Vision-Inducing Delphi Fumes Probed

Part of the mystique surrounding the Oracle of Delphi concerns the possibility that the oracle herself ~ usually referred to as the Pythia ~ inhaled fumes as she described her visions. Recent research shows that the fumes may have existed, and that they likely contained ethylene, creating an effect similar to the experience sought by modern-day “huffers.”

Archeological Odyssey recently published a detailed account of the research, reprinted in Bible History Daily. Here’s an excerpt:

The ancient sources describe two distinct types of prophetic trance experienced by the Pythia. First, and more normally, she would lapse into benign semi-consciousness, during which she remained seated on the tripod, responding to questions—though in a strangely altered voice. According to Plutarch, once the Pythia recovered from this trance, she was in a composed and relaxed state, like a runner after a race. A second kind of trance involved a frenzied delirium characterized by wild movements of the limbs, harsh groaning and inarticulate cries. When the Pythia experienced this delirium, Plutarch reports, she died after only a few days—and a new Pythia took her place. 

According to toxicologist Henry Spiller, both of these symptoms are associated with the inhalation of hydrocarbon gases. Spiller studies the effects of such inhalants on young people, known as “huffers,” who breathe in fumes from gas, glue, paint thinner and other substances because of their intoxicating properties. Perhaps the Pythia too was high on one of these hydrocarbon gases. 

It may even be possible to identify the kind of gas. Plutarch—who, we recall, was a priest of Apollo at the Delphic sanctuary—noted that the intoxicating pneuma had a sweet smell, like expensive perfume. Of the hydrocarbon gases, only ethylene has a sweet smell—so ethylene was probably a component in the gaseous emission inhaled by the Pythia.

Most researchers agree that the Pythia was chosen for her clairvoyant abilities as a trance medium, and that the fumes likely played an auxiliary role in her pronouncements.

Image: Painting of the oracle is by the Hon. John Collier, from 1891.

 Click here for the article.

Commerce Rich in Lost Egyptian Port

A lost ancient Egyptian city submerged beneath the sea 1,200 years ago is starting to reveal what life was like in the legendary port of Thonis-Heracleion. The city disappeared beneath the Mediterranean around 1,200 years ago and was found during a survey of the Egyptian shore at the beginning of the last decade. Now researchers are forming the view that the city was the main customs hub through which all trade from Greece and elsewhere in the Mediterranean entered Egypt.

According to The Telegraph, Dr. Damian Robinson, director of the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford, has said:

 “It is a major city we are excavating. The site has amazing preservation. We are now starting to look at some of the more interesting areas within it to try to understand life there.  

"We are getting a rich picture of things like the trade that was going on there and the nature of the maritime economy in the Egyptian late period.”

They’ve discovered the remains of more than 60 ships buried in the seabed. Giant 16-foot statues have been uncovered and brought to the surface while archaeologists have found hundreds of smaller statues of minor gods on the sea floor. Dozens of small limestone sarcophagi were also recently uncovered by divers and are believed to have once contained mummified animals, put there to appease the gods.

Image: Image is archaeological conception of Heracleion.

Click here for the article.

Satyr Masks from Wine Ceremonies Recovered

Two masks dating to 1 A.D. and found in a grave during excavations in the central Anatolian Necropolis site may shed light on ancient culture.

Anadolu University Archaeology Professor Taciser Sivas said the masks were the most beautiful historical findings of the year. 

“The masks were broken, but we have repaired the broken pieces,” she explained. “There are horns of a mythical figure on one of the masks, symbolizing a satyr [a half-human and half-goat god]. The other is bigger and white, with black and red hair.”

Sivas said the masks symbolized abundance and plentitude at wine-harvest ceremonies and were still being produced through the end of the Roman period. 

“Masks were used during religious ceremonies,” she added. “It is very significant the masks were found in Şarhöyük, as Eskişehir became the capital of Turkish world culture.”

Click here for the complete article.

Greek's Oracles Relied on Nature's Signs

"Priestess of Delphi," 1891, John Collier.

