Comments on: It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas

By: Kevin P. Edgecomb

Kevin P. Edgecomb — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:47:11 +0000

They've been talking about this for years (at least 15 of them!), and they're pretty well-settled on the gas idea, but have yet to figure out the precise gas. The area is seismically active, and there's no leakage now, but they've detected deposits in the spring nearby (which occasionally stops flowing for long periods between seismic activity, too). Maybe it'll start up again. The short careers of the Pythia girls, who only did it for one year at a time, with some actually having died from too much exposure, and some of the other symptoms (convulsions, etc), the incoherent speech, and so on, and not least of all the ancient Greeks themselves telling us that it was gases from a chasm in the earth that the girls breathed, are all a part of this discovery. But remember, the way it worked was that the Pythia would mumble something or other and the priests would then compose the response in nice hexameter for the waiting questioner. Tracking the declining quality of the hexameter also bothered the ancients. And other oracles went silent, too, not just Delphi, which some (like the jealous priests at Delphi? a bitter "Apollo"? a mischievous teenaged Pythia?) relate to the growth of Christianity among the populace and diverting the attentions (and donations!) to Christ and the Church. Plutarch writes on both themes: The Oracles at Delphi No Longer Given in Verse, and The Obsolescence of Oracles are in his Moralia (volume 306 of the Loeb Classical Library). It's great stuff. I do believe that something had been formerly going on at the various oracles and temples, some kind of spiritual activity or influence, but that by a later age the almighty denarius had overcome any scruples the locals once had about faking it in the lean periods.

By: Maureen :)

Maureen :) — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:42:49 +0000

Thanks for the laugh this morning Mike!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:26:50 +0000

“It’s kind of sad to think that Rome’s final, brutal persecution of the Church resulted from the same process that produced the lyrics of Donovan, Pink Floyd, and Yes. But, whatever.”

I’ve believed for a long time that psychadelic drugs can put one in touch with demons, which were what pagans worshipped.

Interesting post.

By: Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:42:54 +0000

Deuteronomy prohibits communication with a “python spirit,” though the terms are usually translated into English as a prohibition of “divination” or somesuch. If memory serves, I think the Witch of Endor was also in touch with a python spirit. The Vulgate employed the word “pythonissa,” I believe.

By: Julie D.

Julie D. — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:08:21 +0000

Lrr: People of Earth… woah, that hippie’s starting to kick in… we’ve all learned a valuable lesson today… dude, my hands are huge. They can touch anything but themselves… (touches his hands together). Oh, wait.

Oh Futurama, is there anything your quotes don’t work for?

By: Alan Phipps

Alan Phipps — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:18:16 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated with the connnection with Acts 16:16-18, the woman with the “python spirit” near Philippi, who followed Paul, provoking a rebuke.