Dan Brown's~ Lost Symbol

[giovonni]

A brief interlude~

Ancient & Masonic tid+bits

KNOW THYSELF

"Know thyself" was the ancient saying carved on the entrance to the oracle at Delphi in Ancient Greece. The prophetess of Apollo, known as the Pythia, spoke the will of Apollo for visitors and devotees for many centuries. Her place as the oracle was preserved by the Greeks from worships that had taken place at the oracle in Delphi dating back to the worship of Gaia, and the female goddesses that preceeded the Greek pantheon~

In the Winter months, when Apollo was said to have deserted his temple, his place was taken by his half-brother Dionysus, who had his tomb within the temple. The male priests may have had their own secret rites to the dying god during the winter months."

"These ancient Dionysian mysteries of initiation into secret rites are honored in this replica called the "Tyler's Chair", which is placed just outside the doors to the Temple Room in the Masonic House of Temple of the Scottish Rite in Washington DC."



"Tyler (or Tiler) is the name of the office of outer guard of a Masonic Lodge. Early speculative Masonic lodges met in rooms in taverns and other public meeting places, and all Lodges appoint a Tyler to guard the door from unqualified, malicious or simply curious people. Although an Officer of the Lodge and often a highly experienced Past Master, he may be considered akin to a sergeant: the Tyler may be an employee rather than a member of the Lodge, in which case he will often prepare the room, supply regalia or refreshments, and act as permanent steward of the furniture and premises. William Hogarth's famous print of Night shows a drunken Mason being helped home by the Tyler, from one of the four original Lodges in 1717 at the Rummer & Grapes tavern.

The origins of the term are unclear and a number of hypotheses have been presented over time. The name may simply come from the occupation of tyler -- a person who lays roof and floor tiles, perhaps because he had failed to qualify for more skilled work as a mason. More fanciful suggestions include:

Possibly from the name of Wat Tyler, the ringleader of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
Possibly a revision of the word tether, used to tie the door closed.
Possibly that the tyler once sat on the roof of the lodge on the 'tiles' to stop people looking in through the roof.
Possibly owing to the tiles being those stones or bricks which seal the structural masonry, whether they be on floors, walls or rooves. Likewise, the Tyler seals the remainder of the activities of the lodge.
In some Jurisdictions the Tyler is appointed by the Worshipful Master, while in others he is elected by the members of the Lodge. He is charged with examining the Masonic credentials of anyone wishing to enter the Lodge and keeping unqualified persons from infiltrating Masonic meetings, and admitting only those qualified.

The Tyler is required to be outside the Lodge door for large portions of the meeting, although often in a position to overhear the proceedings. The position has often been given to a deserving Mason who has fallen on hard times, such as the original Grand Master Anthony Sayer, or to a senior Lodge member who can help and advise those kept waiting outside.

In some jurisdictions, the Worshipful Master has the authority to permit or direct the Tyler to "tyle from within" during the non-ritualistic portions of a meeting. If tyling from within, the Tyler must first secure the outer doors of the Tyler's anteroom. He would then leave the inner door open between the lodge room and the Tyler's anteroom, and sit at the seat closest to the door, still holding his drawn sword. Tyling from within enables the Tyler to participate in the business portions of the meeting, voice his opinions, volunteer for committees, deliver reports, and receive instruction if any be given."

The Priestess of Delphi by Hon. John Collier

"There is endless fantasy writing on this subject. Writers have been outdoing each other for over two thousand years. Here are some unromanticized views.

H. W. Parke in his A History of the Delphic Oracle says the responses given by the oracles show that they were not in any way intoxicated or in a mediumistic trance.
The historian Plutarch, who was a priest of Apollo at Delphi, says the god did not possess the priestess. She remained herself. But she was trained to receive the “breath” of the god. That word “breath” ( pneuma or afflatus) has given rise to endless interpretation. One translation could be simply “inspiration”.

As to the vapors that rose from the crack in the floor (or fault in the earth’s crust), no ancient writer mentioned them.
Parke says this:
“Geologically it is quite impossible at Delphi where the limestone and schist could not have emitted a gas with any intoxicating properties.”

Plutarch in his Moralia does say this: “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 (pneumatos) as if the adyton were sending forth the essences of the sweetest and most expensive perfumes.” This kind of affirmation is hard to substantiate; and in any case, the “fragrance” is a far cry from ethylene gas.

“Another misconception,” says Eloise Hart in an article quoted in Wikipedia, “is that the Pythia’s messages were ambiguous and incoherent….[What ambiguity there was] may have been put there…by the poets who at one time attended the sessions and wrote the responses in hexameter.” The poets are the ones, says Joseph Fontenrose, not the oracles, who “added the metaphors, riddles, and pompous phrasing.”
Plutarch says the prophetesses were moved each in accordance with her natural faculties, so some utterances were wise and some not so; some pretty, some awkward.

Were the priestesses pretty girls like the one in Collier’s painting or mature women? A Wikipedia entry ( Delphi) states that the oracles were in fact oldish women whose purity had been proven by their lives: “Apollo spoke through his oracle, who had to be an older woman of blameless life chosen from among the peasants of the area.” Eloise Hart says that “later” the priestesses were even married women."