a treat for Apollon worshippers! i found two very interesting videos on the oracle of delphi that made me realize that i’d only had a surface level understanding of all the research they’ve put in to figuring out what the hell got the pythia high— or if she was high at all! i had no clue how much popular media has oversimplified this topic, nor how it’s the opposite of cut-and-dry. the conversations and debates surrounding the nature of the pythia’s prophecies are still active, with varying levels of study and evidence to back each side!
this video (just over 25 minutes, made by ReligionForBreakfast) reviews the original research study that theorizes the pythia was high on ethylene and then goes on to review several researched and studied counter arguments. he then concludes that we cannot say for sure what got the pythia high— he even suggests the pythia’s behavior could have been genuine, sober trance work and religious ecstasy!
this video here (just under 40 minutes, made by Kaz Rowe), also goes over these research studies. however, she goes in to far more depth regarding the initial study affirming the burning of ethylene and far less depth into the counter arguments. the maker of this video is far more convinced that ethylene vapors are what we can point to to explain the oracle at delphi and is seemingly unmoved by counter arguments!
both videos start with an in-depth explanation of what we know about the day-to-day operations of the pythia and Apollon’s temple. both videos are very well formatted and cited, and neither claim to know the truth, only that they have their (differing) preferred theories. it was a valuable learning experience for me, and i figured it could be that for a lot of Apollon worshippers. if you have any thoughts, i’m all ears! personally, i believe there may have been times of the year where ethylene gas was being emitted, but that this is not what the pythia relied on day-to-day for her oracles.