Oracles in ancient Greece relied greatly on natural phenomena ~ sounds, smells, the rustling of leaves ~ to glean information regarding the fate of individuals and nations alike. According to an article in the Greek journal, ekathimerini.com:

Unlike fortunetellers today … ancient soothsayers dealt less with making specific predictions about the future than offering assurances that particular decisions were correct or incorrect or that the gods looked favorably or unfavorably upon particular actions. Ancient augury took many forms, including the reading of flights of birds and the examination of sacrificial animals’ livers or other internal organs. Sometimes right and wrong, or favor and disfavor, were determined through the casting of lots -- like the rolling of dice today. Colored pebbles or animal bones (including pigs’ “knucklebones”) were commonly used in these divinations.  

More formal, highly ritualized prophetic practices also took place in or beside certain ancient Greek temples. Among the gods associated with oracles and prophesies were Apollo and Zeus, whose sanctuaries at Delphi and Dodona were well-known in Greek lands and elsewhere in the Mediterranean world for their priests’ and priestesses’ strange abilities to convey divine pronouncements.

Click here for the complete article.

Many Ancient Marble Statues Were Painted

Archer from Temple of Athena with painted surface.

Research at Stanford University is revealing that many ancient Greco-Roman sculptures were not displayed in their marble whiteness, but instead were brightly painted.

According to Past Horizons in interviewing the university’s Ivy Nguyen:

Though we still think of ancient Greece and Rome in terms of white marble sparkling under a hot Mediterranean sun, a new exhibition shows a Greco-Roman lady as she was meant to be seen – in technicolor. Not everyone may take to Stanford’s painted lady, but first impressions can change. “It’s very different – some have called it kind of garish,” admitted Nguyen, but she confesses that she’s gotten used to it. 

We’ve always known that ancient statues were painted: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a vase, circa 360-350 B.C., depicting a man painting a statue of Herakles. The most important evidence is on the statues themselves – traces of paint that time did not wash from the creases and crevices in porous marble.

Nguyen’s research indicates the marble surfaces were painted, but cannot detect how many coats of paint the ancients may have applied to the sculptures.

Click here for the article and a video.

Greek Drinking Parties Varied Through Ages

Kylix cup from 600 BC shows men's drinking party.

Ancient Athenian cocktail parties ~ called symposia ~ went from being events exclusively for elites, to being open to all citizens, and then in the 4^th Century BC back to displays of conspicuous consumption most could not afford.

The wine cups used during these gatherings reflect this story, according to Kathleen Lynch, a University of Cincinnati professor of classics. The cups were central to the symposia, where every participant drank the same amount of wine mixed with water, as they reclined on couches or mattresses set in a circle or square, according to LiveScience.com. 

"In the same way that the coffee mug with 'World's Greatest Golfer' in your kitchen cabinet speaks to your values and your culture, so, too, do the commonly used objects of the past tell us about that past," Lynch said.

As the social context went full circle from elite party to common practice and back again, the appearance of the cups evolved as well, from simple and stemless to a profusion of styles to knockoffs that imitated the appearance of silverwork. 

From 1,100 to 700 B.C., the symposia were reserved for the elite, and grave markers for the very wealthy were even made to resemble the mixing bowls used to blend wine and water during the parties.

Click here for the complete article.

Another 37 Ancient Tombs Found Near Pellas

Greek archaeologists last week announced discovery of 37 ancient tombs dating back to the Iron Age in a cemetery near the ancient Macedonian capital of Pellas.

Discoveries at the site included a bronze helmet with a gold mouthplate (shown at right), weapons and jewelry in the tomb of a warrior from the 6th century BC.

The newly discovered tombs brings the total to about 1,000 tombs ~ dating from 650 BC to 280 BC ~ discovered in the area since archaeological work began in 2000. The tombs contain iron swords, spears and daggers, as well as vases, pottery and jewelry of gold, silver and iron.

Temple to Athena Nike Now Restored

The temple during the restoration process.

