Delphic oracle consultation
event · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
Pythian oracle · a certain oracle · consulting the oracle · the oracle · the oracle at Delphi
in the texts
Aristides
The consultation of the Delphic oracle before Plataea, its puzzling response, and its eventual correct interpretation.
On the morrow, my Lord, we are going to lead our army back to Eleusis, and fight out our issue with the Barbarians there, in accordance with the Pythian oracle.
Then the god said they were entirely in error, for the Pythian oracle’s places were there in the neighborhood of Plataea, and if they sought them they would surely find them.
And besides, that the oracle might leave no rift in the hope of victory, the Plataeans voted, on motion of Arimnestus, to remove the boundaries of Plataea on the side toward Attica, and to give this territory to the Athenians, that so they might contend in defence of Hellas on their own soil, in accordance with the oracle.
Cicero
Cicero's inquiry of the god at Delphi about how to become most illustrious, answered by the Pythian priestess's counsel to follow his own nature rather than popular opinion.
However, though Cicero, full of hope, was being borne on towards a political career, a certain oracle took the edge from his eager desire.
Lycurgus
Lycurgus's journey to Delphi to sacrifice and consult the oracle before undertaking his reforms.
Full of this determination, he first made a journey to Delphi, and after sacrificing to the god and consulting the oracle, he returned with that famous response in which the Pythian priestess addressed him as beloved of the gods, and rather god than man, and said that the god had granted his prayer for good laws, and promised him a constitution which should be the best in the world.