DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0269
2 IO
The Pythta and the
phetic priestess at Delphoi is strongly supported by later beliefs
with regard to Python1 and by the analogous cult at Patara, where
so long as Apollon tarried in the town his prophetess was shut up
with him in the temple by night2.
(p) The Pythia and the Caldron of Apotheosis.
But, again, if the Pythia, a mere mortal, is thus raised to the
rank of a goddess, must she not, either in grim earnest or in mock
show, endure the ritual of apotheosis ? Now one form of this ritual
consisted in the real or simulated boiling of the person concerned.
A mortal plunged in the seething caldron thereby lost his mortality.
Old age dropped away from him : perennial youth remained. He
died the death of a man : he lived the life of a god. This strange
belief points backwards—it may be—to a time when the dead, or
even the aged, were dismembered and boiled for the readier removal
of the flesh from their bones and the consequent liberation of their
souls:;. In any case it underlies and explains a variety of Greek
(sic codd. V1. Barb. Ambr. llvdiados cett.), Tert. ad uxor. i. 6 Achaeae Iunoni apud
Aegium oppidum virgo sortitur, et quae Delphis insaniunt nubere nesciunt, id. de
monogam. 17 sunt et quae de tota continentia iudicent nos, virgines Vestae et Iunonis
Achaicae et Dianae Scythicae et Apollinis Pythii, Hieron. epist. 123. 8 (xxii. 1051
Migne) ut omittam virgines Vestae et Apollinis Iunonisque Achivae (Erasmus cj. Argivce,
alii mallent Achaicce) et Dianae et Minervae, quae perpetua sacerdotii virginitate mar-
cescunt. Similarly the priestess, who was also the prophetess, of Apollon £>eiradioles at
Corinth is described as dv8pbs evvrjs elpyop-iv-q (Paus. 2. 24. 1).
Ceremonial continence may doubtless be due to more causes than one. E. Fehrle Die
kultische Keuschheit im Altertum Giessen 1910 traces it back to two main sources : (a)
Whoever enjoys the love of a deity, must forgo the love of mortals ; (6) Sexual inter-
course denies, and religious defilement implies the presence of evil spirits. In any given
case either or both of these causes may be operant. But that the former at least was a vera
causa to the worshippers of Apollon seems certain.—witness e.g. the myth of Koronis.
1 Souid. s.v. Uvdojpos " dai/j.ovLov fiavriKov. '''rds re irvevp-aTi Hvdwvos evdovaiibaas Kai
(pavracfiav Kvrjaeus Trapexo/j-evas rrj tov 5ai/j.oi>iov irepupopa rj^iov to eabfxevov -rrpoayopevaai '
oi 5e tGjv dai/JLovcov k&toxoi e(pa<TKov ttjv v'ikt\v MtjSoij irapeaeo-dai.,'' with G. Bernhardy adloc.
2 Hdt. 1. 182 a/j.<fi6Tepai de avrai (sc. the wife of Zeus Belos supra p. 128 n. 4 and the
wife of Zeus Thebaieus supra i. 348 n. 1) \eyovrai avdpQv ovdafiQv es bpu\lr]v <poLTav 1 Kai
Kardirep tv UaT&poicn. rrjs AvkItjs i) irpbp.<xvTis tov deov, eireav yivqrai—011 yap wv aiei eo~Ti
XprjUTripiov avTbdi (Serv. in Verg. Aen. 4. 143 states that Apollon was at Patara during
the six winter months, at Delos during the six summer months)—eireav 5e yevr]Tai, Tore
un> 0~vyKaTai<\7]teTai ras vvKTas taco £v t<2 vr/f.
3 See the facts collected by Frazer Go/den Bough3: Taboo p. 372 n. 5, id.3 : The
Dying God p. 96, id. Belief in Immortality i. 165 ff. My suggestion has been to some
extent anticipated by W. Mannhardt Germanische Mythen Berlin 1858 p. 72 n. 5 :
' Hangt mit dieser Anschauung zusammen, dass man im zwolften und dreizehnten Jahr-
hundert Leichname aufschnitt, das Fleisch mit Wein oder Wasser absott und abldste und
abgesondert von den gesammelten Knochen begrub ? Pabst Bonifaz VIII. untersagte
diese Sitte.' Mannhardt adds detailed proof of this singular custom, noting that it was
chiefly observed when a man died abroad and his friends or relatives wished his bones to
be buried at home.
