Ancient Authority: Degrees of Separation

Abstract

The responses given by the priestesses at the temple of Apollo in Delphi in Ancient Greece had the reputation for ambiguity. The extant ancient sources which mention the oracle are also clouded withthis same ambiguous character.
Since the evidence we have concerning the Ancient Greek world comes to us in fragments, hearsay and ancient, often dead, languages, it is difficult to determine which pieces of evidence assume the mantle of authority, particularly when the sources disagree. This paper will trace the authority of Plutarch, one of the most highly renowned sources for the Delphic oracle. His sources, or lack thereof, the motive and method of his writings and his style of philosophical dialogue will be analysed; in this way I will trace the chain of authority from an oral tradition, to an extant written source translated over centuries, to modern scholars and finally to today’s classicists. The study of ancient history uses data and evidence in a way quite distinct from other disciplines since we have such limited sources to work with, and the nature of this evidence is difficult to untangle. Out of necessity, we bestow upon ourselves as scholars of ancient history the authority to interpret the meagre evidence that remains from antiquity, but we must be conscious of the historiography of our sources and be aware of how our use of the evidence will manipulate our interpretation of the past.