CROESUS AND THE DELPHIC ORACLE'S OMNISCIENCEAuthor(s): D. E. W. WORMELLReviewed work(s):Source: Hermathena, No. 97 (July 1963), pp. 20-22Published by: Trinity College DublinStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23039556 .Accessed: 01/09/2012 18:09

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CROESUS AND THE DELPHIC ORACLE'S OMNISCIENCE

By WORMELL

olBa 6' €ya> xf/d.fX.pov t apidfiov «a\ pfTpa 9a\a<Tar)i

Kat Ku)cf)ov (TVfirjfxt Kal ou (^(OFtCiTOS aKova>.

oSfxr/ p.' €? typlva*; r/\.0e KparaLpivmo x*\u)vt]s

i\j/Op.€V7}<i €V X<x\kw a/x' OLpVtLOKTL Kptf&tTlV,

ij ^a\*os /uer U7r£crrp<orat, ^a<Vxoi' S' €TTLftTTaL.

(Herodotus i. 47, i ; Parke-Wormell 52)

This ranks amongst the best-known Delphic oracles, echoing through ancient literature from Pindar to Horace

and beyond. It forms part of one of the most fascinating narrative sequences in Herodotus, his account of Lydian history, deriving clearly from Delphic sources, and blending fact and fiction, folk-lore and fairy-tale in a delightful and characteristic medley. It is tempting to suspend one's critical faculties and to enjoy the story as a story. But the list of Croesus' dedications looks as if it is based

ultimately on the temple archives, though perhaps trans mitted immediately by the Tftpitiyiiriii—accurate statistics, numbers, weights, measures, had their appeal to ancient as

they have to modern sightseers. It is reasonable to suppose that the oracle had the same origins. If so, it could be a fabrication of the priests or guides at Delphi, based perhaps on an ancient folk-tale, designed to give a colourful intro duction to the story of Croesus. (The arguments pointing in this direction are assembled in The Delphic Oracle I,

131-132.) Alternatively, one may with Myers regard the narrative as true in all essentials, and believe the oracle to be authentic, and a genuine instance of second sight.

CROESUS AND THE DELPHIC ORACLE 21

Both these explanations encounter the difficulty that

making a stew of tortoise and lamb is a very unlikely and unconvincing activity for a great oriental king. There is a third possibility : that the oracle like the dedications is authentic, and that in common with most utterances of the Pythia it bears other than its surface meaning.

We know little enough about Croesus. His wealth, derived from the alluvial gold of the Pactolus (Hdt. i. 93 ; 5. 101, 2), became proverbial, and is sufficiently attested

by his gifts to Delphi. He appears to have introduced the first bimetallic coinage, backed by the resources of the

state, and with the lion of Lydia as its emblem. The gold issues were meant to supplant the Ionian and Lydian electron coinage which had been previously in circulation in Asia Minor, the silver to compete with and function

alongside the Aeginetan currency of much of the Aegean and mainland Greece. I suggest that the oracle is to be fitted into this context ; and that the question o ti Troiiwv Tvyxawn 6 . . Kpoiaot (if indeed it was ever put) meant not 'what is Croesus doing?' but 'what is Croesus

up to ? i.e. what is his policy ? ' The turtle was of course the familiar emblem of Aegina's currency, and her coins were known as xtAwt/m. Of the early Ionian issues the

most important came from Miletus ; some of these bore the device of a ram's head (no doubt reflecting the part wool and textiles played in Milesian trade), 'ixpttv is used

indifferently in the sense of 'to boil' and 'to smelt', apvuot; and apviioQ could mean either 'lamb- or 'ram-'. The

oracle may then depict the strong room of Croesus'

treasury while Aeginetan and Milesian coins are being assayed, symbolizing a policy of creating Lydian issues which could circulate beside and rival these currencies. The opening words of the oracle fit in well with this inter

pretation. Lydian gold came from the sands of the Hermus

(with its tributary the Pactolus) and from the sand-bar at its mouth ; and while coinage may be deaf and dumb,

'money talks'. It may also be that Croesus meant his dedication of electron ingots surmounted by gold and by

22 D. E. W. WORMELL

the golden lion of Lydia, and even his gold and silver

mixing-bowls to be symbolical. In Herodotus the king is not without a sense of humour : one may further con

jecture that the golden female figure three cubits high was not literally his aproico7r<>c (though he may himself have hidden her identity under this name), but rather his

apyvpoKoiron—a statue of the Great Goddess, with whom his treasure was deposited, and whose lion appeared on his coinage.1

This interpretation will doubtless appear to some to be a rationalisation of a nursery-tale. It is true that to an

English reader the oracle suggests almost inevitably 'Four

and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie'. It would be very ingenuous, however, to accept that familiar rhyme merely at its face value. And it is well to remember that the king did not attend at the baking of the pie ; he was, in fact, 'in his counting-house, counting out his money'.

1 C. T. Seltman, Greek Coins, pp. 60 ff. discusses Croesus's monetary policy. The Lydian gold issues and the Milesian electron issues are illus trated on plates VI and I.