The Oracles and Knucklebones

Pythia---The Oracle at Delphi

I like how we're now exploring mysticism and the occult in class.  It turns history inside out and lets us see the weird and the abnormal.  Sometimes, it leads us to some still rather unknown and thus intriguing practices born in antiquity.  One of the more well-known mystic practices is that of the Oracles in Ancient Greece.  These oracles were the masters of divination and prophetic premonitions.  These mystic oracles served many purposes in Greek society, but I wish to focus on the purpose of our current topic: Written knowledge.




How did the Oracles affect written knowledge in Ancient Greece?


One temple that has survived in part even until now is the temple at Delphi, dedicated to Apollo.  During the 8th century, B.C.,  visitors from around the world came to receive answers from the priestess Pythia.  Represented in the picture above, Pythia sat on a tripod and inhaled heavily ethylene gasses---which, in recent studies, is assumed to be alcoholic and thus induce such visions and strange mutterings.  However, for advancement of the written language, Pythia only ended up in writings throughout antiquity. . .she did not actually contribute much to the written language considering she delivered her messages from Apollo through mutterings rather than writing. However, she is important to mention in the development of oracles in Greek antiquity.

The sanctuary of Herakles in Achaea near the Mediterranean Sea.  Visitors would come and first pray to the statue of Herakles.  Then, to receive answers, they would roll four dice (also known as "knucklebones").  Some dice had four sides marked 1, 3, 4, and 6, while others had six sides.

Knucklebones

After rolling the dice, they added up the sum of the numbers and then needed only to coordinate their result to a chart with all possible outcomes and the appropriate god or goddess to pray to as well as a message of fortune.  For example, if you rolled a 1,6,6,6,4 your result is a 23.  For a 23, the result is:

"A one, three sixes, and the fifth a four.

Honor Pallas Athena, and everything you want

Will be yours, and your resolves will be achieved:

She will loosen fetters and rescue you in sickness."

Like processes of divination were reportedly done by Homer in the 4th Century B.C., done on papyrus.  You may be wondering how this affects the written language.  This is almost like the first board game! Imagine it---all you have to do is throw dice and then you get your future told on a chart! This made the whole idea of oracles and divination a game of luck, almost.  Later, books and poems were made to express many of the experiences of travelers with these oracles.

In short, the tradition of the oracles caused an increase in the dependence on written knowledge.  Greek oracles specifically through this process of dice-rolling and chart-reading further advanced the development of mysticism through the writing medium.



So, anyone want to play knucklebones later??



Sources:  http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/oracles/

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/oracles.htm

http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/delphi.html