Scientific News  Hypotheses Historical hypotheses THE ANCIENTS WERE RIGHT - DELPHI WAS A GAS!
THE ANCIENTS WERE RIGHT - DELPHI WAS A GAS!
 The
Oracle of Delphi was the most important shrine in ancient Greece and was
considered the center of the world. It was a crucial pilgrimage for those
seeking guidance from Apollo's mouthpiece, the Pythia, who gave cryptic answers
to such matters as timing for planting crops, preparing for war, or resolving a
moral dilemma.
The temple's high priest, Plutarch (c.46-c.120),
explained that the Pythia's trance state was induced by gaseous emissions and
that the Oracle's power began to wane because the source of the emissions was
running out. Other ancient authorities also attributed the Oracle's "power"
to geological features—a fissure in the bedrock, a gaseous vapor, and a spring.
When French archaeologists failed to find such features a century ago, they
dismissed the notion of intoxicating vapors as the "source" of the
revelations. The modern misconception that vapors and gases can only be produced
by volcanic activity has also discouraged scientists from probing the geological
forces behind the Oracle.
But these days, scientists are revisiting the
problem with results that would definitely please the ancients. In the August
issue of GEOLOGY, J.Z. de Boer reports on a four-year interdisciplinary study
that has successfully identified young faults at the Oracle site and has also
pinpointed the emissions responsible for the Pythia's trance state—light
hydrocarbon gases from bituminous limestone. De Boer and colleagues found ethane,
methane, and ethylene in spring water near the Oracle. The euphoric effects of
ethylene, which had been used as anesthesia in the last century, jibe very well
with Plutarch's description of the gas the Pythia inhaled. Henry Spiller, a
medical doctor who recently joined the research group, provided details on the
narcotic effects of ethylene that completed the team's theory. Spiller works in
the Poison Center at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.
De Boer, an Earth sciences professor at Wesleyan
University in Connecticut, became interested in Delphi ten years ago when he
worked with a group of American geologists for the Greek government on the
seismicity and tectonic setting of the Corinth Rift zone.
"At that time I took a good look at previous
and newly exposed segments of the Delphi fault and discovered another fault
intersecting it," de Boer explained. "Following the fault traces
brought me to their covered intersection below the Sanctuary."
But years later it took a "dare"
between two friends to really get this research project going.
"About five years ago, I found myself in
Portugal on a small terrace near an archaeological site, enjoying the wine, and
talking with John Hale about my work in Greece and the faults near Delphi,"
de Boer said. "He told me that the majority of archaeologists did not
believe in the ancient descriptions of fissure and rising fumes that influenced
the Pythia. I challenged him to come with me to Greece and he accepted."
That's how Hale, an archaeologist at the
University of Louisville in Kentucky, became one of the co-authors of this work.
And the rest is history…
By Kara LeBeau, GSA Staff Writer
Contact Information:
Source of the given news and the copyrights
belong to a Geological
Society of America
Publishing date: August 22, 2001
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