Plutarch, De Pythiae oraculis, ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, 17

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[17] ἐπιβάλλοντος δὲ τοῦ Σαραπίωνος εἰπεῖν τι περὶ τούτων, ὁ ξένος· ἡδὺ μέν ἔφη τὸ τοιούτων ἀκροᾶσθαι λόγων, ἐμοὶ δʼ ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστι τὴν πρώτην ὑπόσχεσιν ἀπαιτῆσαι περὶ τῆς αἰτίας, ἣ πέπαυκε 5 τὴν Πυθίαν ἐν ἔπεσι καὶ μέτροις ἄλλοις θεσπίζουσαν· ὥστʼ, εἰ δοκεῖ, τὰ λειπόμενα τῆς θέας ὑπερθέμενοι περὶ τούτων ἀκούσωμεν ἐνταῦθα καθίσαντες. οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ μάλιστα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ χρηστηρίου πίστιν ἀντιβαίνων λόγος· ὡς δυεῖν θάτερον, 10 ἢ τῆς Πυθίας τῷ χωρίῳ μὴ πελαζούσης ἐν 402c ᾧ τὸ θεῖόν ἐστιν, ἢ τοῦ πνεύματος παντάπασιν ἀπεσβεσμένου καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως ἐκλελοιπυίας. περιελθόντες; οὖν ἐπὶ τῶν μεσημβρινῶν καθεζόμεθα κρηπίδων τοῦ¹ νεὼ πρὸς τὸ τῆς Γῆς ἱερὸν τὸ θʼ ὕδωρ 15 ² ἀποβλέποντες ὥστʼ εὐθὺς εἰπεῖν τὸν Βόηθον, ὅτι καὶ ὁ τόπος τῆς ἀπορίας συνεπιλαμβάνεται τῷ ξένῳ. Μουσῶν γὰρ ἦν ἱερὸν ἐνταῦθα περὶ τὴν ἀναπνοὴν τοῦ νάματος, ὅθεν ἐχρῶντο πρός τε τὰς λοιβὰς ὕδατι τούτῳ, ὥς φησι Σιμωνίδης³ 20

ἔνθα χερνίβεσσιν εἰρύεται⁴ τὸ⁵ Μοισᾶν⁶ 402d

καλλικόμων ὑπένερθεν ἁγνὸν ὕδωρ.

μικρῷ δὲ περιεργότερον αὖθις ὁ Σιμωνίδης τὴν Κλειὼ προσειπών

ἁγνᾶν ἐπίσκοπον,⁷ χερνίβων φησὶ πολύλιστον
ἀραιόν τέ ἐστιν⁸ ἀχρυσόπεπλον
⁹ εὐῶδες ἀμβροσίων ἐκ μυχῶν ἐρανὸν¹⁰ ὕδωρ λαβόν.

οὐκ ὀρθῶς οὖν Εὔδοξος ἐπίστευσε τοῖς Στυγὸς ὕδωρ τοῦτο καλεῖσθαι πεφήνασι.¹¹ τὰς δὲ Μούσας ἱδρύσαντο 5 παρέδρους τῆς μαντικῆς καὶ φύλακας αὐτοῦ παρὰ τὸ νᾶμα καὶ τὸ τῆς Γῆς ἱερόν, ἧς λέγεται τὸ μαντεῖον γενέσθαι διὰ¹² τὴν ἐν μέτροις καὶ μέλεσι χρησμῳδίαν. ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ πρῶτον ἐνταῦθά φασιν ἡρῷον μέτρον ἀκουσθῆναι, 10 402e

συμφέρετε πτερά,¹³ οἰωνοί, κηρόν τε, μέλισσαι

ὅτε τῷ θεῷ¹⁴ ἐπιδεᾶ γενομένην ἀποβαλεῖν τὸ σεμνόν.

De Pythiae oraculis. Plutarch. ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs. Leipzig. 1891.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Περὶ τοῦ μὴ χρᾶν ἔμμετρα νῦν τὴν Πυθίαν (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol II. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.)

Translations (2)

The Oracle at Delphi no Longer Given in Verse Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. V. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 17 focus

[17] As Sarapion was beginning to say something about these matters, the foreign visitor said, It is very pleasant to listen to such conversation as this, but I am constrained to claim the fulfilment of your first promise regarding the cause which has made the prophetic priestess cease to give her oracles in epic verse or in other metres. So, if it be agreeable, let us postpone to another time what remains of our sightseeing, and sit down here and hear about it. For it is the recital of this fact which above all else militates against confidence in the oracle, since people assume one of two things: either that the prophetic priestess does not come near to the region in which is the godhead, or else that the spirit has been completely quenched and her powers have forsaken her.

