The Last Oracle

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Ancient Greeks, with their pantheon of gods, held an abiding belief in the powers of prophecy. They revered those who could read the portents in the entrails of goats, who saw the future in the rising smoke of a sacrificial fire, who predicted events based on the auguries of tossed bones. But one individual was held in the highest esteem: the mystical Oracle of Delphi.

For almost two thousand years, a succession of closely guarded women resided within the temple to Apollo on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Each generation, a single woman ascended to the seat of prophecy and took the name Pythia. While under a vapor-induced trance, she answered questions about the future from the mundane to the profound.

Her admirers included leading figures of Greek and Roman history: Plato,

Sophocles, Aristotle, Plutarch, Ovid. Even early Christians revered her.

Michelangelo painted her prominently on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, foretelling the coming of Christ.

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