{"id":2611,"date":"2022-03-18T14:35:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T14:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/front-matter\/prelude-a-quest-2\/"},"modified":"2024-01-15T16:43:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T16:43:37","slug":"prelude-a-quest-2","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/front-matter\/prelude-a-quest-2\/","title":{"raw":"PRELUDE: A Quest","rendered":"PRELUDE: A Quest"},"content":{"raw":"After a long and winding climb out of the valley of the Pleistos river, heading ever northward toward the foothills of the great Mount Parnassus, Chaerephon (pronounced \"kerefen\"), the devoted disciple of the philosopher Socrates, spied the huge rock formations the Greeks called the Phaedriades. He knew his quest was nearly over.\r\n\r\nWeeks ago, in his zeal to prove his teacher the \u201cwisest man in Greece,\u201d he had left Athens to seek a prophecy from the famed Oracle of Delphi.\u00a0 Now, as he drew near her sanctuary, Chaerephon felt a rising anxiety. What if he was wrong? What if the Oracle instead declared his teacher a fool or a charlatan, this teacher he had been following for so many years now?\u00a0 What if....?\u00a0 No, he could not let himself doubt now.\u00a0 He must approach the Oracle with conviction.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"550\"]\"Ruins Ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHe looked up from his reveries to find himself before the temenos <\/em>or sacred grove of Athena Pronaia, the goddess who once ruled this holy site before it was taken by Apollo.\u00a0 He dared not dwell there for fear of upsetting the Sun God.\u00a0 (No doubt his teacher would have laughed at this caution!)\u00a0 Instead, he made his way to the winding stairs, the Sacred Way, leading up to the great Temple of Apollo.\r\n\r\nAs he climbed, he thought of his friend and mentor, a brilliant yet often controversial man.\u00a0 Socrates, though seeking only the best in people, had no shortage of enemies who found him rude at best and dangerous at worst.\u00a0 With luck, Apollo\u2019s Oracle would endorse the master\u2019s mission and win him more friends in Athens.\r\n\r\nSuddenly, he found himself standing amid the tall marble pillars, feeling quite small.\u00a0 Above him, etched into the marble of the entryway, were the words \u03b3\u03bd\u1ff6\u03b8\u03b9 \u03c3\u03b5\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd, \u201cKnow Thyself<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 In many ways, this was the heart of the master's teachings as well.\u00a0 To know oneself is to know the world.\r\n\r\nInside, temple priestesses sat in shadowy corners uttering soft, whispered prayers or tending sconces of flame that lit the interior with an otherworldly glow.\u00a0 There, at the far end of the peripteros <\/em>he saw the adyton<\/em>, the small, enclosed room in which, he knew, the Oracle<\/strong>, The Pythia, sat upon her three-legged stool, ready to utter the often-unintelligible words of the God.\r\n\r\nThe gloom of the place was unnerving.\u00a0 The space was designed to evoke a sense of the supernatural.\u00a0 This was not just any common prophetess, this was the messenger of Apollo.\u00a0 Rumor had it that the Pythia was not much older than a child, a young virgin chosen by her priestess sisters as the most receptive to the God\u2019s voice.\u00a0 It was also whispered that fumes from a fissure beneath the complex aided the young priestess in entering the trance that would allow her to hear that Voice.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"]\"A Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix - Lycurgus Consulting the Pythia[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe priestesses took from him the required \"donation\" of gold drachmas and instructed him on the proper kinds of questions to ask the Oracle.\u00a0 But Chaerephon was not here to ask the usual questions--about the future, about prosperity, about family.\u00a0 As he stepped close to the sacred door, he had but one question for Apollo:\r\n\r\n\u201cIs there in Greece anyone wiser than Socrates?\u201d\r\n\r\nThe Oracle was silent for what seemed like hours.\r\n\r\nThen she uttered \"There is no man wiser.\"","rendered":"

After a long and winding climb out of the valley of the Pleistos river, heading ever northward toward the foothills of the great Mount Parnassus, Chaerephon (pronounced “kerefen”), the devoted disciple of the philosopher Socrates, spied the huge rock formations the Greeks called the Phaedriades. He knew his quest was nearly over.<\/p>\n

Weeks ago, in his zeal to prove his teacher the \u201cwisest man in Greece,\u201d he had left Athens to seek a prophecy from the famed Oracle of Delphi.\u00a0 Now, as he drew near her sanctuary, Chaerephon felt a rising anxiety. What if he was wrong? What if the Oracle instead declared his teacher a fool or a charlatan, this teacher he had been following for so many years now?\u00a0 What if….?\u00a0 No, he could not let himself doubt now.\u00a0 He must approach the Oracle with conviction.<\/p>\n

\"Ruins
Ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He looked up from his reveries to find himself before the temenos <\/em>or sacred grove of Athena Pronaia, the goddess who once ruled this holy site before it was taken by Apollo.\u00a0 He dared not dwell there for fear of upsetting the Sun God.\u00a0 (No doubt his teacher would have laughed at this caution!)\u00a0 Instead, he made his way to the winding stairs, the Sacred Way, leading up to the great Temple of Apollo.<\/p>\n

As he climbed, he thought of his friend and mentor, a brilliant yet often controversial man.\u00a0 Socrates, though seeking only the best in people, had no shortage of enemies who found him rude at best and dangerous at worst.\u00a0 With luck, Apollo\u2019s Oracle would endorse the master\u2019s mission and win him more friends in Athens.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, he found himself standing amid the tall marble pillars, feeling quite small.\u00a0 Above him, etched into the marble of the entryway, were the words \u03b3\u03bd\u1ff6\u03b8\u03b9 \u03c3\u03b5\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd, \u201cKnow Thyself<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 In many ways, this was the heart of the master’s teachings as well.\u00a0 To know oneself is to know the world.<\/p>\n

Inside, temple priestesses sat in shadowy corners uttering soft, whispered prayers or tending sconces of flame that lit the interior with an otherworldly glow.\u00a0 There, at the far end of the peripteros <\/em>he saw the adyton<\/em>, the small, enclosed room in which, he knew, the Oracle<\/strong>, The Pythia, sat upon her three-legged stool, ready to utter the often-unintelligible words of the God.<\/p>\n

The gloom of the place was unnerving.\u00a0 The space was designed to evoke a sense of the supernatural.\u00a0 This was not just any common prophetess, this was the messenger of Apollo.\u00a0 Rumor had it that the Pythia was not much older than a child, a young virgin chosen by her priestess sisters as the most receptive to the God\u2019s voice.\u00a0 It was also whispered that fumes from a fissure beneath the complex aided the young priestess in entering the trance that would allow her to hear that Voice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A
Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix – Lycurgus Consulting the Pythia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The priestesses took from him the required “donation” of gold drachmas and instructed him on the proper kinds of questions to ask the Oracle.\u00a0 But Chaerephon was not here to ask the usual questions–about the future, about prosperity, about family.\u00a0 As he stepped close to the sacred door, he had but one question for Apollo:<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there in Greece anyone wiser than Socrates?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oracle was silent for what seemed like hours.<\/p>\n

Then she uttered “There is no man wiser.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by-nc"},"front-matter-type":[20],"contributor":[62,63],"license":[55],"class_list":["post-2611","front-matter","type-front-matter","status-publish","hentry","front-matter-type-prologue","contributor-daniel-g-shaw","contributor-ph-d","license-cc-by-nc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/2611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/front-matter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/2611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2982,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/2611\/revisions\/2982"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/2611\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter-type?post=2611"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2611"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/introtophilosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=2611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}