The priestesses of Ancient Greece
It is my belief that since the beginning of times from Adam and Eve to our modern civilized and innovative technological society, women appear to have risen from the brut tyranny of men to the force of nature that is praised by many. While it could be considered that many women are still considered the property of men, it could be argued that women have achieved the goal of equality set by their ancestors. Furthermore, history indicates the lack of morality and ethics toward women, as well as the abundance of restraints and control of men on every aspect of their lives. However, religion was the silver lining of being a woman. The history books and scholars provide a gateway to the ancient world and enlightenment on the civilization of our primogenitors. During the period of Athens and the dominant worshiping of the twelve Olympians, women were not deemed to be citizens but were praised and adored as the goddess and patron of the city and received honor and respect as they served the role of priestesses. Delphi was the center of religion in the Classical Age of Athens as one of the richest city-states due to its popularity. Many priestesses served during this period; nevertheless, the priestesses from the oracle of Apollo were the most prominent. Through Delphi and the oracle of the sun god, Apollo, one will understand the value and roles these women played as a priestess.
Approximately, six miles from the Gulf of Corinth in the region of Phoics, Greece, Delphi is located between the two rocks of Mount Parnassus PhaidriadesRocks. Delphi was an especially important site. Here, the Greeks believed, the Earth was attached to the sky by its navel. Greeks considered Delphi the center (or navel) of the world. According to the Greek mythology of History.com,” Zeus sent out two eagles, one to the east and the other to the west, to find the navel of the world. The eagles met at the future site of Delphi — Zeus marked the spot with a sacred stone called the omphalos (meaning navel), which was later held at the sanctuary of Apollo.”
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Delphi as well had its notoriety for being a holy spot all over Greece and was an autonomous city-state that often did not favor one side with other city-states. In any case, regardless it had an extraordinary effect on different states because of numerous fundamental choices, both political and financially, were taken after an interview with the Oracle. Additionally, new settlements were not permitted to be established without an understanding of the asylum at Delphi. The developing impact over rising Greece empowered the settlement at Delphi to develop from a little town to a noteworthy structural compound of compelling artwork. The Greeks were believers of many things; they believed that the site was initially hallowed and the possession of Gaea, or Mother Earth, and was protected by Gaea's snake tyke, Python. However, Apollo executed Python and established his place of worship there.
Apollo was part of the twelve Olympians that ruled over Ancient Greece. According to Greek mythology.com, he was the product of the love affair between Zeus, the king of all other gods and men, and Leto, the Titan goddess in Greek mythology. He is the Olympian divine force of the sun and light, music and verse, recuperating and torment, prescience and information, request and magnificence, arrow-based weaponry, and agribusiness. An encapsulation of the Hellenic perfect of kalokagathia, a word to those of a perfect courteous individual, particularly in a military setting. He is congruity, reason, and control represented, an ideal mix of physical prevalence and goodness.
The oracle and sanctuary of the Greek god Apollo at Delphi were known as the center or naval to the gods of the ancient world for more than one thousand years. Individuals ranging from city leaders, citizens, and kings from all over the regions, and further beyond, have traveled to see and consult Delphi’s oracle priestess. The oracle at Delphi was a priestess, known as Pythia.
Michael Scott, author of Delphi-A history of the Center of the Ancient World, discovered through the writing of Plutarch, a first-century priest who served at the Temple of Apollo, that “The Pythia had to be a Delphian, and during his time the chosen one had to come from the “ soundest and most respected families to be found in Delphi”. However, that did not mean a noble family living in riches. Whereas, Plutarch’s Pythia “always led an irreproachable life; although, having been brought up in the homes of the poor peasants, when she fulfills her prophetic role she does not so quite artlessly and without any special knowledge or talent.” One can understand that even during the age of Athens, the underdog was the one winning. Once chosen, the Pythia served Apollo for life and committed herself to strenuous exercise and chastity. During the oracle’s history, around the fourth century BC and by AD 100, she was given a house, a free-living accommodation because it was paid for by the sanctuary. The first-century priest complained that while in previous centuries the sanctuary was so busy that they had to use three Pythia, versus the traditional one Pythia, at one time, two prophesied while the third one served as an understudy or assistant. Originally, according to Diodorus Siculus, the women picked to become
Pythia had to be a young virgin. Having said that said, this tradition changed with the Echecrates of Thessaly, who came with the intention to consult the Pythia, fell in love with her at first sight, then carried her off and rape. Thus, the Delphian order decided that in the future Pythia should be a woman in her mid-age, fifty years or older, but should continue as Pythia, to wear the dress of a maiden in the memory of the original virgin prophetess. Many scholars suggest that this type of garb would have been an indication of her emphasized asexuality.
