DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52591#0038
22
THE ORACLE
equally characteristic, the first of Cicero's vanity, the second
of the conventional element in the counsel of the Oracle;
it might have suited many another well, but not a man of
so weak and easily frightened a disposition as Cicero. This
kind of good advice was evidently the speciality of the
Oracle, and questions of this kind were far more welcome
than those which required prophecy of the future.
We can also imagine the Oracle consulted by private
persons who had been robbed. Of its ability “ to discover
stolen goods " we have evidence from Pausanias (x. 14, 7),
in the story of the man who had robbed the Oracle, but
when, with his ill-gotten gains, he had lain down to sleep
in a thicket on Parnassus, was surprised and killed by a
wolf. The well-meaning animal then proceeded to run
to and fro between Delphi and the place where the gold
lay, until people noticed it, followed him, and found the
gold, after which a bronze statue was raised to the wolf,
as a deterrent to all temple thieves. Extant Delphian
inscriptions 1 show that robbery and attempts at cheating
the temple were not uncommon. On the other hand, the
financial authorities of the temple knew how to avenge
themselves, when the pilgrims, in payment for wreaths and
sacrifices, had to change their native currency for Delphian
money. The accounts show on this head a cutting of the
rates of exchange much in favour of the temple.2
When the pilgrims consulted the Oracle, they had first
to wash in the fountain of Castalia, and afterwards offer
a cake. and a victim on the altar in front of the temple;
the poor brought a goat or a sheep, the rich one or
more oxen. What happened early one morning at Delphi
is prettily described in a chorus of the Ion of Euripides
(82 ff.), how the young priest greets the dawn over the
summit of Parnassus, and wreathes the temple door with
fresh laurels; how he calls the other priests from their
ablutions, drives away the birds that dare to defile the fore-
courts of the temple, and sprinkles the earth with the pure
water of Castalia, never tired of the duty, which to him is
sacred and dear.
1 Dittenberger, Sylloge inscript. Grace., 3rd ed., 416-8.
2 Ibid., i. 447, footnote.
THE ORACLE
equally characteristic, the first of Cicero's vanity, the second
of the conventional element in the counsel of the Oracle;
it might have suited many another well, but not a man of
so weak and easily frightened a disposition as Cicero. This
kind of good advice was evidently the speciality of the
Oracle, and questions of this kind were far more welcome
than those which required prophecy of the future.
We can also imagine the Oracle consulted by private
persons who had been robbed. Of its ability “ to discover
stolen goods " we have evidence from Pausanias (x. 14, 7),
in the story of the man who had robbed the Oracle, but
when, with his ill-gotten gains, he had lain down to sleep
in a thicket on Parnassus, was surprised and killed by a
wolf. The well-meaning animal then proceeded to run
to and fro between Delphi and the place where the gold
lay, until people noticed it, followed him, and found the
gold, after which a bronze statue was raised to the wolf,
as a deterrent to all temple thieves. Extant Delphian
inscriptions 1 show that robbery and attempts at cheating
the temple were not uncommon. On the other hand, the
financial authorities of the temple knew how to avenge
themselves, when the pilgrims, in payment for wreaths and
sacrifices, had to change their native currency for Delphian
money. The accounts show on this head a cutting of the
rates of exchange much in favour of the temple.2
When the pilgrims consulted the Oracle, they had first
to wash in the fountain of Castalia, and afterwards offer
a cake. and a victim on the altar in front of the temple;
the poor brought a goat or a sheep, the rich one or
more oxen. What happened early one morning at Delphi
is prettily described in a chorus of the Ion of Euripides
(82 ff.), how the young priest greets the dawn over the
summit of Parnassus, and wreathes the temple door with
fresh laurels; how he calls the other priests from their
ablutions, drives away the birds that dare to defile the fore-
courts of the temple, and sprinkles the earth with the pure
water of Castalia, never tired of the duty, which to him is
sacred and dear.
1 Dittenberger, Sylloge inscript. Grace., 3rd ed., 416-8.
2 Ibid., i. 447, footnote.