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The Delphian Society was a national organization that promoted the education of women in the United States. This organization was founded around 1910 in Chicago. [1]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2013) |
The Delphian Society was a national organization that promoted the education of women in the United States. This organization was founded around 1910 in Chicago. [1]
The Delphian Society takes its name from the historical Oracle of Delphi of Phocis, Greece. "Here in remote times Apollo was believed to reveal his wishes to men through the medium of a priestess, speaking under the influence of vaporous breath which rose from a yawning fissure. Her utterances were not always coherent and were interpreted to those seeking guidance by Apollo's priests." [2]
In 1913, the Delphian Society wrote, "We know full well today that no priestess upon a tripod can reveal to us the secrets of the future. A thorough understanding of the past must be the safest guide for coming years. No vapor can inspire sudden revelations--the result only of faithful effort and earnest thought. Yet the story of the ancient oracle charms us still and when a name was sought for a national organization, that had for its avowed purposed the promotion of educational interests in a continent, none was deemed more suitable than that which for so many years cast its gracious spell from one sea to another." [3]
The Delphian Society was inspired by influential Harvard President, Charles William Eliot's belief that education serves the purpose of inspiring lifelong learning and those who do not receive it "seem to live in a mental vacuum." [4] However, "Fifteen minutes a day of good reading would have given any one of this multitude a really human life." [5] In response to his call for lifelong learning, the Delphian Society wrote, "To meet this condition, which prevails through the length and breadth of our land, to stimulate a deeper interest, quicken a latent appreciation and facilitate the use of brief periods of freedom for self-improvement, the Delphian Society was organized and the Delphian Course of Reading made possible." [5]
In 1913, the Delphian Society published the Delphian Course of Reading: "A systematic plan of education, embracing the world's progress and development of the liberal arts." [6] This ten volume course covers "history, literature, philosophy, poetry, fiction, drama, art, ethics, music," however, "Mathematics, being in its higher forms essential to few, has been omitted; languages, requiring the aid of a teacher, and such sciences as make laboratories necessary, are not included.". [5] It also published The World's Progress [7]
In 1928, the Delphian Society published several volumes of books containing an outline of human knowledge for the use of conversation. [8]
More educational volumes were published by the society in the following decades, such as The Delphian Text, The Delphian Course, Orientation for Modern Times, and Patterns for Modern Living.
There are continuing chapters of the society, such as the Houston Assembly of Delphian Chapters. [9]
| Volume | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egypt | Babylonia and Assyria | The Hebrews and Their Neighbors | |||
| 2 | The Hebrews and Their Neighbors cont’d | Hebrew Literature | Greek Mythology | The Story of Greece | Social Life in Greece | Greek Literature |
| 3 | Greek Literature cont’d | Philosophy | The Story of Rome | |||
| 4 | The Roman Principate | Social Life in Rome | Latin Literature | The Middle Ages | ||
| 5 | The Middle Ages cont’d | Mediaeval Stories | The History of Music | The Conduct of Life | ||
| 6 | The Renaissance | Literature of the Renaissance | Descriptions of Italy | Education | Art of Conversation | Modern Italy |
| 7 | The Drama | Modern European Drama | Nature Study | |||
| 8 | Résumé of English History | English Poetry | Western Europe | Résumé of French History | Germany | |
| 9 | History of Art | Art Galleries and Museums | Modern Fiction | Nineteenth Century Fiction | Recent Novelists and Storywriters | French Fiction |
| 10 | United States History | Famous Historical Addresses | Expositions and Progress | American Painting | American Literature | American Poetry |
Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The national divinity of the Greeks, Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Seen as the most beautiful god and the ideal of the kouros. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.
Delphi, in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was a ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the omphalos (navel).
An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination.
Pythia was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythoness.
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, such as psychokinesis or teleportation. Although many people believe in psychic abilities, the scientific consensus is that there is no proof of the existence of such powers, and describes the practice as pseudoscience. The word "psychic" is also used as an adjective to describe such abilities.
Dodona in Epirus in northwestern Greece was the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the second millennium BCE according to Herodotus. The earliest accounts in Homer describe Dodona as an oracle of Zeus. Situated in a remote region away from the main Greek poleis, it was considered second only to the Oracle of Delphi in prestige.
In Greek mythology, Python was the serpent, sometimes represented as a medieval-style dragon, living at the center of the earth, believed by the ancient Greeks to be at Delphi.
