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On a plateau in the mountains at Delphi stands a shrine which for many centuries had a signal importance for the Greeks. Here they found help in meeting their anxiety. In this temple Apollo gave counsel through his priestesses during the chaotic archaic age and down through classical times. Even Socrates was to receive there his famous dictum, "Know Thyself," which has become the central touchstone for psychotherapy ever since. The sensitive Greek, anxious about himself, his family and his future in the upset, archaic times, could find guidance here, for Apollo knew the meaning of "the complicated games the gods play with humanity.... The Greeks believed in their Oracle, not because they were superstitious fools, but because they could not do without believing in it." (1, p. 75). Professor Dodds, in his excellent study of the irrational in ancient Greek culture, emphasizes the crucial assurance an "omniscient counselor could give... to a people burdened with the crushing sense of human ignorance and human insecurity, the dread of divine phthonos, the dread of miasma." (Ibid.).

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-40265-8_15

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