Accordingly we went round and seated ourselves upon the southern steps of the temple, looking towards the shrine of Earth and the stream of water, with the result that Boethus immediately remarked that the place itself proffered assistance to the visitor in the solution of the question. For, said he, there used to be a shrine of the Muses near the place where the water of the stream wells up; wherefore they used to use this water for libations and lustrations, as Simonides¹ says:

Where from depths below, for pure lustration

Is drawn the fair-haired Muses’ fount of holy water.

And in another passage² he addresses Clio in a somewhat affected way as the

Holy guardian of lustration,

and goes on to say that

She, invoked in many a prayer,

In robes unwrought with gold,

For those that came to draw

Raised from the ambrosial grot

The fragrant beauteous water.

Eudoxus, therefore, was wrong in believing those who declared that this is called the water of the Styx. But they established the cult of the Muses as associates and guardians of the prophetic art in this very place beside the stream and the shrine of Earth, to whom it is said that the oracle used to belong because of the responses being given in poetic and musical measures. And some assert that it was here that the heroic verse was heard for the first time:

Birds, contribute your feathers, and bees, bring wax as your portion.

Later Earth became inferior to the god and lost her august position.

Wherefore the Pythian Priestess now Ceases to Deliver her Oracles in Verse Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. III. Goodwin, William W., editor; Philips, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 17 focus

[17] Now as Serapio was about to have added something of the same nature, the stranger, taking the words out of his mouth, said: I am wonderfully pleased to hear discourses upon such subjects as these; but I am constrained to claim your first promise, to tell me the reason wherefore now the Pythian prophetess no longer delivers her oracles in poetic numbers and measures. And therefore, if you please, we will surcease the remaining sight of these curiosities, choosing rather to sit a while and discourse the matter among ourselves. For it seems to be an assertion strangely repugnant to the belief and credit of the oracle, in regard that of necessity one of these two things must be true, either that the Pythian prophetess does not approach the place where the deity makes his abode, or that the sacred vapor that inspired her is utterly extinct, and its efficacy lost. Walking therefore to the south side of the temple, we took our seats within the portico, over against the temple of Tellus, having from thence a prospect of the Castalian fountain; insomuch that Boethus presently told us that the very place itself favored the stranger’s question. For formerly there stood a temple dedicated to the Muses, close by the source of the rivulet, whence they drew their water for the sacrifices, according to that of Simonides:

There flows the spring, whose limpid stream supplies

The fair-haired Muses water for their hands,

Before they touch the hallowed sacrifice.

And the said Simonides a little lower calls Clio somewhat more curiously

The chaste inspectress of those sacred wells,

Whose fragrant water all her cisterns fills;

Water, through dark ambrosial nooks conveyed,

By which Castalian rivulets are fed.

And therefore Eudoxus erroneously gave credit to those that gave the epithet of Stygian to this water, near which the wiser sort placed the temple of the Muses, as guardians of the springs and assistants to prophecy; as also the temple of Tellus, to which the oracle appertained, and where the answers were delivered in verses and songs. And here it was, as some report, that first a certain heroic verse was heard to this effect:

Ye birds, bring hither all your plumes;

Ye bees, bring all your wax;

which related to the time that the oracle, forsaken by the Deity, lost its veneration.

Notes on the current edition

Περὶ τοῦ μὴ χρᾶν ἔμμετρα νῦν τὴν Πυθίαν

1. τοῦ Emperius

2. lac. 8 litt. in E

3. Σιμωνίδης] Bergkius 3 p. 409

4. ἀρύεται Turnebus

5. τὸ Bergkius: τε

6. Μοισᾶν Schneidewinus: μουσᾶν

7. hinc ἀγνὰ ἐπίσκοπε Κλειοὶ effecit Bergk. 3 p. 410

8. ἀραιόν τέ ἐστιν] ἀρυόντεσσιν Emperius

9. Lac. 13 litt. in E

10. ἐραννὸν Emperius

11. πεφήνασι ( πεφύκασι E)] γε φήσασι? πεπεικόσι?

12. διὰ W

13. πτερά τʼ Emperius. πτερόν?

14. ὅτε τῷ θεῷ] aliquid labis contraxisse vid. Ante ὅτε lac. statuit R. ὅτε τῶν θεῶν (sc. Μουσῶν) Benselerus

Plutarch De Pythiae oraculis 17

ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs

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