The Greek temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis is now fully restored, following a decade-long facelift. Built between 427–424 B.C. ~ while Athens was fighting Sparta for control of the Greek world ~ the building was dedicated to the city's patron goddess Athena in her capacity to bring victory in battle.

 According to the Associated Press, the compact temple survived intact until the late 17th century, when it was demolished to provide material for a gun emplacement. It was rebuilt after Greece's independence from Ottoman rule in 1829.

Athena Nike had two dates with restoration crews over the last two centuries — one in 1935, another in the 1830s — and the latest top–to–bottom refurbishment was aimed to fix mistakes from previous restoration efforts for good. 

"We have used the latest technology, following successful experimentation with stress and aging," project head Dionysia Mihalopoulou told the Associated Press. "The choice and use of materials was the best possible, they will not corrode." 

Starting in 2000, workers took down 315 marble sections weighing up to 2–1/2 tons, laying bare a concrete foundation slab that was replaced by a stainless steel grid. Crews replaced the concrete additions with sections of new marble from ancient quarry sites ~ whose brilliant white contrasts with the old stone's patina in places like the walls and columns to make clear they are modern additions. 

Every block was returned to the original position selected by the temple's ancient architects.

Click here for the Associated Press article.

Stone Wall Believed to be Greek's Oldest

Palaeontologists have unearthed what is believed to be the oldest stone wall in Greece, standing at the entrance of a cave in Thessaly for the last 23,000 years.

The age of the find ~ determined by an optical dating test ~ singles it out as "probably one of the oldest in the world", according to a Ministry of Culture press release. "The dating matches the coldest period of the most recent ice age, indicating that the cavern's paleolithic inhabitants built it to protect themselves from the cold.”

The wall blocked two-thirds of the entrance to the cave, located close to Kalambaka in central Greece. Greek palaeontologists have been excavating the site for the last 25 years.

Like Greece, Temples in Sicily Face the Sunrise

Ruins of Greek temple at Selinunte on Sicily.

Nearly all temples constructed on the island of Sicily during its Greek period 2,500 years ago are oriented toward the eastern horizon, according to a new study by Alun Salt, an archaeoastronomer with the University of Leicester in England.

Though many temples on mainland Greece also line up with the sunrise, it is less frequent on the mainland than on outlying colonies, implying an effort by outlying colonies to strengthen their ties to the home territory, Salt tells LiveScience.

"If you were a Greek living in the Greek homeland, you knew you were Greek. The Greeks in Sicily were Greeks living at the edge of their world. They may have felt they had something to prove," says Salt, who noted that most temples in Sicily were also built on a larger scale than those in Greece proper.

According to LiveScience:

Temples were an important part of life in ancient Greece. Offerings to various gods were commonplace, as were rituals associated with the ancient Olympic Games. Temple ruins now dot the landscape of mainland Greece, with orientation favoring the sunrise in many, but not all.

Of the 41 temples in Sicily that date from the Greek period, however, only one of the doors doesn't face east, Salt found.

The phenomenon of east-facing temples may have been stronger in Sicily simply because doing things the "right" way helped forge a stronger bond with the mainland.

Sicily became a Greek state in the 8th century B.C., when Greeks first settled on the Mediterranean island, now a province of Italy.

Click here for the LiveScience article.

Greeks ~ Not Romans ~ Founded French Wine

New research indicates ancient Greeks brought wine to southern France about 600 BC, dispelling the theory that the Romans were responsible for bringing viticulture to the region that became the world’s largest wine industry.

The study ~ headed by Prof. Paul Cartledge of Cambridge Univeristy ~ found that the Greeks founded Massalia, now known as Marseilles, which they then turned into a bustling trading center. Within a matter of generations the nearby Rhône became a major thoroughfare for vessels carrying terracotta amphorae containing a new exotic Greek drink made from fermented grape juice.

He said there were two main points that proved it was the Greeks who introduced wine to the region.

"First, the Greeks had to marry and mix with the local Ligurians to ensure that Massalia survived, suggesting that they also swapped goods and ideas.