The Pythta and the
phetic priestess at Delphoi is strongly supported by later beliefs
with regard to Python1 and by the analogous cult at Patara, where
so long as Apollon tarried in the town his prophetess was shut up
with him in the temple by night2.
(p) The Pythia and the Caldron of Apotheosis.
But, again, if the Pythia, a mere mortal, is thus raised to the
rank of a goddess, must she not, either in grim earnest or in mock
show, endure the ritual of apotheosis ? Now one form of this ritual
consisted in the real or simulated boiling of the person concerned.
A mortal plunged in the seething caldron thereby lost his mortality.
Old age dropped away from him : perennial youth remained. He
died the death of a man : he lived the life of a god. This strange
belief points backwards—it may be—to a time when the dead, or
even the aged, were dismembered and boiled for the readier removal
of the flesh from their bones and the consequent liberation of their
souls:;. In any case it underlies and explains a variety of Greek
(sic codd. V1. Barb. Ambr. llvdiados cett.), Tert. ad uxor. i. 6 Achaeae Iunoni apud
Aegium oppidum virgo sortitur, et quae Delphis insaniunt nubere nesciunt, id. de
monogam. 17 sunt et quae de tota continentia iudicent nos, virgines Vestae et Iunonis
Achaicae et Dianae Scythicae et Apollinis Pythii, Hieron. epist. 123. 8 (xxii. 1051
Migne) ut omittam virgines Vestae et Apollinis Iunonisque Achivae (Erasmus cj. Argivce,
alii mallent Achaicce) et Dianae et Minervae, quae perpetua sacerdotii virginitate mar-
cescunt. Similarly the priestess, who was also the prophetess, of Apollon £>eiradioles at
Corinth is described as dv8pbs evvrjs elpyop-iv-q (Paus. 2. 24. 1).
Ceremonial continence may doubtless be due to more causes than one. E. Fehrle Die
kultische Keuschheit im Altertum Giessen 1910 traces it back to two main sources : (a)
Whoever enjoys the love of a deity, must forgo the love of mortals ; (6) Sexual inter-
course denies, and religious defilement implies the presence of evil spirits. In any given
case either or both of these causes may be operant. But that the former at least was a vera
causa to the worshippers of Apollon seems certain.—witness e.g. the myth of Koronis.
1 Souid. s.v. Uvdojpos " dai/j.ovLov fiavriKov. '''rds re irvevp-aTi Hvdwvos evdovaiibaas Kai
(pavracfiav Kvrjaeus Trapexo/j-evas rrj tov 5ai/j.oi>iov irepupopa rj^iov to eabfxevov -rrpoayopevaai '
oi 5e tGjv dai/JLovcov k&toxoi e(pa<TKov ttjv v'ikt\v MtjSoij irapeaeo-dai.,'' with G. Bernhardy adloc.
2 Hdt. 1. 182 a/j.<fi6Tepai de avrai (sc. the wife of Zeus Belos supra p. 128 n. 4 and the
wife of Zeus Thebaieus supra i. 348 n. 1) \eyovrai avdpQv ovdafiQv es bpu\lr]v <poLTav 1 Kai
Kardirep tv UaT&poicn. rrjs AvkItjs i) irpbp.<xvTis tov deov, eireav yivqrai—011 yap wv aiei eo~Ti
XprjUTripiov avTbdi (Serv. in Verg. Aen. 4. 143 states that Apollon was at Patara during
the six winter months, at Delos during the six summer months)—eireav 5e yevr]Tai, Tore
un> 0~vyKaTai<\7]teTai ras vvKTas taco £v t<2 vr/f.
3 See the facts collected by Frazer Go/den Bough3: Taboo p. 372 n. 5, id.3 : The
Dying God p. 96, id. Belief in Immortality i. 165 ff. My suggestion has been to some
extent anticipated by W. Mannhardt Germanische Mythen Berlin 1858 p. 72 n. 5 :
' Hangt mit dieser Anschauung zusammen, dass man im zwolften und dreizehnten Jahr-
hundert Leichname aufschnitt, das Fleisch mit Wein oder Wasser absott und abldste und
abgesondert von den gesammelten Knochen begrub ? Pabst Bonifaz VIII. untersagte
diese Sitte.' Mannhardt adds detailed proof of this singular custom, noting that it was
chiefly observed when a man died abroad and his friends or relatives wished his bones to
be buried at home.