There are many legends about Delphi, and here I want to give three particularly famous examples:
-The story of Lydia's cloister attacking Persia.
According to Herodotus' history, King Cloisonne of Lydia (now western Turkey) (reigned from 595 to 546 BC, equivalent to China's Spring and Autumn Period) realized his national strength and considered expanding his territory. Of course, the king is a cautious man. Before making such a big decision, he needs to consult heaven. At this time, Greece and the whole Aegean Sea were ruled by the gods of Olympus, and each region had its own patron saint and temple. Crois, as a shrewd and scientific monarch, decided to test which god's prediction was more accurate before asking for God, in order to avoid superstition and blind obedience.
So he sent seven messengers to seven famous temples in the Pan-Greek region, and asked them to ask the same question to their temples on the100th day after they left Lydia: What is crois, the king of Lydia doing? The messenger should seal the recorded answers and bring them back to Lydia, and the king should start the exam at the same time.
Herodotus failed to collect all the answers to the Seven Temples, but it is said that crois was overjoyed when he saw the Oracle of Delphi, and thought it was a truly trustworthy channel. It is said that the Oracle of Delphi is like this:
It turned out that in order to make the test more difficult, cloisonne did something he thought impossible to guess on the appointed day: he personally found a turtle and a goat, chopped them up and stewed them in a pot with a bronze lid-the result was perfectly recorded by the priests in Delphi on the other side of the Aegean Sea. In addition, it is said that the Oracle from Amphialaus also conveyed the same message, but the Oracle itself has not been handed down.
Now he has found a reliable temple. Cloisonne has prepared a lot of wealth to be transported to Delphi and Ann Filias, and asked Lydia whether she should attack the Persian Empire and, if so, whether she should seek allies in the Greek city-states. The two temples gave him the same answer: If crois attacked Persia, an empire would be destroyed. As for his allies, he should look for them among the most powerful Greek city-states.
Obviously, these two temples are reliable, but the answer is still worthy of further confirmation. Chloe Aesop decided to spend less on consulting fees this time and only pay tribute to Delphi. By the way, when he asked questions, he took a shortcut. He didn't ask about winning or losing, but only asked if the national luck was prosperous. Delphi's answer is this:
Obviously, it is impossible for a mule to be king. When cloisonne got the news, she thought that her family would unify Lydia Empire from generation to generation, so she decided to form an alliance with Sparta, the most powerful military force at that time, and attack Persia.
Unfortunately, however, crois did not occupy Persian territory, but was hanged and captured by Persian emperor Ju Lushi. What's more, when he was besieged and in urgent need of rescue, cyrus the great, his most powerful Greek ally, failed to come to the rescue because of other affairs. Fortunately, Ju Lushi not only didn't kill him, but also regarded him as a VIP and consultant from now on. Crois, who survived, was full of resentment and sent someone to find the priest theory of Delphi Temple. Delphi not only did not apologize, but also refuted him with righteous words: 1) The Oracle said that an empire would perish, but did not say which one. If you are not sure, send another messenger to ask; 2) "Mule" is a metaphor. The Persian emperor Ju Lushi had different parents, so his son was called "mule" by Apollo. "Mule" became the emperor, of course you Lydia can't escape, you will be captured. ?
According to legend, after hearing this reply, Chloe Sass admitted that Apollo was not wrong, and it was all his own fault.
Two Stories in Persian War
In 480 BC, the Persian emperor Xerxes I personally attacked Greece. At that time, the strength of Greece and Persia was very different, and it was not an order of magnitude at all. Athens and Sparta decided to let bygones be bygones when the Greek nation was in danger, and led the Greek city-states that had not defected at that time to resist aggression. Athens is near the sea and mainly leads the navy; Sparta is a warrior, mainly in charge of the army. Faced with the siege of the Persian million-strong army (the exact number is still uncertain, it should be in the hundreds of thousands to millions), no one in Greek cities is sure, so they rely more on the power of the Oracle for shelter and guidance.
? -Sparta 300, hot spring pass
In the first 480 years, Persian troops crossed Macedonia to the south and approached the Greek peninsula.
Spartan King Leonidas I led 300 Spartan soldiers and other Greek allies to Maupile, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack, to meet the Persian army. Before facing the enemy, Leonidas I paid tribute to Delphi, and the Oracle he got was this:
It is said that after receiving this Oracle, Leonidas dismissed most of the soldiers in order to preserve the strength of the allied forces, leaving only 300 elite soldiers brought from Sparta, about 1 000 black laborers, and 6,000-7,000 other city-state soldiers who swore to follow, to meet the Persian army (material conflict) of1.20,000 to 300,000.
This is a battle to throw eggs at stones. The Greek Coalition forces persisted for three days and were finally wiped out. Other Greek allies used these three days to successfully retreat. The courage and dedication of Sparta 300 and its allies will always be remembered by the Greeks. Leonidas obeyed the Oracle and sacrificed a king to save his polis.
-Three rows of paddle warships, wooden walls in Athens
After crossing the hot spring pass, the Persian army marched straight into Greece, quickly occupied two-thirds of the land, occupied Athens and burned it. Fortunately, the Athenians listened to the Oracle of Delphi and withdrew from the city, so the Persians burned an empty city, which did not affect the effective strength of Athens.
About this Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it is said that it is like this:
As for the Oracle's interpretation of "wooden wall", the Athenians were also controversial at that time. Some people think that the wooden wall refers to the wall of the Acropolis, some people think that it should be built for Athens, and some people think that the wooden wall refers to ships. At this time, a man named Timis Tochris gave his own explanation of the Oracle: wooden walls meant warships, so the Athenians should be prepared for naval battles, and Salamis mentioned in the Oracle would be the site of naval battles.
