The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither conceals nor reveals, but gives a sign.
Heraclitus
Chaerephon’s Question
One of Socrates’ constant companions was Chaerephon. Gaunt and pale, he looked like a scarecrow or, to Aristophanes, a bat, and hence was a target for impersonation on the comic stage.[1] Enthusiastic and excitable, he was one of Socrates’ most visible and devoted supporters from an early time.[2] At some point early in Socrates’ career, Chaerephon left Athens on a secret mission, unbeknownst to Socrates. He traveled north and west toward the borders of Boeotia, probably with a band of pilgrims and sports fans going to the Pythian Games at Delphi,[3] and took the fork in the road that led into Phocis and up the slopes of Mount Parnassus the holy mountain. He followed the track upward along the cliffs of the mountain, rising into the pine forests and cool air above the plain. He finally reached the sacred precincts of Delphi, the fabled city. Here was the center of the earth, or so earlier generations had believed. A carved stone cone in the temple was revered as the omphalos, the navel of the world. When Gaia, mother Earth stretched out to provide a foundation for living things, her navel was here. The name of the city is perhaps related to the Greek word delphys, womb.[4] Here Apollo set up his oracle where pilgrims could come to ask for an answer from the god. The figures of two golden eagles stood guard over the omphalos, one on either side. They represented the two eagles which, according to myth, Zeus had released to find the center of the earth. They met at Delphi.
High up on the steep southern slope of the mountain, 1800 feet above the Corinthian Gulf, were the sanctuaries of the god. On a zigzag path up the hill Chaerephon would visit the Athenian Treasury, a small but comely building in the Doric style where the Athenians administered their bounty. Farther up was a stoa or colonnade donated by the Athenians where the beaks of Persian ships captured at the Battle of Salamis hung on a wall to commemorate the great Greek victory in the Persian War. As the road wound up the hill, it passed countless statues dedicated to the god, other shrines and treasuries. Above these was a great Doric temple built in the late sixth century funded by the Alcmaeonid family of Athens. Higher yet was a great theater built in the following century to face the abyss, where the spectators looked beyond the orchestra into the gorge far below. Higher still and toward the west was the stadium used for competitions. Chaerephon’s attention was not on the buildings or statues. He had come with a question for the god.
In the rear of the temple was the adyton or sanctuary where the oracle was consulted. In it the Pythia, high priestess of Apollo, sat on a bronze tripod surrounded by mists rising from fissures in the bedrock. In one hand she held a branch of bay leaves, in the other a dish of sacred water from the spring of Cassotis. She was a mature woman, perhaps chosen from a guild of priestesses, and kept in a state of ritual purity for the time of her service to the god. In fact, in the heyday of the oracle three women took turns serving as the priestess.[5] As Apollo’s seers, the priestesses were the most powerful women in all of Greece. Kings and magistrates, as well as common people, waited breathlessly for their pronouncements. In a state of inspiration the Pythia uttered answers to the questions put to her by visitors to the shrine. She was attended by a spokesman, a priest, and five hosioi or sacred attendants.
Among the pilgrims were often heads of state, or rather their ambassadors. For such was the renown of the oracle at Delphi that its word was trusted by great and small alike, both Greek and barbarian. More than a century earlier, King Croesus of Lydia in Asia Minor had sent several times to Delphi to ask if he should attack the Persians who were expanding into the lands east of him. He was told that if he attacked a great empire would fall. He attacked, and a great empire fell—his own. The oracle carefully hedged its pronouncements and hid behind ambiguity and riddle.[6] Yet it was characteristic of the esteem in which it was held that the oracle suffered no diminution of its glory from the fate of Croesus. Rather, the king was seen as foolish for jumping to conclusions before he had ascertained the real meaning of the oracle. Rulers and rich men sent lavish gifts along with their emissaries, hoping that their munificence would win over the heart of the god to give them the answers they wished to hear. Poor people gave more modest gifts, the best they could afford. The simplest, and cheapest, inquiry was one that sought only a yes or no answer. Indeed, even city-states often asked only for the god to choose between two possible courses of action they proposed.[7]
Generally, the oracle was open for consultations only on the seventh day of each lunar month (excluding three winter months, when it did not operate, as Apollo was on holiday from the frigid mountain).[8] On the appropriate day, Chaerephon paid the fee for consulting the oracle. He offered the appropriate sacrifice, probably a goat. The goat was doused with water. It shivered from the hooves upward. If it did not, the unresponsiveness of the animal was taken as a bad omen and the consultation was delayed. But when it responded appropriately, the goat was taken to the altar before the temple and sacrificed.[9] Its organs were then examined to ascertain that there were no unfavorable signs. When all was well, Chaerephon received approval to make his inquiry.
The queues for the oracle were often long and one had to wait one’s turn. The order of pilgrims was determined by lot, but those from cities which made rich donations or supported Delphi militarily, like Athens, received prohedria, the opportunity to go first in line.[10] So Chaerephon waited his turn with his secret query. He was ushered into a waiting room outside the sacred chamber. When his turn finally came, he had a simple question, probably requiring only a yes or no answer. It is possible that the Pythia answered the question simply by drawing out of a bowl containing one white and one black bean: white yes, black no.[11] He asked: Was anyone wiser than Socrates of Athens?
[1].Aristophanes Clouds 102-4, 503-4; cf. Wasps 1388-1414; Birds 1296, 1564.
[2].Plato Charmides 153b; Apology 21a; Gorgias 447a ff. For a study of Chaerephon, see Moore 2013.
[3]. See Graham 2016.
[4].Chantraine 1999, s.v. Delphoi.
[5].Plutarch The Obsolescence of Oracles 8 = Moralia 414b.
[6].Herodotus 1.50-56, 71-87.
[7].Amandry 1950:149-159.
[8].Plutarch Greek Questions 9 = Moralia 292d-e; Amandry 1950:81-85.
[9].Plutarch The Obsolescence of Oracles 46 = Moralia 435b-c.
[10].Athens (along with Sparta and Thebes) had promanteia, or the right of her citizens to be received before those of other cities (Plutarch Pericles 21; Bowden 2005:17). Evidence on choosing the order of persons by lot is somewhat problematic (Amandry 1950:106-107).
[11].For evidence of answer by lot, and different methods of drawing lots, see Amandry 1950:25-36;Parke 1961; cf. Vlastos 1991:288-289.