081 Orphism, Omens, and Oracles
The History of Ancient Greece
Ryan Stitt
4.4 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2018
⏱️ 102 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we discuss the myths, iconography, and cultic worship of Orpheus and his Mysteries; the Orphic Hymns and the Orphic Theogony; the Orphic Hymn to Melinoe and her connection to the Mysteries, Hekate, and Hermes Psychopompos; the roles of omens, divination, and itinerant seers (including the mythic figures of Teiresias, Mopsos, and Kalchas, as well as historical figures like Lampon); and the roles of oracles (including the myths and cultic worship of Apollo regarding Delphi, Python, the Pythia, the Sibyl, and Daphne, as well as the archaeological evidence, rituals, and importance of the oracles at Delphi, those in Boiotia, and those in Ionia (Didyma and Klaros)
Show Notes: http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2018/09/081-orphism-omens-and-oracles.html
Intro by Bry and Fry of Pontifacts Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pontifactspod/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pontifactspod, https://twitter.com/BryJensen, https://twitter.com/frycurious
Website: https://pontifacts.podbean.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Frey. |
| 0:02.0 | And I'm Bree from Potipax, a Papal History Podcast where we are ranking the popes from |
| 0:06.9 | Peter to Francis. |
| 0:08.6 | And Ryan has very kindly given us the opportunity to introduce the latest episode of the History of ancient Greece |
| 0:14.7 | and to tell you a little bit about our show. |
| 0:17.0 | In each episode we go over the life contributions, scandal, appearance, and interesting unknowns of a single Pope, and then we rank them, based on our very serious categories. |
| 0:27.5 | In the end, our best popes will battle it out to be the popiest Pope to ever Pope, and take the keys of the Pearle Gates from St. Peter. |
| 0:36.3 | In this episode of Thoag, Ryan is going to be talking about omens in the ancient Greek world. |
| 0:41.9 | So it's only fitting that we tell you one of the greatest |
| 0:44.3 | papal stories about omens, which is when Pope Calixtus the third |
| 0:48.5 | excommunicated Halley's comet |
| 0:50.8 | to counteract its evil omen on the impending siege of Belgrade. |
| 0:55.2 | The whole comet? |
| 0:56.6 | Yep, it's been excommunicated. |
| 0:58.3 | It can't come to church? |
| 1:00.0 | Nope. |
| 1:00.6 | Before we get into it, it is important to note that this story has categorically been proven to be untrue, but it has been tied to the Pope pretty much since his own time and can be sourced back to a contemporary and it has stuck so it's exactly the kind of bonker |
| 1:17.1 | stories we love at Pontefax. |
| 1:19.8 | So here we go. |
| 1:20.8 | In June and early July, 1456, |
| 1:23.4 | Halley's comet appeared over Rome, |
| 1:25.6 | and this could have easily been interpreted as an omen, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ryan Stitt, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Ryan Stitt and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.