Ques. Where was the Castalian Fount?
Ans. There were two celebrated springs of that name; one on Mount Parnassus, which was sacred to the Muses, and another near Daphne, in Syria. This last was believed to impart the knowledge of futurity to those who drank of its waters. The oracle of this fountain promised the empire to Hadrian, while he was yet in a private station. When he ascended the throne, he had the fountain shut up with stones.
Ques. What opinions did the early Christian writers hold with regard to the heathen oracles?
Ans. They believed that although the responses were to be attributed, as a general thing, to mere human jugglery and imposture, there were occasions in which it was impossible to doubt the direct agency of evil spirits. We read in Scripture that Satan spoke by the mouths of the possessed, and none were more likely to fall under this demoniac influence than the priests and other ministrants in these shrines of imposture. Many instances are recorded where Christians imposed silence on oracles by pronouncing the name of Jesus Christ, or by the sign of the cross; and sometimes the same effect was produced by their simple presence in the temple.
Ques. At what period did the oracles cease to give responses?
Ans. No exact date can be assigned; as Christianity spread, these impostures fell gradually into disrepute, and were at length entirely abandoned. It has been asserted that the oracles became silent at the birth of Christ, but this is an error. Milton, however adopts this idea in his beautiful Hymn of the Nativity:
“The oracles are dumb;
No voice or hideous hum
Rings through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.”