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Instead of speech with a Pythia or a Sibyl, they will sell you a plain papyrus leaf, hardly dry from the stalk, and bid you dip it in the water of a certain fountain, when it will show you a verse in which you may hear of your future." The glow of interest departed from Ben-Hur's face. "There are people who have no need to vex themselves about their future," he said, gloomily.
Modern philosophers think that by their doctrine of gases they can explain all the appearances of the Pythia; but the ancients, to whom this doctrine was unknown, admitted these appearances as the undoubted evidence of an interposition from heaven.
It was thus that the pagan priesthood threw about their oracles everything that could inspire the mind of the visitor with a sense of awe. We are told that the "sacred tripod" was placed over the mouth of a cave whence proceeded a peculiar exhalation. On this tripod sat the Pythia the priestess of Apollo who, having caught the inspiration, pronounced her oracles in extempore prose or verse.
Cadmus asked her to tell him what had become of Europa. She said that Jupiter, in the form of a white bull, had carried her away, and that it would be of no use to look for her any more. "But what shall I do?" said Cadmus. "My father told me not to turn back till I should find her." "Your father is dead," said the Pythia, "and a strange king rules in his place.
Had there been a London magistrate at hand in the days of the great Athenian orator, it would certainly have gone hard with the poor Pythia. No observer of human nature can doubt that we are bound by an "electric chain," and that we are liable to impressions, the sources of which are often unknown to us.
Pillars shall be erected at Olympia, Pythia, the Isthmus, at Athens in the Acropolis, and at Lacedaemon in the temple at Amyclae. If anything be forgotten, whatever it be, and on whatever point, it shall be consistent with their oath for both parties, the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, to alter it, according to their discretion.
The Pythia at Delphi, and the priestess in Dodona, have been the cause of very trifling benefits, when in a cautious, prudent state; but when agitated by a divine mania, they have produced many advantages, both public and private, to the Greeks."
Pythia said: 'That which thou boldest most precious and dear shall be torn from thy keeping, And from the heights of Olympus, down shalt thou fall in the dust; Still the contemplative eye discerns under mutable sand-drifts Stable foundations of stone, marble and natural rock. "You have chosen well girl. The oracle guaranteed you a safe road to tread through life.
Her only statue, a Pythia, in bronze was placed in the Grand Opera at Paris . In the Luxembourg Museum are marble busts of Bianca Capello and an "Abyssinian Sheikh" . A "Gorgon" , a "Saviour" , "La Bella Romana" are among her other works.
The hands of the brave, strong Spartan trembled as he seized the roll, and his fixed gaze on its characters was as if it would pierce the skin on which they were inscribed. Then, recollecting himself, he shook his head sadly and said: "We Spartans have to learn other arts than reading and writing; if thou canst, read the what Pythia says."
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