With such
means, it would have been not a little singular if the priests of
Aesculapius had failed in converting the popular veneration to his
credit and their own emolument.
FOOTNOTES:
[89] The Priestess of Apollo, by whom he delivered oracles. She was
called Pythia from the god himself, who was styled Apollo Pythius, from
his slaying the serpent Python. The Priestess was to be a pure virgin.
She sat on the covercle or lid of a brazen vessel, mounted on a tripod,
and thence, after a violent enthusiasm, she delivered his oracles; i.e.
she rehearsed a few ambiguous and obscure verses, which were taken for
oracles.
[90] These words are but ill explained by the best Greek Lexicographers.
Servius ad Virg., Aen. vii. 88, says: _Incubare dicuntur proprie hic,
qui dormiunt accipienda responsa_. Tertullian de Anima, C. 49, thence
calls them _Incubatores fanorum_.
[91] Lib. XI. p. 108. Paris, fol. 1620.
[92] Ibid. lib. XVI. p. 761.
[93] De situ orbis, lib. I. cap. 1.
[94] Plutarch apud Agis et Cleomen. Cicero (de Div. 1. c. 48) probably
alludes to this oracle, when he says, that the Ephori of Sparta were
accustomed to sleep in the temple of Pasiphae on state emergencies.
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