"Second, they left behind copious amounts of archaeological evidence of their wine trade (unlike the Etruscans and long before the Romans), much of which has been found on Celtic sites."

Cartledge argues the new drink rapidly became a hit among the tribes of Western Europe, which then contributed to the French’s modern love of wine.

Click here for the London Telegraph article.

Oldest Submerged City Found to be Even Older

Ruins of Pavlopetri on the seabed.

The world’s oldest submerged town ~ Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece ~ contains ceramics dating back to the Final Neolithic period. Archaeologists now believe the town was occupied 5,000 years ago, some 1,200 years earlier than originally thought.

As a Mycenaean town, the Pavlopetri site offers potential new insights into the workings of Mycenaean society. Pavlopetri has added importance as it was a maritime settlement from which its inhabitants coordinated local and long distance trade.

Dr Jon Henderson, an underwater archaeologist from the University of Nottingham, tells ScienceDaily: “This site is unique in that we have almost the complete town plan, the main streets and domestic buildings, courtyards, rock-cut tombs and what appear to be religious buildings, clearly visible on the seabed. Equally as a harbor settlement, the study of the archaeological material we have recovered will be extremely important in terms of revealing how maritime trade was conducted and managed in the Bronze Age.”

This summer an organized team of archaeologists conducted a detailed digital underwater survey and study of the structural remains, which until this year were thought to belong to the Mycenaean period ~ around 1600 to 1000 BC. Their investigations revealed another 150 square meters of new buildings as well as ceramics that suggest the site was occupied throughout the Bronze Age ~ from at least 2800 BC to 1100 BC.

Click here for the ScienceDaily article.

Click here for an 8-minute video on the Pavlopetri exploration.

Familiar Situations Provoked Athens' Downfall

Artist's conception of Athens in its glory.

Ancient Athens imploded during the 4th century BC amid a crippling economic downtown as its army fought unpopular wars on foreign soil and immigrants surged across its borders.

Cambridge University professor Michael Scott in his new study entitled From Democrats to Kings, contends that the collapse of Greek democracy and of Athens in particular offer a stark warning from history which is often overlooked.

"In many ways this was a period of total uncertainty just like our own time," Scott told PhysOrg.com. "There are grounds to consider whether we want to go down the same route that Athens did.”

According to PhysOrg.com:

It was not the loss of its empire and defeat in war against Sparta at the end of the 5th century that heralded the death knell of Athenian democracy ~ as it is traditionally perceived. Athens' democracy in fact recovered from these injuries within years. Instead, Dr. Scott argues that the strains and stresses of the 4th century BC, which our own times seem to echo, proved too much for the Athenian democratic system and ultimately caused it to destroy itself.

"If history can provide a map of where we have been, a mirror to where we are right now and perhaps even a guide to what we should do next, the story of this period is perfectly suited to do that in our times," Dr. Scott said.

"It shows how an earlier generation of people responded to similar challenges and which strategies succeeded. It is a period of history that we would do well to think about a little more right now ~ and we ignore it at our peril."

The name of "democracy," for example, became an excuse to turn on anyone regarded as an enemy of the state. Scott's study also marks an attempt to recognize figures such as Isocrates and Phocion ~ sage political advisers who tried unsuccessfully to steer Athens away from crippling confrontations with other Greek states and Macedonia.

Click here for the PhysOrg.com article.

Human Remains Deepen Macedonian Mysery

The burial vessels found in Aigai, one of which contained human remains.

Archaeologists have unearthed a lavish burial site at the seat of the ancient Macedonian kings, pointing to a 2,300-year-old mystery of murder and political intrigue. The find in the ruins of Aigai in northern Greece is only yards from last year's discovery of what could be the bones of Alexander the Great's murdered teenage son.

According to the Associated Press:

Archaeologists are puzzled because both sets of remains were buried under very unusual circumstances: Although cemeteries existed near the site, the bones were taken from an unknown first resting place and re-interred, against all ancient convention, in the heart of the city.

