National Geographic piece about Delphi

Pythia - The Delphic Oracle with laurel leaf

Nat Geo has a fine story this month about Delphi, the navel of the Earth -- worth a look given that The Eumenides, when we get to it, opens with a long speech of the Pythia, followed by the appearance of Apollo. The article echoes the opening of that play, though it has a variant on the genealogy of the presiding deities of the site:

. . . this impressive spot in central Greece (about 100 miles northwest of Athens) was originally sacred to Gaea, mother goddess of the earth, who placed her son Python, a serpent, as a guard for Delphi and its oracle. Apollo, god of light and music, slew the serpent and took over the site for himself. Priestesses who served Apollo there were called the “Pythia,” named in honor of Gaea’s vanquished son. Throughout the classical world spread the belief that these priestesses channeled prophecies from Apollo himself. (Read about the science behind the Delphic Oracle's prophetic powers.)  NatGeo

The opening of The Eumenides offers its own genealogy of the site, beginning with the striking description of the Earth as πρωτόμαντιν - the first prophet:


πρῶτον μὲν εὐχῇ τῇδε πρεσβεύω θεῶν 
τὴν πρωτόμαντιν Γαῖαν: ἐκ δὲ τῆς Θέμιν, 
ἣ δὴ τὸ μητρὸς δευτέρα τόδ᾽ ἕζετο 
μαντεῖον, ὡς λόγος τις: ἐν δὲ τῷ τρίτῳ 
5λάχει, θελούσης, οὐδὲ πρὸς βίαν τινός, 
Τιτανὶς ἄλλη παῖς Χθονὸς καθέζετο, 
Φοίβη: δίδωσι δ᾽ ἣ γενέθλιον δόσιν 
Φοίβῳ: τὸ Φοίβης δ᾽ ὄνομ᾽ ἔχει παρώνυμον. 
λιπὼν δὲ λίμνην Δηλίαν τε χοιράδα, 
10κέλσας ἐπ᾽ ἀκτὰς ναυπόρους τὰς Παλλάδος, 
ἐς τήνδε γαῖαν ἦλθε Παρνησοῦ θ᾽ ἕδρας. 
πέμπουσι δ᾽ αὐτὸν καὶ σεβίζουσιν μέγα 
κελευθοποιοὶ παῖδες Ἡφαίστου, χθόνα 
ἀνήμερον τιθέντες ἡμερωμένην. 
15μολόντα δ᾽ αὐτὸν κάρτα τιμαλφεῖ λεώς, 
Δελφός τε χώρας τῆσδε πρυμνήτης ἄναξ. 
τέχνης δέ νιν Ζεὺς ἔνθεον κτίσας φρένα 
ἵζει τέταρτον τοῖσδε μάντιν ἐν θρόνοις: 
Διὸς προφήτης δ᾽ ἐστὶ Λοξίας πατρός. 

The Priestess of Pythian Apollo

First, in this prayer of mine, I give the place of highest honor among the gods to the first prophet, Earth; and after her to Themis, for she was the second to take this oracular seat of her mother, as legend tells. And in the third allotment, with Themis' consent and not by force, [5] another Titan, child of Earth, Phoebe, took her seat here. She gave it as a birthday gift to Phoebus, who has his name from Phoebe. Leaving the lake¹and ridge of Delos, he landed on Pallas' ship-frequented shores, [10] and came to this region and the dwelling places on Parnassus. The children of Hephaistos,²road-builders taming the wildness of the untamed land, escorted him with mighty reverence. And at his arrival, the people [15] and Delphus, helmsman and lord of this land, made a great celebration for him. Zeus inspired his heart with prophetic skill and established him as the fourth prophet on this throne; but Loxias is the spokesman of Zeus, his father.


Another article offers Some prophecies of the oracle

The finale of 2 Samuel

Last time, a question arose about the threshing floor at the end of 2 Samuel and its relation to the site of the Temple later built by Solomon:

24  And the king⁴⁴²⁸ said⁵⁵⁹ unto⁴¹³ Araunah,⁷²⁸ Nay;³⁸⁰⁸ but³⁵⁸⁸ I will surely buy^7069 7069 it of^4480 854 thee at a price:⁴²⁴² neither³⁸⁰⁸ will I offer⁵⁹²⁷ burnt offerings⁵⁹³⁰ unto the LORD³⁰⁶⁸ my God⁴³⁰ of that which⁸³⁴ doth cost me nothing.²⁶⁰⁰ So David¹⁷³² bought^7069 853 the threshingfloor¹⁶³⁷ and the oxen¹²⁴¹ for fifty²⁵⁷² shekels⁸²⁵⁵ of silver.³⁷⁰¹

25  And David¹⁷³² built¹¹²⁹ there⁸⁰³³ an altar⁴¹⁹⁶ unto the LORD,³⁰⁶⁸ and offered⁵⁹²⁷ burnt offerings⁵⁹³⁰ and peace offerings.⁸⁰⁰² So the LORD³⁰⁶⁸ was entreated⁶²⁷⁹ for the land,⁷⁷⁶and the plague⁴⁰⁴⁶ was stayed⁶¹¹³ from^4480 5921 Israel.³⁴⁷⁸

Araunah's threshing floor (via Wikipedia):

Threshing floors would usually be in places likely to catch the wind so that the wind would assist the separation of wheat from chaff. Hence, it is quite plausible for the threshing floor to have been located on a high hill. The narrative of the Book of Chronicles claims that the altar built by David on the site became the Temple of Solomon, and that the site had formerly been Mount Moriah; the equation of the Temple of Solomon with mount Moriah is viewed as dubious by many scholars, though David's altar being the same site as Solomon's temple is seen as plausible.

Note: It is difficult to avoid wondering about echoes of the imagery of wheat, chaff, winnowing.

Chaff and wind (ruach) return in Psalm 1:

1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

In the Middle Ages, the act of separating the wheat from the chaff served as a common metaphor for the task of reading -- separating the inner kernal of meaning, truth, from the outer (verbal, literal) husk of the text. As you'll recall from our reading of Dante's Purgatorio, many medieval commentators assume that ancient texts are allegories that require careful attention to be read aright.

At the very end of Samuel, a book that has much to say about hearing and interpreting indirect, often devious messages and messengers, it is difficult to avoid considering whether this threshing floor where the messenger of the plague ends and sacrifice begins might obliquely beckon us to reflect upon our experience of the text, glimpsing new dimensions of significance through intelligent reading.

A text that problematizes interpretation could well provoke questions about how it is to be read. This returns us to the fundamental differences between Homer and the Old Testament raised by Erich Auerbach (in his Mimesis) some time ago, when we read Hesiod's Theogony. For Auerbach, the brighly lit world of the Greeks gives us a wealth of information and descriptive detail - we enjoy the brilliance of the creation. The murky, enigmatic, elliptical tales of the Old Testament -- "fraught with background," in Auerbach's memorable phrase -- appear to hold something back, calling for further interpretive work.