The image is a photo from Fig 127 in Jane Harrison’s book Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion (1963). She writes, “… it shows us the Python in relation to the omphalos [the navel of the earth]. The beat wounded and bleeding is still coiled around it.
Prose from a work in progress Pythia at Delphi
Ulyssea finds her way to Delphi. She wants to meet Pythia who she hopes might be a guide for her. Pythia rests in her comatose state. There she waits until the time is right. Just as the caterpillar waits before forming a chrysalis. She says it is all there. You just have to wait. When the time comes, emerging from her seizure, she makes her pronouncements. They are moments in time, heard only by those who need to hear her words. If you know the meaning of her oracles, then someone is lying to you.
‘It is my tongue,’ says Ulyssea, ‘it is saturated with language. It unrolls forgotten words. It is language without meaning and the more I say, the more they believe, these boys with their arrows, bronze shields and spears.’ Pythia encourages her. ‘Keep the words coming. Your body will tell you when you are done. The language is captured in your throat for now.’ ‘The horizon is purple. It bends around the earth’s curve. It turns like a giant serpent. But they are coming to kill you. The horizon is turning red. They are forbidding us to speak our mother tongues. Even the children are silent, words stopping the mouths.’ Pythia coils her body another time ‘I can hear the earth cry out in pain. The air is thick with dust. It’s unbreathable. On the far horizon, I can see earth retching.’
Notes The story of the Python (Pythia) and the slaying of her by Apollo is another story of the patriarchal system overthrowing a system in women had sacred power. I call him an upstart because he reminds me of the sensitive new age guys (SNAGs in Australian vernacular) who looked as if they were kindly and musical and artsy, but were just as likely to rape as any other man.