Excavator Chrysoula Saatsoglou-Paliadeli said in an interview that the bones found this week were inside one of two large silver vessels unearthed in the ancient city's marketplace, close to the theater where Alexander's father, King Philip II, was murdered in 336 B.C. She said they arguably belonged to a Macedonian royal and were buried at the end of the 4th century B.C.

But it is too early to speculate on the dead person's identity, pending tests to determine the bones' sex and age, said Saatsoglou-Paliadeli, a professor of classical archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Saatsoglou-Paliadeli believes the teenager's bones found in 2008 may have belonged to Heracles, Alexander's illegitimate son who was murdered during the wars of succession around 309 B.C. and buried in secret. The remains had been placed in a gold jar, with an elaborate golden wreath.

Click here for the complete AP article.

Remains of Aphrodite Cult Are Found

Remains of an ancient cult that worshipped the love goddess Aphrodite have been unearthed in the southern Golan Heights.

Archaeologists there have discovered a cache of three figurines of Aphrodite ~ whom the Romans called Venus ~ dating back about 1,500 years. The figurines, made of clay, are about 30 centimeters tall. They depict the nude goddess standing, with her right hand covering her private parts ~ a type of statue scholars refer to as "modest Venus."

According to Greek mythology, Aphrodite was born of the ocean foam at the place where the testicles of the Titan Uranus were cast into the sea by his son Cronus, who castrated him. According to another story, she is the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods. Aphrodite was a popular goddess, represented in statues all over the Greek and Roman world. The best known of these is is the Venus de Milo, on display at the Louvre.

"Aphrodite was the goddess of love, but also the goddess of fertility and childbirth," Professor Arthur Segal of the University of Haifa told Haaretz.com.

"Pregnant woman hoping for a safe birth would sacrifice to her, as would young girls hoping for love. Mainly, flowers, rather than animals, would be sacrificed to Aphrodite,” he said. “The figurines we found were made in a mold in rather large numbers. They would be offered to the goddess in a temple by supplicants, or kept above one's bed."

Click here for the complete Haaretz.com article.

Photo shows a similar Aphrodite statue in the "modest Venus" pose.

Parthenon Once Had Painted Blue Highlights

Millennia have stripped away any visible traces of blue paint.

We’re familiar with Greece’s ancient Parthenon as a classic white edifice, but new imaging technology reveals that portions of it originally were painted blue.

The temple ~ sitting atop the Acropolis in Athens ~ dates from the 5th century BC. Its carved statues and friezes show scenes from mythology and are some of the most impressive to survive from ancient Greece. Pigments are known to have adorned other Greek statues and temples, but despite 200 years of searching, archaeologists had found no trace of them on the Parthenon's sculptures.

Until now.

Giovanni Verri, a researcher at the British Museum in London, has developed an imaging technique that's ultra-sensitive to traces of an ancient pigment called Egyptian blue. He shines red light onto the marble, and any traces of paint that remain absorb the red light and emit infrared light. Viewed through an infrared camera, parts of the marble that were once blue will appear to glow.

Egyptian blue has shown up on the belt of Iris, Poseidon's messenger goddess, and as a wave pattern along the back of Helios, god of the sun, who is depicted rising out of the sea. It also appears as stripes on the woven mantle draped over another goddess, Dione.

"This adds another dimension to how we perceive the Parthenon," says Ian Jenkins, also at the British Museum. He believes the temple would originally have looked "jewelled" and "busy." The main pigments used are likely to have been blue and red, with the white stone showing through in parts, as well as gilding.

Click here for the New Scientist article.

Click here for the longer Discover Magazine article.

Romans Ready to Laugh at Themselves

Scene from 'Romans in the Decadence of Empire' by T. Coutoure, 1847.

Two men approached one another on the Appian Way.
“But you’re dead,” one tells the other. “Julius told me so.”
“How can I be dead?" the man says. "I’m standing here talking to you?”
“But Julius is much more reliable.”

It may lose a little in translation, but that’s a rough example of a joke from a 1,600-year-old book of ancient humor entitled Philogelos, or The Laughter Lover. I did an earlier post on the book last year, but Britain’s Guardian newspaper yesterday published an article about it, which has some additional detail.

