the Pythia. She occupied a commanding
position in the Hellenic world (and beyond it), such as was enjoyed by
few persons of the time.[1689] She was invested with special sanctity as
the dispenser of divine guidance to the Western world (to nations and
individuals). It was required of her that she be morally and
ceremonially pure, and she had to undergo a special preparation for the
delivery of her message. The manner of her revelation did not differ
from that of similar officials in noncivilized communities--she spoke in
a condition of ecstasy; she is the best representative of the intimate
union of the diviner and a great god, a union that tended to give
dignity and wisdom as well as authority to the oracular utterance.[1690]
She was, thus, in the best position for exerting a good influence on the
world of her time. How far the oracles of Apollo and other deities
furthered the best interests of religion it may be difficult to say--the
data for an exact answer are lacking. Socially they were useful in
maintaining a certain unity among peoples, and they may sometimes have
upheld justice and given judicious advice, but they were always exposed
to the temptation of fraud.

_Necromancy._ While in ancient times the dead were everywhere placated
by gifts and were sometimes worshiped, the consultation of them for
guidance seems to have been relatively infrequent. The attitude of
existing lower tribes toward ghosts varies in different places,[1691]
but the predominant feeling seems to be fear; these tribes have not
accomplished that social union between themselves and the departed
without which, as it appears, the living do not feel free to apply to
the latter for information concerning things past, present, and
future.[1692] Savage and half-civilized peoples depend for such
information on divination by means of common phenomena (omens) and on
the offices of magicians and soothsayers, and references in published
reports to necromantic usages among them are rare and vague. But among
civilized peoples also application to the dead is not as frequent as
might be expected; there is still fear of ghosts, and the part assigned
in early times to spirits in the administration of human life has been
given over to gods--family divinities and the great oracular deities
supply the information that men need. There are few signs of dependence
on necromancy in China, India, Persia, and Rome. The Babylonian mythical
hero Gilgamesh procures (th