Editing Pythia (section)

=== Illusions in the ''{{Lang|grc-latn|adyton}}'' ===
It has been disputed as to how the ''[[adyton]]'' was organized, but it appears clear that this temple was unlike any other in [[ancient Greece]]. The small chamber was located below the main floor of the temple and offset to one side, perhaps constructed specifically over the crossing faults.<ref>In the French excavation report on the temple, [[Fernand Courby]] shows that the ''adyton'' was unlike those found in other temples as it was not central, but on the southwestern side, interrupting the normal symmetry of the Doric temple.  It was divided into two areas, one small area 9 by 16 feet for the oracle, one for the supplicant.  Modern research reported by Broad (p. 37) suggests that both the supplicant and the Pythia descended a flight of five steps into a small room within the temple with its own low ceiling.

Walter Miller has argued that the stone block of 3.5–4 feet that Courby described as being part of the floor was in fact the site where the oracle sat. It showed a square 6-inch hole, widening to 9 inches, immediately under the triangular grooves for the tripod.  Strange channels, possibly to carry water from the spring, surrounded the tripodal grooves. That these had in fact carried waters for long periods was confirmed by the layers of travertine that encrusted it.  Nothing like this has been found at any other Greek temple. Holland (1933) argues that these channels and the hollow nature of the ''omphalos'' found by the French would channel the vapors of intoxicant gases.</ref> The intimate chamber allowed the escaping vapors to be contained in quarters close enough to provoke intoxicating effects. Plutarch reports that the temple was filled with a sweet smell when the "deity" was present:

{{quotation|Not often nor regularly, but occasionally and fortuitously, the room in which they seat the god's consultants is filled with a fragrance and breeze, as if the ''adyton'' were sending forth the essences of the sweetest and most expensive perfumes from a spring|[[Plutarch]], ''Moralia'' 437c).}}

De Boer's research caused him to propose [[ethylene]] as a gas known to possess this sweet odor.{{sfn|Broad|2007|p=172}} Toxicologist Henry R. Spiller stated that inhalation of even a small amount of ethylene can cause both benign trances and euphoric psychedelic experiences. Other effects include physical detachment, loss of inhibitions, the relieving of pain, and rapidly changing moods without dulling consciousness. He also noted that excessive doses can cause confusion, agitation, delirium, and loss of muscle coordination.{{sfn|Broad|2007|p=212-214}}

[[Anesthesiologist]] [[Isabella Coler Herb]] found that a dose of ethylene gas up to 20% induced a trance in which subjects could sit up, hear questions and answer them logically, though with altered speech patterns, and they might lose some awareness and sensitivity in their hands and feet. After recovery, they had no recollection of what had happened. With a dose higher than 20%, the patients lost control over their limbs and might thrash wildly, groaning and staggering. All these hallucinogenic symptoms match Plutarch's description of the Pythia, whom he had witnessed many times.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/ark/stories/s1266794.htm Interview with John R. Hale on the Delphic Oracle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070602183338/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/ark/stories/s1266794.htm |date=2007-06-02 }}, ABC News, Australia – (Retrieved on 2006-04-20)</ref>

During 2001, water samples from the Kerna spring, uphill from the temple and now diverted to the nearby town of Delphi, yielded evidence of 0.3 parts per million of ethylene.<ref>{{Harvnb|Broad|2007|p=198}}. Methane (15.3 parts per million) and [[ethane]] (0.2 ppm) were also detected in the Kerna sample. However, the intoxicating effects of ethylene are more powerful than those of [[methane]] or ethane.</ref> It is likely that in ancient times, higher concentrations of ethylene or other gases emerged in the temple from these springs.<ref>"the Kerna spring, once alive but now vanished since Greek engineers had re-routed its waters to supply the town of Delphi"  Tests from nearby sites showed that the concentration of ethylene at Kerna was ten times that at other nearby springs.  In an interview reported in Broad (2006, p. 152), de Boer stated that "the Kerna sample, because of the spring's rerouting, had to be drawn from a city's holding tank... letting some of the gas escape as it sat... and lessened the water concentrations.  If so the actual levels of the [[methane]], [[ethane]] and [[ethylene]] that came out of the ground would have been higher".</ref>{{sfn|Broad|2007|p=194-195}} While likely in the context of the ethylene gas theory, there is no evidence to support the diminishing ethylene concentration statement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Foster |first1=Jay |last2=Lehoux |first2=Daryn |date=January 2008 |title=A mighty wind |journal=Clinical Toxicology |language=en |volume=46 |issue=10 |pages=1098–1099 |doi=10.1080/15563650802334028 |pmid=18821146 |issn=1556-3650|doi-access= }}</ref>

Frequent [[earthquake]]s produced by Greece's location at the clashing intersection of three [[tectonic plates]] could have caused the observed cracking of the limestone, and the opening of new channels for hydrocarbons entering the flowing waters of the Kassotis. This would cause the admixture of ethylene to fluctuate, increasing and decreasing the potency of the drug. It has been suggested that the waning of the Oracle after the era of Roman Emperor [[Hadrian]] was due in part to a long period without earthquakes in the area.