The Delphic Oracle
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Delphic Oracle, the most important source of prophecies in the ancient world. In central Greece, on the flank of Mount Parnassus, lies the ruined city of Delphi. For over a thousand years, between approximately 800 BC and 400 AD, this was the most sacred place in the ancient world. Its chief attraction was the Delphic Oracle, which predicted the future and offered petitioners advice.Travellers journeyed for weeks for a chance to ask the oracle a question. The answers, given by a mysterious priestess called the Pythia, were believed to come straight from the god Apollo. At the height of Greek civilisation the oracle was revered, and its opinion sought in some of the most significant conflicts of the age. Its activities were documented by historians including Xenophon and Plutarch, and it was regularly depicted in Greek tragedy, most famously Sophocles’s masterpiece Oedipus the King.
Guests
- Paul Cartledge
20 episodes
A G Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University - Edith Hall
19 episodes
Professor of Classics and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London - Nick Lowe
6 episodes
Reader in Classical Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
Related episodes
-
Thebes
23 Nov, 2017 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Library of Alexandria
12 Mar, 2009 020 Library and information sciences -
Plato’s Atlantis
22 Sep, 2022 100 Philosophy -
The Oath
5 Jan, 2006 930 History of the Ancient World -
Babylon
3 Jun, 2004 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Rosetta Stone
11 Feb, 2021 930 History of the Ancient World -
Heraclitus
8 Dec, 2011 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy -
Persepolis
7 Jun, 2018 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Bacchae
18 Mar, 2021 880 Classical and modern Greek literatures -
Pericles
17 Sep, 2020 930 History of the Ancient World -
Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy
17 Nov, 2011 520 Astronomy -
The Greek Myths
13 Mar, 2008 290 Other religions -
The Odyssey
9 Sep, 2004 880 Classical and modern Greek literatures -
The Trojan War
31 May, 2012 930 History of the Ancient World -
History and Understanding the Past
30 Mar, 2000 900 History -
Pythagoras
10 Dec, 2009 510 Mathematics -
Socrates
27 Sep, 2007 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy -
Sappho
9 Apr, 2015 880 Classical and modern Greek literatures -
Plato’s Symposium
2 Jan, 2014 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy -
The Phoenicians
6 Feb, 2014 930 History of the Ancient World
Programme ID: b00txj8d
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00txj8d
Auto-category: 938 (Greece and the Balkans)