ABSTRACT
If we take into account the “traditional” representation of the Pythia, she gives oracles in a frenzied and confused state. Yet we have several ancient Greek sources that offer quite different images of her behaviour and oracular expertise. The idea that the Pythia, while prophesying, acted like a “hysterical” woman, more or less like a shaman or a possessed person, comes from the relevant Roman and Christian sources. In particular, Origen and John Chrysostom claimed that she behaves as an epileptic or as a woman with uterus afflictions because she was possessed by a demonic spirit. However, they represented Judaeo-Christian divination as clear and calm because, in their view, it comes directly from God. On the one hand, the way that the Pythia screams is clearly sexually connotative, while on the other hand, she is supposed to be virginal (and hysteria has often been considered as the typical disease affecting women who do not have sex). The crucial aspect that this chapter will investigate is the association between divination and gynaecology, attempting to illuminate and enlighten biases and distortions associated with female sexuality in the ancient world.