According to classics professor Mary Beard in the article, the ancient Romans were a race ready to laugh at themselves.

Written in Greek, Philogelos, or The Laughter Lover, dates to the third or fourth century AD, and contains some 260 jokes which Beard said are "very similar" to the jokes we have today, although peopled with different stereotypes – the "egghead", or absent-minded professor, is a particular figure of fun, along with the eunuch, and people with hernias or bad breath.

"They're also poking fun at certain types of foreigners – people from Abdera, a city in Thrace, were very, very stupid, almost as stupid as [they thought] eggheads [were]," said Beard.

Researchers such as Beard continue to ponder how much the cultural differences between Ancient Rome and today may be altering the humorous aspects of the jokes.

Beard, who discovered the title while carrying out research for a new book she's working on about humour in the ancient world, pointed out that when we're told a joke, we make a huge effort to make it funny for ourselves, or it's an admission of failure. "Are we doing that to these Roman jokes? Were they actually laughing at something quite different?”

Click here for the complete article from the Guardian.

Greek Nudity Exaggerated in Battles

Leonidas at Thermopylae by Jacques David, 1814.

As depicted in ancient art, Greek men may have strolled around naked when at parties, but new research indicates scenes of them engaged in naked warfare are probably inaccurate.

"In ancient Greek art, there are many different kinds of nudity that can mean many different things," Jeffrey Hurwit, an historian of ancient art at the University of Oregon, tells LiveScience. "Sometimes they are contradictory."

Hurwit says Greeks did walk around naked in some situations. Men strode about free of their togas in the bedroom and at parties called symposia, where they would feast and carouse. Nudity was also common on the athletic fields and at the Olympic games.

However, nudity ~ Greek or otherwise ~ could be risky in the wrong situations.

"Greek males, it is generally agreed, did not walk around town naked, they did not ride their horses naked, and they certainly did not go into battle naked," Hurwit said. "In most public contexts, clothing was not optional, and in combat nakedness was suicidal."

Click here for the LiveScience article.

Plato's Cave in Award-Winning Animation

This afternoon, while researching information on Plato's Allegory of the Cave for an article I'm writing, I found this little treasure. It's an animated rendition of the allegory from Plato's Republic, written in 380 BC.

According to the little movie's creators, Bullhead Entertainment: "It is a story showing how true reality is not always what it seems to be on the surface. It is a story of open-mindedness and the power of possibility. We have adapted and brought it to life by shooting thousands of high-resolution photographs of John Grigsby's wonderful clay animation."

It runs 3.5 minutes and won First Place at this year's USA Film Festival Short Film and Video Competition.

Click here for the Bullhead Entertainment site.

"Did You Hear the One About . . . "

A man buys a slave and a little while later wants to return him. The seller wants to know why and the buyer says because the slave is dead.

"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

You might recognize this joke from a 4th Century AD joke book as reminiscent of the popular Monty Python sketch involving a man returning a dead parrot to a pet shop. The 1,600-year-old Philogelos: The Laugh Addict is one of the world's oldest joke books. Many of its 265 gags prove that sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence have been topics of jokes for centuries.

According to a Reuters report:

In many of the jokes, a slow-witted figure known as the "student dunce" is the butt of the jokes. In one, the student dunce goes to the city and a friend asks him to buy two 15-year-old slaves: "No problem," responds the dunce. "If I don't find two 15-year-olds, I'll get one 30-year-old."

In another, someone asks to borrow the student's cloak to go down to the country. "I have a cloak to go down to your ankle, but I don't have one that reaches to the country," he replies.

The manuscript is attributed to a pair of ancient comedians named Hierocles and Philagrius. Little is known about them except that they were most likely the compilers of the jokes, not the original writers, according to Reuters.

Other one-liners in Philogelos may baffle a modern audience, such as a series of jokes about a lettuce, which only make sense in light of the ancient belief it was an aphrodisiac.

Click here for the Reuters article.