Geological Reasons for the Oracle of Delphi

Lucus_Eques · February 14, 2008, 5:14am

I’m quite pleased, since my Structural Geology professor assigned us to read this article:

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/34/10/821

Geology and Ancient Greece â€” ah, my favorite things combined. It’s a great article; sorry, that’s just the abstract. But I can send anyone the full PDF who wants it.

Ã€ propos, you’ll see the frequent use of -genic as opposed to -genetic suffixes â€” Greeks in fact participated in the writing of this paper. See my latest post in the “Of Neologisms” thread in Learning Greek if you feel like helping me resolve this perplexing question.

Adelheid · February 14, 2008, 8:48am

Does the article reinforce the research by de Boer, Hale and Chanton (New evidence for the geological origins of the ancient Delphic oracle), or is it a new theory?

Some info about De Boer’s research can be found here

Lucus_Eques · February 14, 2008, 6:32pm

They suggest benzene instead of ethylene, since ethylene hasn’t be found in sufficiently high concentrations from the fault and would be unexspected from the bedrock geology, while benzene fits the marine carbonate shelf profile. Otherwise, yes.

Adelheid · February 14, 2008, 6:58pm

OK, thanks.

I will be visiting Delphi this year. Hope to be able to see that fault which, according to De Boer, is in plain sight.

cmw · February 17, 2008, 7:51pm

Most classicists still ignore the theory.

Adelheid · February 17, 2008, 8:47pm

And that means what? That the theory should not be taken seriously or that classicists should take the trouble to check the theory?

cmw · February 18, 2008, 10:08am

Neither. That the theory was checked out and pronounced DOA save by a few Classicists.

Adelheid · February 18, 2008, 11:39am

Could you please provide sources for this? DOA no less. I would like to know on what grounds most classicists arrived at that conclusion.

Thanks!

Lucus_Eques · February 19, 2008, 2:07am

Likewise.

cmw · February 19, 2008, 4:40pm

Littleton, C. Scott. “The Pneuma Enthusiastikon: On the Possibility of Hallucinogenic “Vapors” at Delphi and Dodona.” Ethos 14.1 (1986): 78.

I’ll have to find links to recent rebuttals, as I do not have them on me.

Adelheid · February 19, 2008, 8:13pm

Yes, please, because an article from 1986 doesn’t really count as a rebuttal for an article from 2001 (‘New evidence for the geological origins of the ancient Delphic oracle (Greece)’, Geology; August 2001; v. 29; no. 8; p. 707â€“710).

I am really curious why it would have met with rebuttal. It seems to reinforce the textual evidence for the Delphic oracle.

So please, links.