of itself does not deposit the rust, since it is pure and stainless when applied.

Certainly not, said the young man. My own opinion is that there must be something else that causes this, for the oil is thin, pure, and transparent, and the rust, when it encounters this, is most visible, but in the other liquids it becomes invisible.

Well done, my young friend, said Theon, and excellently said. But consider, if you will, the reason given by Aristotle. [*](Not to be found in Aristotle’s extant works.)

Very well, said he, I will.

Now Aristotle says that when the rust absorbs any of the other liquids, it is imperceptibly disunited and dispersed, since these are unevenly and thinly constituted; but by the density of the oil it is prevented from escaping and remains permanently as it is collected. If, then, we are able of ourselves to invent some such hypothesis, we shall not be altogether at a loss for some magic spell and some words of comfort to apply to this puzzling question.

Since, therefore, we urged him on and gave him his opportunity, Theon said that the air in Delphi is dense and compact, possessing a certain vigour because of the repulsion and resistance that it encounters from the lofty hills; and it is also tenuous and keen, as the facts about the digestion of food bear witness. So the air, by reason of its tenuity, works its way into the bronze and cuts it, disengaging from it a great quantity of rust like dust, but this it retains and holds fast, inasmuch as its density does not allow a passage for this. The rust gathers and, because of its great abundance, it effloresces and acquires a brilliance and lustre on its surface.

When we had accepted this explanation, the foreign visitor said that the one hypothesis alone was sufficient for the argument. The tenuity, said he, will seem to be in contravention to the reputed density of the air, but there is no need to bring it in. As a matter of fact the bronze of itself, as it grows old, exudes and releases the rust which the density of the air confines and solidifies and thus makes it visible because of its great abundance.

Theon, taking this up, said, My friend, what is there to prevent the same thing from being both

Following this a silence ensued, and again the guides began to deliver their harangues. A certain oracle in verse was recited (I think it concerned the kingdom of Aegon the Argive[*](Plutarch recounts the story of this oracle in Moralia, 340 c.), whereupon Diogenianus said that he had often wondered at the barrenness and cheapness of the hexameter lines in which the oracles are pronounced. Yet the god is Leader of the Muses, and it is right and fair that he should take no less interest in what is called elegance of diction than in the sweetness of sound that is concerned with tunes and songs, and that his utterances should surpass Hesiod and Homer in the excellence of their versification. Yet we observe that most of the oracles are full of metrical and verbal errors and barren diction.

Sarapion, the poet who was present from Athens, said, Then do we believe these verses to be the

At this point Boëthus[*](Called the Epicurean in Moralia, 673 c.) the mathematician entered into the conversation. (You know that the man is already changing his allegiance in the direction of Epicureanism.) Said he, Do you happen to have heard the story of Pauson the painter? [*](Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xiv. 15. According to the scholium on Aristophanes, Plutus, 602, the Pauson mentioned there is probably the same man.)

No, said Sarapion, I have not.

Well, it is really worth hearing. It seems that he had received a commission to paint a horse rolling, and painted it galloping. His patron was indignant, whereupon Pauson laughed and turned the canvas upside down, and, when the lower part became the upper, the horse now appeared to be not galloping, but rolling. Bion says that this happens to some arguments when they are inverted. So some people will say of the oracles also, not that they are excellently made because they are the god’s, but that they are not the god’s because they are poorly made! The first of these is in the realm of the unknown; but that the verses conveying the oracles are carelessly wrought is, of course, perfectly clear to you, my dear Sarapion, for you are competent to judge. You write poems in a philosophic and restrained style, but in force and grace and diction they bear more resemblance to the poems of Homer and

The fact is, Boëthus, said Sarapion, that we are ailing both in ears and eyes, accustomed as we are, through luxury and soft living, to believe and to declare that the pleasanter things are fair and lovely. Before long we shall be finding fault with the prophetic priestess because she does not speak in purer tones than Glaucê,[*](Cf. the scholium on Theocritus, iv. 31.) who sings to the lyre, and because she is not perfumed and clad in purple when she goes down into the inner shrine, and does not burn upon the altar cassia or ladanum or frankincense, but only laurel and barley meal. Do you not see, he continued, what grace the songs of Sappho have, charming and bewitching all who listen to them? But the Sibyl with frenzied lips, as Heracleitus[*](Diels, Frag. der Vorsokratiker, i. p. 96, Heracleitus, no. 92.) has it, uttering words mirthless, unembellislied, unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice through the god. And Pindar[*](Pindar, Frag. 32 (ed. Christ).) says that Cadmus heard the god revealing music true, not sweet nor voluptuous nor with suddenly changing melody. For the emotionless and pure does not welcome Pleasure, but she, as well as Mischief,[*](Cf. H. Richards in the Classical Review, xxix. 233.) was thrown down here, and the greater part of the evil in her has, apparently, gathered together to flood the ears of men. [*](Cf.Moralia, 38 a-b.)

When Sarapion had said this, Theon smiled and

In Heaven’s name, said Diogenianus, do not jest, but solve for us this problem, which is of universal interest. For there is not one of us that does not seek

Whereupon Theon, interrupting, said, But just now, my young friend, we seem rather rudely to be taking away from the guides their proper business. Permit, therefore, their services to be rendered first, and after that you shall, at your leisure, raise questions about any matters you wish.

By this time we had proceeded until we were opposite the statue of Hiero the despot. The foreign visitor, by reason of his genial nature, made himself listen to the various tales, although he knew them all perfectly well; but when he was told that a bronze pillar of Hiero’s standing above had fallen of itself during that day on which it happened that Hiero was coming to his end at Syracuse, he expressed his astonishment. Whereupon I proceeded to recall to his mind other events of a like nature, such, for example, as the experience of Hiero[*](Cf. Pausanias, x. 9. 7, with Xenophon, Hellenica, vi. 4. 9. Presumably the same man is referred to in both passages, as he may well have lived till the battle of Leuctra in 371 b.c., and he may be mentioned also in Xenophon, Hellenica, i. 6. 32, but where his name was Hiero or Hermon cannot, apparently, be determined with certainty.) the Spartan, how before his death, which came to him at Leuctra, the eyes fell out of his statue, and the stars disappeared which Lysander had dedicated from the naval battle at Aegospotami; and the stone statue of Lysander[*](Cf.Life of Lysander, chap. xviii. (443 a).) himself put forth a growth of wild shrubs and grass in such abundance as to cover up the face; and at the time of the Athenian misfortunes in Sicily, the golden dates were dropping from the palm-tree and ravens were pecking off the edge of the shield of Pallas Athena[*](Cf. Pausanias, x. 15. 5.); and the crown

Aristotle[*](Rhetoric, iii. 11 (1411 b 31); cf. Frag. 130 (ed. Rose).) used to say that Homer is the only poet who wrote words possessing movement because of their vigour; but I should say that among votive offerings also, those dedicated here have movement and significance in sympathy with the god’s foreknowledge, and no part of them is void or insensible, but all are filled with the divine spirit.

Yes indeed, said Boethus. It is not enough to incarnate the god once every month in a mortal body, but we are bent upon incorporating him into every bit of stone and bronze, as if we did not have in Chance or Accident an agent responsible for such coincidences.

Then, said I, does it seem to you that chance and accident have ordered every single one of such occurrences; and is it credible that the atoms slipped out of place and were separated one from another and inclined towards one side neither before nor afterwards, but at precisely the time when each of the dedicators was destined to fare either worse or better? And now Epicurus[*](Frag. 383.) comes to your aid, apparently, with what he said or wrote three hundred years ago; but it does not seem to you that the god, unless he should transport himself and incorporate