The sibyls were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by Pausanias when he described local traditions in his writings from the second century AD. At first, there appears to have been only a single sibyl. By the fourth century BC, there appear to have been at least three more, Phrygian, Erythraean, and Hellespontine. By the first century BC, there were at least ten sibyls, located in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Phoebe was one of the first generation of Titans, who were one set of sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia. She was the grandmother of the sun god Apollo, the moon goddess Artemis, and the witchcraft goddess Hecate. According to myth, she was the original owner of the Oracle of Delphi before gifting it to her grandson Apollo. Her name, meaning "bright", was also given to a number of lunar goddesses like Artemis and later the Roman goddesses Luna and Diana, but Phoebe herself was not actively treated as a moon goddess on her own right in ancient mythology.
The Harvard Classics, originally marketed as Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books, is a 50-volume series of classic works of world literature, important speeches, and historical documents compiled and edited by Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot. Eliot believed that a careful reading of the series and following the eleven reading plans included in Volume 50 would offer a reader, in the comfort of the home, the benefits of a liberal education, entertainment and counsel of history's greatest creative minds. The initial success of The Harvard Classics was due, in part, to the branding offered by Eliot and Harvard University. Buyers of these sets were apparently attracted to Eliot's claims. The General Index contains upwards of 76,000 subject references.
The Delphic Sibyl was a woman who was a prophet associated with early religious practices in Ancient Greece and is said to have been venerated from before the Trojan Wars as an important oracle. At that time Delphi was a place of worship for Gaia, the mother goddess connected with fertility rituals that are thought to have existed throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. As needed to maintain the religious tradition, the role of sibyl would pass to another priestess at each site.
"Know thyself" is an Ancient Greek aphorism that means "know thy measure". According to the Greek writer Pausanias, it was the first of three Delphic maxims inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The two maxims that follow "know thyself" were "nothing too much" and "give a pledge and trouble is at hand".
Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher, historian, and writer, who for a short time served in the diplomatic corps. He was a popular 18th-century writer.
Anna Garlin Spencer was an American educator, feminist, and Unitarian minister. Born in Attleboro, MA, she married the Rev. William H. Spencer in 1878. She was a leader in the women's suffrage and peace movements. In 1891 she became the first woman ordained as a minister in the state of Rhode Island. In Providence she was commissioned to develop the Religious Society of Bell Street Chapel which was to be devoted to the religious outlook of James Eddy. She compiled Eddy's views into a Bond of Union to which members of the new society would subscribe. She was later associated with the New York Society for Ethical Culture (1903–1909) and the New York School of Philanthropy (1903–1913).In 1909, she signed on to the call to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Over a long period she was a popular lecturer and wrote on social problems, especially concerning women and family relations. Her writings include Woman's Share in Social Culture (1913) and The Family and Its Members (1922).
Leon Carroll Marshall was an American economist, Professor of Political Economy and fourth dean of the Booth School of Business from 1909 to 1924, Professor at the Law School of the Johns Hopkins University, and Professor at the American University. He is known for his works on our economic organization, business administration, curriculum-making in the social studies and the divorce court.
Greek divination is the divination practiced by ancient Greek culture as it is known from ancient Greek literature, supplemented by epigraphic and pictorial evidence. Divination is a traditional set of methods of consulting divinity to obtain prophecies (theopropia) about specific circumstances defined beforehand. As it is a form of compelling divinity to reveal its will by the application of method, it is, and has been since classical times, considered a type of magic. Cicero condemns it as superstition. It depends on a presumed "sympathy" between the mantic event and the real circumstance, which he denies as contrary to the laws of nature. If there were any sympathy, and the diviner could discover it, then "men may approach very near to the power of gods."
Jessie Eldridge Southwick was an American elocutionist, teacher, author and poet. She was active in the Chautauqua and Lyceum movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, performing around the United States as well as internationally. She influenced oratory through active involvement in emerging organizations, writing textbooks and teaching expressive voice culture and platform performance at Emerson College and elsewhere.
In Greek mythology, Manto was the daughter of the prophet Tiresias and mother of Mopsus. Tiresias was a Theban oracle who, according to tradition, was changed into a woman after striking a pair of copulating snakes with a rod, and was thereafter a priestess of Hera.
The Delphian Club was an early American literary club active between 1816 and 1825. The focal point of Baltimore's literary community, Delphians like John Neal were prodigious authors and editors. The group of mostly lawyers and doctors gathered weekly to share refreshments and facetious stories, with many of their works being published in The Portico magazine. The club's structure and terminology were inspired by classical antiquity and comical verbosity. Sixteen men claimed membership over the club's nine-year run, with no more than nine serving at a time. Edgar Allan Poe satirized the group in his unpublished Tales of the Folio Club in the 1830s.
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