THE OBSOLESCENCE OF
ORACLES
(DE DEFECTU ORACULORUM)
INTRODUCTION
Plutarch's answer to the question why many
oracles in Greece have ceased to function is that the
population is now much less than it was, and so there
is less need for oracles now than in earlier times.
For example, at Delphi there used to be twro prophetic priestesses with a third held in reserve ; now
there is only one, and yet she is sufficient for every
need.
The statement of this simple fact hardly requires
twenty-nine folio pages, but in this essay, as in the
two preceding, there is much of the conversation of
cultured persons which is not directly connected with
the subject. Thus we find a discussion of whether
the year is growing shorter, whether the number of
the worlds is one or some number not more than five
or is one hundred and eighty-three. We have further
discussion of the number five, some astronomy, and
a good deal of geometry, some interesting bits of
information about Britain and the East and a rather
long discussion of the
daimones, the beings a little
lower than the gods and considerably higher than
mortals ; perhaps the translation ‘demi-gods’ might
best convey the idea in English. These beings are
thought by many persons to be in charge of the
oracles ; certainly the god himself does not appear
personally at his oracles ; and in the case of the
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oracle at Delphi some account is given of the accidental discovery by a shepherd of the peculiar
powers of the exhalation from the cleft in the
rocks.
Students of English literature will be interested in
the dramatic description of the announcement of the
death of Pan ; and students of religion will be interested in the essay as a very early effort to reconcile science and religion. That the essay had an
appeal to theologians is clear from the generous
quotations made from it by Eusebius and Theodoretus.
We could wish that they had quoted even more,
since their text is usually superior to that contained
in the manuscripts, which in some places are quite
hopeless. The mss. have also an unusual number of
lacunae. Much has been done in the way of correction, sometimes perhaps too much, since Plutarch's
thought is not always necessarily so logical as the
editors would make it.
Some parts of the essay make rather difficult
reading, but it also contains passages of considerable
interest and even beauty.
The essay is No. 88 in Lamprias's list of Plutarch's
works.
The conversation is professedly narrated by
Plutarch's brother Lamprias to Terentius Priscus,
but some have thought that Plutarch has used the
person of Lamprias to represent himself, possibly
because of the official position held by Plutarch at
Delphi.