Earthquakes – these shakes of the earth’s surface fears everyone who lives in a seismic active region. Many people are afraid of loosing their homes or even their lives after a natural disaster like this. Of course, one would never build a house in a very active area or even on a fault line.
Believe it or not – but the Ancient Greeks did exactly this. One of their most famous places, the Oracle of Delphi was built over such a line. Okay, you could think, could have been a mistake. But no – even after the building has been destroyed by an earthquake in 373BC it was rebuilt exactly at the same place. The people in ancient times could have been just crazy. However, it could have also had a reason.
Before we start to find out what could have been the reason for this, we have to understand the significance of this place for the ancient world.
Delphi was believed to be the center of the world as Zeus sent two eagles to the east and two the west and they met exactly at this place after encircling the globe. Furthermore, this place was sacred to the god Apollo after he had killed the snake – like python there. But the most important and mysterious thing about this place is of course the oracle. The Pythia (the priestess) could predict the future after a long procedure of sacrifices and other religious actions. These fortune tellings have been always very mysterious and never precisely. Now it is the big question if every single prediction was just made up by a very creative woman or if she really had visions about the „future”. The latter could have been only the case if the priestess would be on some kind of drugs in order to cause these hallucinations.
And here we come again to this interesting question why the Oracle was built on a fault line. It was no coincidence that the Pythia sat exactly over such a line, inhaling the gases that came out of the ground. Apparently, this has been one of the best drugs of the world as her visions fascinated kings, queens, heroes and everyone in the ancient world.
sources:
https://www.ancient.eu/delphi/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170912103549.htm