Delphi, Greece
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation”. Acts 16:16-17.
Paul was harassed in Philippi by a diviner. In Greek “a spirit of divination” literally means “a spirit of Python”. Pythian priestesses served as oracles at Delphi. All over the ancient world from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD “influencers” came to Delphi to receive advice from oracles. A significant challenge of the early Christian church was to demonstrate the error of pagan religious thought and point the way to truth. This girl possessed by an evil spirit was speaking a truth about Paul and his companions, but Paul certainly didn’t want people confused by the utterances of an evil spirit. Just as Jesus would command demon spirits to keep quiet, Paul silenced this spirit.
Delphi is located on the slopes of Mt Parnassus near the gulf of Corinth. The temple of Apollo was first constructed in the 7th century BC. The remains of the temple that you see today at the site are from a 4th century BC renovation Along the sacred way leading to the temple were treasury buildings. These buildings were built by many greek cities as homage to the god Apollo. Under the temple was a chamber where Pythia priestesses would enter a trance like state and utter nonsense that a priest would translate into slightly less nonsense. The trance was likely due to gases trapped in the chamber as it built over a major geologic fault line. If you look at the floor of the temple in the picture, a crack can be seen from an earthquake along the fault line. The priests likely had a great deal of knowledge and insight into geopolitics because of interaction with influential people from many places.
The serpents column near the temple has been reconstructed. The original 470 BC column is in Istanbul and the single surviving serpent head is in the Istanbul archeological museum. It was a structure dedicated to the serpent dragon Python which myth said lived at the site.
The Corycian cave is on the other side of Mount Parnassus and was a pagan sacred area long before Delphi, from the neolithic age on. It is a massive system of caves that extend deep into Mnt Parnassus. Findings in the cave included thousands of astragals - dice like pieces of animal talas and knuckles. This was somewhat of a “poor man’s Delphi - a place of worship of Pan and divination using these dice.
Temple of Apollo at Delphi Greece
