[SunkenCiv]

The four major stars of Delphinus from ESO data. Credit: Digitized Sky Survey, ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator. Colour Composite: Alun Salt.

[Candor7]

Ping!

[Silentgypsy]

Please excuse my ignorance. What was the subject matter of the consultations?

[Candor7]

Ping!

[Tainan]

"Secrets of Delhi?"

Delhi is a suburb of Cincinnati. They got secrets?
Who knew?

[hellbender]

Classical Mythology by Morford and Lenardon says that the oracle was open on the 7th day of every month, except for 3 months during the winter. Nothing is mentioned about the constellation Delphinius.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

From the town of Delphi where the hotels are, no way could you see Delphinus. But from the Temple of Apollo I’ll bet you could. One problem - It’s closed at night!

I never studied the the origins of the name “Delphi” and despite being an astronomy buff.

Just ordered a copy of “Theogony” from Amazon. Another important book that never popped up on a reading list at Cal.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the post/links; links. Interesting, educational.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

Efrosyni Boutsikas, a fellow postgraduate at Leicester, had surveyed Delphi as part of her PhD and had the figures. She said: “The temple of Apollo at Delphi is overlooked by huge cliffs to the east. These block out the view of the lower part of the eastern sky. The horizon is so high the stars have to climb a long way before they are visible just before sunrise.

“This means that if you’re holding an early morning ritual like preparing to consult Apollo, and you want to see a constellation, you have to wait around a month after other cities with flat horizons.”

Which just goes to show that --
The Oracle at Delphi shall posterity confound.

[wendy1946]

The starting point for understanding oracles and prophecy is still Julian Jaynes’ “Origin of Consciousness”.

[marsh2]

I always said that if I ever got married again, it would be to someone who knew the constellations.

[colorado tanker]

According to legend Alexander visited the Oracle before undertaking his great conquests. She refused a direct answer. Supposedly, he grabbed the Pythia by the hair and dragged her from her chamber. When she screamed, "let go of me; you're unbeatable," he let go and said, "now I have my answer."

We report, you decide.