Sue Blundell, in her book Women in Ancient Greece, states that priestesses assigned to male divine beings occurred at Dodona and Delphi, oracular shrines where the Pythia answered to queries addressed to a god were transmitted via a female speaker. In both asylums, the priestesses were abstinent. Even though deep-rooted abstinence was not a condition generally forced by the Greek religion; as a transitory state, it appears to have been viewed as significant when a human female was called upon to go about as the voice for a divine being. As a woman who had no sexual relations with a human man, she was saving herself for god alone. Dodona, in northwest Greece, was an oracle of Zeus, and in the Classical period enquiries were presented to the god in writing, scratched onto a lead strip question from the jar along with a symbol which indicated whether the answer was “yes” or “no.' At Delphi, the sanctuary of Apollo which in The Classical Age was the most important of the Greek oracular shrines, the god’s possession of the priestess was more dramatic and obvious. Here, the strategy for divination was uplifting; the priestess who was known as the Pythia went into a stupor, and the words which she articulated while in this state were believed to be those of Apollo himself. According to Marguerite Rigoglioso, author of Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece, Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias, and Plutarch declared that “the Delphians said their oracle was founded when local people noticed that breathing vapors from a particular chasm granted anyone the ability to prophesy freely.” There were repeated instances of people leaping into euphoria; therefore, the residents chose a single woman to serve as a prophetess. As a matter of her safety, the residents built her a special cauldron-like seat with three legs, known as a tripod, so that she could sit safely while intrance without falling into the hole. The Pythia went through many traditional rituals before prophesying; nevertheless, three days before she delivered her prophecy, the Pythia prepared by fasting and bathing in the Castilian spring in order to be freed from distractions and upset so that she could deliver the god’s messages as accurately as possible and not cause herself harm in the process. The male officials of Delphi and inquirers were also required to do the same before participating in the solemnities. Unlike Dodona, women, as well as men, could petition the Pythia. Moreover, before meeting the petitioner in the temple, the Pythia chewed the leaves of the sacred laurel and drank from the Cassotis spring. Thereafter, she “descended “into the small sanctuary. In this the location, there was a golden statue of Apollo which stood, with the sacred “navel” stone or omphalos, and the tomb of Dionysus. On the altar of the eternal flame, she burned the laurel leaves and barley, and perhaps myrrh. At some point during these rituals, she prayed to Pallas Athena, the Corycian Nymphs, the streams of Pleitus, and the gods Bromius, Poseidon, and Zeus.
In addition, these women seemed to have a considerable amount of political authority. For Delphi, she was often consulted by the representatives of Greek states on matters of the highest importance. In classical Athens, where a woman could only hold the position of the priestess as public office, more than forty, cults had a priestess. Prominent among these was the priestess of Athens Polias, the city’s patron deity. This post was always occupied by a female member of the aristocratic clan of the Eteobutadae, who claimed to be descendants of the original royal family of Athens. The priestess officiated at many religious rites and celebrations, including the Great Panathenaea, the most important of the state festivals. The fact that she was the only respectable Athenian woman who could be referred to by her personal name in public was an indication of her quasi-masculine status. Despite the fact of being a member of the non-dominant sex, she seemed to have exerted political influence. Sue Blundell explains that in 480 BC when the Persian army was advancing on Athens, the priestess’s announcement that the cake offered to the sacred snake on the Acropolis have been left untouched helped to determine the decision to evacuate the city (Herodotus 8.4I). Within the history of the Oracle of Apollo, there were rumors of the Pythia being corrupted. Based on the evidence given from Matthew Dillion in his book Girls and Women in classical Greek Religion, “Demosthenes could accuse the Pythia of ‘philippizing’, of serving the needs of Philip II, king of Macedon. More difficult to ascertain is the role Pythia’s role before the Persian War of 480-479 BC, in which she, either genuinely or perhaps advised by the priests, gave a series of oracles which hardly recommended resistance to the invader.”
Furthermore, priestesses enjoyed some special privileges, such as housing within the sanctuary, chairs, or thrones within temples, and access to restricted areas. By the Hellenistic period, portrait statues, gold crowns, and reserved seats in the city theater were the three principal public honors that priestesses across the Greek world enjoyed. The high honor of public burial, complete with processions, commemoration, and impressive grave monuments were given to some priestesses at the end of their lives. According to the book Worshiping Women, Ritual, and Reality in Classical Athens “ In return for their service, priestesses were paid salaries in cash and in kind, including valuable skins, hides, and meat from sacrificial victims, grains, fruits, cakes, bread, wine, oil, and honey.” Also, as stated by Joan Breton Connelly in Portrait of a Priestess, Women and Rituals in Ancient Greece“Emoluments are variously called hierosyna and Apometra. Hierosyna are generally understood to be sums charged to the per making the sacrifice and appropriated for the sacrifices themselves. Apometra represents a share paid to the priest or priestess, which could come in form of cash, or a portion of the sacrificial victim, or other offerings.” Additionally, they had the lifesaving luxury of being spared the cruel enslavement, alongside with male priests, of Alexander the Great during his great invasion.
To conclude, priestesses were the messengers of the gods who served and obeyed their god for the moment they were chosen until death. It is quite humorous to acknowledge that the ancient world made decisions based on the answers from an individual in a very intoxicated state. However, they were aware of the vapors and still chose to believe in the prophecies of the priestess. While it is true that through the remains of Delphi and scriptures written by those of the Oracle of Apollo, one can appreciate the power, respect, and strength of these women; however, we would never know their entire story. Nevertheless, these women were one of the many highlights of the Golden Age and shall forever remain unforgettable.
Work cited
- History.com Editors. “Delphi.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 May 2018, www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/delphi.
- “Apollo:: Greek God of the Sun and Light.” Greek Mythology, www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Apollo/apollo.html.
- Scott, Michael. Delphi: a History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton University Press, 2016.
- Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece. British Museum Press, 1995.
- RIGOGLIOSO, Marguerite. CULT OF DIVINE BIRTH IN ANCIENT GREECE. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2015.
- Dillon, Matthew. Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. Routledge, 2008.
- Kaltsas, Nikolaos, and Harvey Alan. Shapiro. Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens. Athenai, 2008.
- Connelly, Joan Breton. Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece. Princeton University Press, 2010.
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