Oracle of Delphi told Alexander the Great his future. Turns out, the 'spaced-out' woman was lying to him
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Oracle of Delphi told Alexander the Great his future. Turns out, the 'spaced-out' woman was lying to him")
The Oracle of Delphi inhaled a gas which made her enter a trance. Photograph: (Flickr)
Alexander the Great took advice from the Oracle of Delphi, who lived in the temple of the god Apollo in Delphi, Greece. She would enter a trance and tell him and several others their future. But we now know that she was lying the entire time.
The famous Oracle of Delphi, Pythia, who lived at the temple of the god Apollo in southern Greece, told believers their future, and even advised Alexander the Great on important matters regarding his state and financial affairs. However, turns out she was just making it all up since her trance was induced by a gas named ethylene that was being released from the ground below. According to ancient records, she inhaled a "sweet-smelling gas" (called pneuma), which led her to enter a trance and act strangely. She got into a strange physical state and even collapsed sometimes. Ancient writers like Plutarch, who was a priest at Delphi, she was a vessel for power coming from Earth. He wrote that the temple was built around a natural spring, and the water and fissures in the rock released pneuma.
Absence of cracks in the ground under the temple of Delphi
On certain days, the priestess would stand over the pneuma and inhale it to enter a trance. She became hysterical and cried loudly, making it a tough ordeal. The temple closed down in 393 AD, and for years, modern scientists didn’t believe it was real because of the absence of volcanoes at the site, since most underground gases come from them. No large cracks were found in the floor during excavations, and the story was dismissed as a myth. However, turns out that it was a true story. Yes, she was inhaling gases and entering a trance, but everything the priestess said was just made-up stories.
Proof of a fault line hinted at a gas that could induce trance
A geologist and an archaeologist discovered two major geological fault lines intersect directly under the temple. Archaeologist John Hale said that Dutch-American geologist Jelle Zeilinga de Boer found in the 1980s that a fault line passed directly under the temple of Delphi. This is a place where Earth’s tectonic plates collide against one another, and this event triggers earthquakes. However, they can also cause the emission of gases. Hale told Popular Science that de Boer wondered whether the pneuma mentioned in the records could be “a light hydrocarbon gas” coming from permeable limestone. When researchers tested the rock and water, they found traces of ethylene. This gas has a sweet smell, just like the one described in the records. Inhaling it in small amounts can produce a "floating" sensation and alter the state of mind, leading one to act “space out”.
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This is apparently the gas the oracle was inhaling, and making up everything. The position was shared by several women over centuries since it was a physically demanding job, but also considered a great honour.
