Delphic Oracle

By Gregory Nagy

Did the kings of Sparta commission texts to be written down by scribes?

2020.01.31 | By Gregory Nagy §0. My brief comments here connect with what I noted in the previous posting, Classical Inquiries 2020.01.24, about scribal exchanges of letters between Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, and Amasis, pharaoh of Egypt. Here I explore further examples of such scribal activity, this time involving the dual kings of Sparta. Read more

By Gregory Nagy

Some jottings on the pronouncements of the Delphic Oracle

2016.11.03 | By Gregory Nagy These jottings—that is all they are—stem from my notes for a talk that I am presenting 2016.11.03. The title of the talk is: “The dynamism of mouvance in the pronouncements of the Delphic Oracle.” Why do I say mouvance in my title? It is because this term captures what I plan to argue about the verbal medium used by the Pythia in making responses to… Read more