Whether the Pythia took hallucinogens, to get into ecstasy, or whether she died of heart or kidney failure, I really would not know. I only know that she chewed laurels. However, Ekstasis itself, "to stand outside of or transcend oneself ", was common good, was probably in the Oracle of Delphi the experience of the famous "inner vision" of Apollo or of Pythia's relation to him, or their unio mistica. At least, as explained before, ecstatic elements were present: Pythia's purge of bodily desire, purification, divine illumination and unification with Apollo, the utterance of snake sounds, revealed to her by Apollo, in order to transmit the divination and prophecy. But, let us get down to more exciting, more serious things!
The economic base of Ancient Greece was the ownership of private property of the means of production by the slave-holding ruling classes. The slaves themselves were means of production, "speaking tools", which the slavemaster could buy or sell, or even kill, if it so pleased him.
That the "slaves" were "intelligent" or possessed "technical know-how", this was irrelevant, as far as the superstructure, ideology or philosophy were concerned. Physical slave labour was not reflected in the Greek superstructure. Anything which had to do with Mother Earth, with Nyx, was base, vulgar and indecent; hence physical, manual slave labour was not a topic of mental consideration.
Other lower social classes, like the artisans or peasants, also performed physical labour, but this was "banausic", was vulgar, not fit for a decent "human being". Generally, like women, they were also declared to be culturally "banausic", that is, they were not fit to make any contribution to the progress of humanity, to "culture", "philosophy", "civilization", "architecture " or "art", whatever these were supposed to designate. Later, in the epoch of European colonization, the "Kaffirs", "Niggers", "natives" and "aborigines" found themselves in a similar predicament.
From the 8th till the 6th century BC, on the Balkan Peninsula, Greek settlements were founded, city-states came into being, also colonies sprung up like mushrooms all over the Mediterranean region. Already in the very Cradle of Western Civilization, "colonization", i.e., the exploitation, domination and discrimination of anything, of everything, had its roots. Today Ionia, tomorrow India, then the Moon, Mars next, then the "Black Hole", even Heaven and Hell would not be safe from such "human", such capitalist greed; if it should be necessary, "colonization" must come to pass, by hook or by crook, must serve the "democratic" interests of Labour, of Capital Accumulation. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that it is dramatically different nowadays, or that things will change from within the voracious and ferocious belly of Mammon in the next millennium.
In Ancient Greece, textile, pottery, metal and shipbuilding industries developed, and commerce flourished. Progressively the slave-owning aristocracy was replaced by a modern "democracy", by wealthy "industrialists" and businessmen. In brief, as Marx explained, primitive accumulation of Money, Capital and Profit were already well on their way.
The practical necessities of maritime commerce, of handicrafts, of trade, activated upper class intellectual labour, generated the development of physical, astronomic, meteorological and mathematical knowledge. Originally, all these "sciences" were included in and subordinated by philosophy. Certainly, Pythia and Apollo could not supply these; at least, the Oracle of Delphi had to be "modernized". "Wise men", like Thales and Socrates, and the Academy and the Lyceum had to usher in this new trend, had to supply its necessary scientific and philosophic ingredients. This was also the reason why the Oracle of Delphi had to change its motto: from "Know Thyself!", to "Know Socrates!", "Know the Wisest Man!", Know Plato! Surely, as such, it was auto-annihilating its original matriarchal essence, it was surrendering to patriarchal philosophy, to the new ideological superstructure.
Those mythological elements, like religion nowadays, which served
the political and economic interests of the new ruling classes,
were integrated into Philosophy, into the Politeia,
into Political Philosophy. In fact, Greek Art was completely based on this
mythological tradition; it is a Pythian-Apollonian mythological contribution
to "Western Civilization". The invaluable mythological contribution to
Roman Catholicism, and to Christianity in general, we have noted before
already. Furthermore, from everywhere, anything vital for the future superstructure,
was either conquered, stolen or downright plagiarized.
All over in the Ancient World, also in Greece, in this process
of superstructural metamorphosis, from mythology to philosophy, from polytheism
to monotheism, the priestly classes, the intellectual labourers,
the ideologues, played a central role. Let us scrutinize some of their
doings.
The Priesthood
Let us briefly summarize this aspect, its Greek manifestations. It is a fact that, in general, Ancient Greece was devoid of a priestly caste, of religious hierarchical institutions. However, in the case of the "oracles", especially the one of Delphi, we certainly experienced a group of women or men through whom the gods were either approached, or through whom revelations, prophecies or wisdom, de facto et de jure, ruling class ideology, were socially transmitted. They were definitely engaged in specific sacerdotal functions and ritual acts. What else did the priestly elite do elsewhere? That women, like Pythia, were involved, well, this is a special Greek curiosity!
As we have seen before, many of them attained considerable social,
political and civic prestige, especially those of the Oracle of Delphi.
Although generally denied, in reality, in their ritualistic capacities
in various civic and administrative areas, these priests and priestesses
did act as mediators between the dominant and dominated social classes.
Many of them were magistrates, distinguished in their
respective civic or religious capacities, who had exercised considerable
influence in society.
They did accumulate knowledge, scientific knowledge, wisdom. They also transmitted it socially, in the interests of commerce. The hocus-pocus that the "revelations" and "prophecies of the future" came from God, from Apollo, such nonsense, only a retarded mind, a completely brainwashed student, would believe. That all these, the divine advice, the loving counsel, had served direct social needs, this is a fact beyond doubt, but it is not the topic under discussion. In other words, they had the same priestly functions as anywhere else in the ancient world, but also in the "modern" world. An example par excellence is the current Vatican, an upgraded version of the mythological "Oracle of Delphi", mixed with various Roman Mary cults.
As stated before, the Oracle of Delphi was a central institution in Greek Society; it had not only religious but also far-reaching political, economic and scientific duties. It safe-guarded and "classified" ancient technical know-how, scientific secrets, etc. This was at best demonstrated by us in the lecture on Thales, "History of Wisdom III", where we wrote:
"Furthermore, the famous
Temple of Apollo at Didyma
was not only the 'Vatican',
the shrine of worship, for the
whole region, it was also the
Ionian 'Bank of Ambrosia'.
The wealthy temple authorities
minted coins, acted as employees of a type of 'Central Bank', they held
deposits,
and supervised the whole
Mediterranean commercial business."
In our next lecture, we will pass on to Socrates, to indicate how closely the Oracle, politics and philosophy were incorporated and were co-operating with one another.
Till next time,
Greetings,
Franz.