Pythianity
Pythianity: Pythianity is a polytheistic religion. Adherents of Pythianity, also known as Pythians, believe that Pythia was the voice of the Gods on Earth.
Pythia was probably selected, at the death of her predecessor, from amongst a guild of priestesses of the temple, and was required to be a woman of good character. Although some were married, upon assuming their role as the Pythia, the priestesses ceased all family responsibilities, and individual identity. In the heyday of the oracle, the Pythia may have been a woman chosen from a prominent family, well educated in geography, politics, history, philosophy, and the arts. In later periods, however, uneducated peasant women were chosen for the role, which may explain why the poetic pentameter or hexameter prophecies of the early period, later were made only in prose.
The archaeologist John Hale reports:
“the Pythia was (on occasion) a noble [woman] of aristocratic family, sometimes a peasant, sometimes rich, sometimes poor, sometimes old, sometimes young, sometimes a very lettered and educated woman to whom somebody like the high priest and the philosopher Plutarch would dedicate essays, other times [one] who could not write her own name. So it seems to have been aptitude rather than any ascribed status that made these women eligible to be Pythias and speak for the God."
A central tenet of Pythianity is the belief in Pythia, although many women whose names are not known to us held this title-Pythia is honored as the embodiment of all those that served, was the voice of the Gods on Earth.
Sources: my inspiration, Wiki article on Pythia
Pythia was probably selected, at the death of her predecessor, from amongst a guild of priestesses of the temple, and was required to be a woman of good character. Although some were married, upon assuming their role as the Pythia, the priestesses ceased all family responsibilities, and individual identity. In the heyday of the oracle, the Pythia may have been a woman chosen from a prominent family, well educated in geography, politics, history, philosophy, and the arts. In later periods, however, uneducated peasant women were chosen for the role, which may explain why the poetic pentameter or hexameter prophecies of the early period, later were made only in prose.
The archaeologist John Hale reports:
“the Pythia was (on occasion) a noble [woman] of aristocratic family, sometimes a peasant, sometimes rich, sometimes poor, sometimes old, sometimes young, sometimes a very lettered and educated woman to whom somebody like the high priest and the philosopher Plutarch would dedicate essays, other times [one] who could not write her own name. So it seems to have been aptitude rather than any ascribed status that made these women eligible to be Pythias and speak for the God."
A central tenet of Pythianity is the belief in Pythia, although many women whose names are not known to us held this title-Pythia is honored as the embodiment of all those that served, was the voice of the Gods on Earth.
Sources: my inspiration, Wiki article on Pythia