Everyone agreed that Timis Torcles' opinion perfectly explained the Oracle, so the fleet stayed in Salamis to help the local civilians evacuate. At the same time, the Delphi people spontaneously prayed to Apollo to guide the safety of Greece, and the priest told them to "pray to the wind." The educated Greeks built altars to pray to the wind. Soon, the Persian fleet (Kloc-0/200 warships) reportedly lost at least one third of its ships in a storm.
The losses suffered by the Persian fleet greatly encouraged the allied forces (it is said that there were only 378 warships). With the favorable geographical position of Salamis and the strategy of Timis Tochris, the Greeks sank more than 200 Persian warships at the cost of 40 warships in September 480, and captured more than 50 warships. The morale of the Persian fleet was severely hit, and Xue Xisi fled the battlefield, thus reversing the situation of the Persian war.
Oracle of Delphi, would you like to try larks?
These records about Delphi aroused my curiosity. Believe in agnosticism, I suspect that there is either providence (but I basically don't believe it), or that the priests at Delphi are familiar with astronomy, geography and personnel, and may even have their own spy network to make such magical predictions. At the same time, in Herodotus' narrative, I clearly caught a glimpse of the technique of using prophecy to create suspense in contemporary magic/fantasy literature (for example, see the illusion Daniel Lisi saw in the immortal temple in The Game of Kings), but this is a historical record on the one hand and a literary creation on the other, and the two cannot be compared. Why on earth is Delphi so amazing? In order to satisfy my curiosity, I chewed some documents and came to the following conclusion:
1. The so-called history
Google defines history like this:
Therefore, for us who speak Chinese, events, people and records that can be called "history" all exist objectively or have existed before. In other words, the default attribute of "history" is "truth". Although we sometimes say that "history is written by winners", on the whole, we tend to believe that "history" is true. ?
But Herodotus said this about his work at the beginning:
Greek "history"? ρ? δοτο? -historia is the originator of some modern languages, including English history and French history. So far, the meaning of this word is different in every language. Its original intention is "research results" rather than the history we understand now ("truth"). Therefore, for Herodotus, who lived 2,500 years ago, his job was only to collect, screen, edit and record the rumors and information of the era and centuries before his own life. For himself, the materials selected in history can basically stand scrutiny. Sometimes if the content conflicts, he will continue to analyze the material with his own point of view.
Therefore, to find out why the Oracle of Delphi works, my argument is based on the wrong foundation-Herodotus collected only legends, not the truth.
2. Speculation about the Oracle.
Although Herodotus did not record the truth, the temple of Delphi did exist, which can be proved by countless sources, records of different times and archaeological basis.
Although many records are different in details, their * * * nature is obvious: the prophet of Delphi was a woman. When she predicted, she was surrounded by a mysterious gas rising from a crack in the rock and entered a state similar to madness, as if being caught by her upper body. This legend has a far-reaching influence on the shaping of the image of the prophet Delphi by later artists.
Legend has it that in ancient times, shepherds in Delphi sometimes found that their goats would suddenly jump up and scream like crazy when they passed a cliff on Mount PaNasos. Driven by curiosity, some shepherds will go and have a look by themselves. As a result, they will have all kinds of hallucinations, as if they were possessed, and some people claim to see the future. This place is becoming more and more famous. The local people thought it was a way for people to communicate with God, so they decided to build a temple to protect it. Since it is to communicate with God, it is natural to have some sense of ceremony, so first the beautiful virgin and then the venerable old woman were chosen as the prophet Pythia of Delphi as the only channel to communicate with God.
For a long time, historians have been trying to find the answer from all angles as to whether Petya will really enter a psychedelic state when predicting. One theory is that she was paralyzed by inhaling the gas scattered in the stratum, but the excavation of Athens College in France did not find the legendary cracks under the temple of Apollo. They thought that the geology of local shale also prevented the gas from spreading outward. However, a new study in the United States in 2002 shows that the Delphi remains are indeed located at the intersection of two faults, and the asphalt limestone rich in the ground may produce ethylene during the crustal movement, which has a nerve paralysis effect on people. Therefore, Pythia's psychedelic state may exist, but whether it is nonsense or the possession of the sun god in psychedelic state is another matter.
3. Keep pace with the times and seek God's guidance
In ancient Greek mythology, the gods of Olympus did exist and often interfered in human affairs. Many city-states and powerful people can trace their city-building/family history back to a specific hero (demigod, usually the illegitimate child of Zeus). Therefore, the ancient Greeks went to the temple to seek various answers, which were often very pious and asked very specific examples. According to their priorities, Delphi designed a series of processes and corresponding charging rules.
Pythia's prophecy is the most effective and expensive legend and the most complicated process, which is generally open to celebrities. For ordinary people, the way of drawing lots by letter is enough to make them confident to face life events such as weddings, funerals and land distribution.
Because of Delphi's fame, its business scope has also developed from the annual Pitaya forecast-the usual lottery structure to the monthly forecast, until finally there are two Pitaya on duty every day, and there is also a backup business structure.
It should be noted that although Pythia is the golden signboard of the whole Delphi system, their "wild talk" is incomprehensible to the questioner, which requires male priests to record their predictions in the form of words. Interestingly, with the development of writing and literature, in the era when poetry was the main style, Delphi's Oracle was all poetry, while in the era when prose was the main style, the Oracle handed down became prose. Whether in poetry or prose, the similarity of these oracles is their mystery. In other words, everything seems reasonable (see above). People can't help but sigh that the priests in Delphi are smart and keep pace with the times.