FROM DELPHI TO GOOGLE

 FROM DELPHI TO GOOGLE – ANCIENT ORACLE TO CONTEMPORARY SEARCH ENGINES

Ancient Greeks believed in oracles not only to predict what the future holds for them, but to reveal secret information and answers to their deepest philosophical questions and needs.

The most famous of all was the Oracle of Delphi, consecrated to god Apollo.   According to mythology, Delphi took its name from Delphine, the serpent that lived there and was killed by Apollo. However, in other accounts, the serpent (drakon) was called Python.

 

The mentally unstable Roman emperor Nero relentlessly tried to learn the time of his death from the Oracle of Delphi. The message he received was “Beware of the seventy-third year”, so the emperor continued in a false sense of security, until shortly after this omen he was killed by Galba, who happened to be 73 years old.

 

When the Roman emperor Theodosius ascended to power the Oracle of Delphi was shut down as it was associated with pagan culture and beliefs.  However, it remains a great tourist attraction, up to this day as thousands of people from all over the world go to Delphi to see the ruins and hear about the Delphic oracle.

 

Not much has changed from the times of our ancestors in many ways.  Nowadays, people also try to control the future, seek prompt responses to their questions and expect that obtaining information on just about any subject should be instantaneous – like typing a question on Google’s search bar.

 

In reality, this is slightly different from writing questions on lead tablets and submitting them to the Oracle of Delphi. 

 

The modern technology that we use today, is reminiscent of the Oracle of Delphi since it reflects the basic human need to try to control or at least to anticipate the future.

The striking message that the Delphic Oracle revealed during antiquity to both Croesus of Lydia and Chilon of Sparta is a message that still speaks to all humans today.   When they asked the Oracle what was the most important and best thing to know, they both received the same answer: “Know thyself”.  Also ascribed to Socrates, this phrase is also inscribed on the stones of Delphi.

 

In other words, the oracle instructed people to consider what expectations and abilities they had in their own, in order to best direct their lives in the future.

 

Things are not only as they appear at first, and people rely on others to solve their problems and change the situation for them, instead of looking forward how they can view the world differently and play a different role in the grand scheme of things.

 

It seems as though the words of the wise Oracle of Delphi are as timely today as they were in antiquity.      

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