DELPHI—HOW THE GOD APOLLO SPOKE TO THE GREEKS.

DELPHI—HOW THE GOD APOLLO SPOKE TO THE GREEKS. Peter Green has a review in the London Review of Books (July 3) of DELPHI by Michael Scott which puts what seem to be ancient myths in historical perspective. The priestess at Delphi was believed by the Greeks to be the voice of Apollo. Nowadays people like me tend to dismiss the importance of the oracle. As Green says, : “…the idea of the Delphic Oracle as a clever political scam….is very much flourishing.” However, from an historical perspective, the oracle was powerful for over one thousand years, from about 800 B.C. to 395 A.D. During that time it was consulted on major decisions on subjects such as constitutional reform, war, and property disputes. The oracle had great power because the Greeks made decisions based on what the god Apollo was communicating to them in the same way that the Romans made decisions—and successful decisions—for centuries based on what the gods told them by means of the flights of birds and the condition of the guts of sacrificed animals.