The Pythia and her unclean spirit
He says, then: “The things foretold by the Pythia, or by the priestesses of Dodona, or by the Clarian, or at Branchidae, or at the shrine of Ammon, and by countless other oracle-givers, under whose guidance nearly the whole earth was settled, these they count as nothing. But the things spoken, or not spoken, by those in Judaea after their fashion, the way people around Phoenicia and Palestine are still accustomed to do even now, these they think marvellous and unerring.”
Let us say, then, about the oracles he has listed, that we could collect from Aristotle and from those who have pursued philosophy in the Peripatetic school a good deal to overturn what is said about the Pythia and the other oracles. We could also set out what Epicurus and those who embrace his teaching have said on the same matters, and so show that some even among the Greeks overturn the oracles that are acknowledged and admired throughout all Greece.
But let it be granted that the accounts of the Pythia and the other oracles are not fictions, nor men’s pretence of being possessed by a god. Let us see, then, whether even so it cannot be proved to those who examine matters out of love for the truth that one who accepts these oracles as real need not admit that there are any gods in them, but, on the contrary, certain wicked demons and spirits hostile to the human race, which hinder the soul’s ascent, its journey by way of virtue, and its restoration to true piety toward God.
Now it is recorded of the Pythia, whose oracle seems more famous than the others, that Apollo’s prophetess, seated over the mouth of Castalia, receives a spirit through a woman’s private parts; filled with it, she utters the oracles that are held to be solemn and divine. See, then, whether this does not reveal how unclean and profane that spirit is. It enters the soul of the woman who prophesies, not through fine, unseen passages far purer than a woman’s private parts, but through those parts which a modest man may not rightly even look at, still less speak of or touch. And it does this not once or twice, which might perhaps have seemed more bearable, but as often as she is believed to prophesy from Apollo.
Moreover, to drive the supposed prophetess into ecstasy and a frenzied state, so that she is not aware of herself at all, is not the work of a divine spirit. For one who is held by the divine spirit ought to be benefited long before anyone at all who is taught by the oracles what helps toward ordinary, natural life, whether for profit or for advantage, and ought to see more clearly at that time above all when the divine is present with him.
Greek
Φησὶν οὖν· τὰ μὲν ὑπὸ τῆς Πυθίας ἢ Δωδωνίδων ἢ Κλαρίου ἢ ἐν Βραγχίδαις ἢ ἐν Ἄμμωνος ὑπὸ μυρίων τε ἄλλων θεοπρόπων προειρημένα, ὑφ᾿ ὧν ἐπιεικῶς πᾶσα γῆ κατῳκίσθη, ταῦτα μὲν (ἐν) οὐδενὶ λόγῳ τίθενται· τὰ δὲ ὑπο τῶν ἐν Ἰουδαίᾳ τῷ ἐκείνων τρόπῳ λεχθέντα ἢ μὴ λεχθέντα, καὶ ὥσπερ εἰώθασιν ἔτι νῦν οἱ περὶ Φοινίκην τε καὶ Παλαιστίνην, ταῦτά γε θαυμαστὰ καὶ ἀπαράλλακτα ἡγοῦνται. λέγωμεν οὖν περὶ τῶν κατειλεγμένων χρηστηρίων ὅτι δυνατὸν μὲν ἡμῖν συνάγουσιν ἀπὸ Ἀριστοτέλους καὶ τῶν τὰ τοῦ Περιπάτου φιλοσοφησάντων οὐκ ὀλίγα εἰπεῖν εἰς ἀνατροπὴν τοῦ περὶ τῆς Πυθίας καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν χρηστηρίων λόγου· δυνατὸν δὲ καὶ τὰ λελεγμένα τῷ Ἐπικούρῳ καὶ τοῖς ἀσπαζομένοις αὐτοῦ τὸν λόγον περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν παραθέμενον δεῖξαι ὅτι καὶ Ἑλλήνων τινὲς ἀνατρέπουσι τὰς νομιζομένας καὶ τεθαυμασμένας ἐν πάσῃ Ἑλλάδι θεοπροπίας. ἀλλὰ γὰρ δεδόσθω μὴ εἶναι πλάσματα μηδὲ προσποιήσεις ἀνθρώπων περὶ θεοφορίας τὰ περὶ τὴν Πυθίαν καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ χρηστήρια· ἴδωμεν οὖν εἰ μὴ καὶ οὕτως δύναται τοῖς φιλαλήθως ἐξετάζουσι τὰ πράγματα ἀποδείκνυσθαι ὅτι καὶ τῷ παραδεχομένῳ εἶναι ταῦτα τὰ μαντεῖα οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον προσέσθαι ὅτι θεοί τινες εἰσὶ παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου δαίμονές τινες φαῦλοι καὶ πνεύματα ἐχθρὰ τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ κωλύοντα τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἄνοδον καὶ δι᾿ ἀρετῆς πορείαν καὶ τῆς ἀληθινῆς εὐσεβείας ἀποκατάστασιν πρὸς τὸν θεόν. ἱστόρηται τοίνυν περὶ τῆς Πυθίας, ὅπερ δοκεῖ τῶν ἄλλων μαντείων λαμπρότερον τυγχάνειν. ὅτι περικαθεζομένη τὸ τῆς Κασταλίας στόμιον ἡ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος προφῆτις δέχεται πνεῦμα διὰ τῶν γυναικείων κόλπων· οὗ πληρωθεῖσα ἀποφθέγγεται τὰ νομιζόμενα εἶναι σεμνὰ καὶ θεῖα μαντεύματα. ὅρα δὴ διὰ τούτων εἰ μὴ τὸ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐκείνου ἀκάθαρτον καὶ βέβηλον ἐμφαίνεται, μὴ διὰ μανῶν καὶ ἀφανῶν πόρων καὶ πολλῷ γυναικείων κόλπων καθαρωτέρων ἐπεισιὸν τῇ ψυχῇ τῆς θεσπιζούσης ἀλλὰ διὰ τούτων, ἃ οὐδὲ θέμις ἦν τῷ σώφρονι καὶ ἀνθρώπῳ βλέπειν, οὔπω λέγεσθαι ἢ καὶ ἅπτεσθαι· καὶ τοῦτο ποιεῖν οὐχ ἅπαξ που οὐδὲ δὶς (ἴσως γὰρ ἔδοξεν ἀνεκτότερον τὸ τοιοῦτο τυγχάνειν), ἀλλὰ τοσαυτάκις, ὁσάκις προφητεύειν ἐκείνη ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος πεπίστευται. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ εἰς ἔκστασιν καὶ μανικὴν ἄγειν κατάστασιν τὴν δῆθεν προφητεύουσαν, ὡς μηδαμῶς αυτὴν ἑαυτῇ παρακολουθεῖν, οὐ θείου πνεύματος ἔργον ἐστίν· ἐχρῆν γὰρ τὸν κάτοχον τῷ θείῳ πνεύματι πολλῷ πρότερον παντὸς οὑτινοσοῦν τοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν χρησμῶν διδασκομένου τὸ συμβαλλόμενον εἰς τὸν μέσον καὶ κατὰ φύσιν βίον ἢ πρὸς τὸ λυσιτελὲς ἢ πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον ὠφεληθῆναι καὶ διορατικώτερον παρ᾿ ἐκεῖνο μάλιστα καιροῦ τυγχάνειν, ὅτε σύνεστιν αὐτῷ τὸ θεῖον.