A quiz question · medium
What did geologists propose in 2001 to explain the Delphic oracle's trance?
The temple sits exactly where two faults cross bituminous limestone; Plutarch, a priest at Delphi, had described a sweet smell. The chemistry is still debated.
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The Oracle of Delphi and the Gases Under the Temple Floor For over a thousand years the Pythia of Delphi prophesied from a tripod in the temple of Apollo, in an altered state the ancients attributed to a sweet-smelling breath rising from the earth. Long dismissed as legend, the vapours returned to science in 2001, when geologists found the temple sits on intersecting faults seeping intoxicating hydrocarbon gases — a theory still argued over.
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