Pythoness

Noun

1. The priestess of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.
   • The office of Pythoness appears not to have been desirable. Either the emanations from the cavern, or some art of the managers, threw her into real convulsions. Priests entitled prophets led her to the sacred tripod,...
   • The unconnected words which the Pythoness screamed out in her madness were arranged into sentences by the attendant priests, who could easily place them in such an order, and fill up the breaks in such a way, as to make...
   • Less becomingly Origen states that when the Pythoness sat down at the mouth of the cave, "the prophetic spirit of Apollo entered her private parts"; ... - 1913, Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons, Religious Chastity: an...