The Road to Delphi: The Life and Afterlife of Oracles

by Michael Wood

Cultures of all epochs have consulted oracles in times of need. This fascinating exploration of the enduring popularity of oracles examines how they are interpreted and why. Taking examples from literature and history, from the oracles at Delphi to those in Macbeth , and further still to the works of Kafka and Bob Dylan, and even in the film The Matrix , Wood combines storytelling and commentary to provide a lively account of humanity's persistent faith in signs, which continues to exert an important influence on the course of civilization.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Greece

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Michael Wood born in Lincoln, England, is the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English and Professor of comparative literature at Princeton University. He is an alumnus of St John's College, Cambridge.

Prior to teaching to Princeton, he taught at Columbia University, and at the University of Exeter in Devon, England.

He was Director of the Gauss Seminars in Criticism at Princeton from 1995-2001, and chaired Princeton's English department from 1998 to 2004. He writes regularly for The New York Review of Books and on film for the London Review of Books.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting nonfiction that I don't think I would've picked up if it hadn't been for the cover.

Overall, this book wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be about specific oracles and how they came to be, how they died, and what came after. Instead, it was a history of oracles as a whole, their use in stories, and how modern oracles (say, economists, doctors, and modern astrology) may look.

While interesting, I found the text to be dense at certain times, which made getting through difficult.

A perfectly fine nonfiction.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though there's something irksome about this type of insanely far ranging exploration, I really did end up liking Wood's treatment of certainty, uncertainty, and how we live our lives in the area between. Reading this certainly gave me quite a few items to add to my reading list so if you're looking for a gateway drug to classics, philosophy, and modern literature, dice right in.

[Kirsten Vega · Rating 5 out of 5]

transfixing. more seance than book. I speedread for my halloween oracle costume and am still haunted. Michael Wood has an ancient heart. shelve under philosophy.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this book before I began it. Perhaps history, perhaps some discussion of the supernatural?
Not at all. It was squarely a philosophy book, and a study of what's really happening when an oracle (ancient or modern) is asked a question. In particular, the book looks at what's going on in the mind of the person asking, focusing on his/her situation, the types of questions asked, and how the questioner responds to and interprets the oracle's message. The oracles' responses from history, myth, and contemporary culture parallels are also parsed, and the author makes some stabs at what their historical pattern implies.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

In THE ROAD TO DELPHI: THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF ORACLES, Michael Wood considers the significance of oracles (and attitudes toward them) from Greek antiquity to the present. Wood analyzes a wide range of literary texts and even considers topics like the role of oracles in modern medicine. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the classical legacy or the history of ideas.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of oracles and the greatest of the ancient world was at Delphi. There was some really good stuff in this book and yet parts that I knew so I skimmed. Overall a good read.