The Question

The Question

A New, Disruptive Community

The Oracle’s End

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There were also a couple of interesting historical anecdotes concerning the oracle that supported the ethylene gas theory.

The first anecdote was the legendary shortened life span of many priestesses that served as oracle throughout the five centuries that the temple was active.

Regular, prolonged exposure to ethylene gas would not only cause progressive physical and psychological deterioration, but would also explain the legends of intense ecstasies, or violent possessions, which could easily be ancient code speak for seizures. Apparently, this intense spiritual ordeal caused many oracles to die as very young women.

The second anecdote is an actual earthquake recorded in the area of Delphi in the year 373 B.C. – an earthquake that reportedly damaged the temple and surrounding structures.

The reason this earthquake may support the geomythology explanation of the oracle is that after this earthquake, stories about the oracle diminish considerably. Post-earthquake, it’s evident that the revered, prophetic reputation of the oracle was no longer a prominent feature of Greek history or myth.

In this video, presenter Frederick Tamagi explores what happened to the temple at Delphi.

The Oracle’s Vapour

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Through the centuries that followed, there was a persistent but unproven theory that the mysterious vapors of the inner chamber were the result of some kind of natural subterranean activity beneath the temple, like a hot spring or a volcanic process of some kind.

In fact, by the beginning of the 20th century, conventional archeologists had pretty much completely investigated the site at Delphi, searching for evidence that would support the vapor theory.

But the traditional methods of archeology failed to produce any such evidence. For the next 80 years or so, the archeology community more or less dismissed these fantastic spiritual stories of the oracle as just exaggerated myths, to be archived along with the other ancient Greek myths of gods and spirits.

In this video, presenter Frederick Tamagi reveals what archeologists eventually discovered about Delphi.

The Oracle of Delphi

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For almost 500 years, from the 8th to 3rd century B.C., generations of oracles gave prophecies and gazed into the unseen spiritual world from Apollo’s temple, atop Mt. Pernassus in central Greece.

Although there has never been much dispute about the historical existence of priestesses who were called oracles, or the temple, which still stands in ruin today. It was the stories of their mystical behavior and otherworldly powers that became the larger mythical counterpoint to the historical reality.

It was said that the oracle’s inner chamber room was often filled with mysterious vapors, emanating from jagged openings or large cracks in the floor of the chamber.

These vapors seemed to swirl around and engulf the oracle, causing her to swoon and enter into a kind of trance, a trance from which she would speak an unknown language that could only be interpreted by a select group of temple assistants.

It was reported that these prophetic ecstasies could become so physically intense, and even violent, that it was thought that the oracle was being possessed by the god Apollo.

In this video, presenter Frederick Tamagi explores the dilemma of believing nothing because you can’t believe everything whenever myth is embedded in the question.