The teaching and practice of Christians "Speaking in
Tongues" had originaly come from heathen Greek roots. In ancient Greece, among the pantheon of
Greek gods was Apollo, who was the ideal of the kouros. Apollo was the archer-god of medicine
and healing and also a bringer of death-dealing plague. As the patron of Delphi
("Pythian Apollo") Apollo was also an oracular god. As the prophetic deity of the Delphic oracle,
Apollo was one of the most important Olympian deities. Delphi, was a town in ancient Greece where
the site of the oracle of the god Apollo was situated on the slope of Mount Parnassus. It was
considered by the ancient Greeks to be the center of the earth, Delphi was originally the site of
an oracle of the earth goddess Gaea. The oracle at Delphi influenced politicians and slaves with
her prophecies, yet her life and practices are shrouded in mystery. According to mythology,
Apollo expelled her from the sanctuary, which he then shared with the god Dionysus. The Delphic
priests developed a ritual that centered on a priestess called Pythia, whose gibberish
utterances were considered to be the words of Apollo which was in turn interpreted by the priest.
An oracle was a response given to individuals or representatives of a state who came to a
special place (Delphi) to ask a question of a god or hero (A hero was defined as a former mortal
who was promoted to divine status, such as Heracles). Now you know where the heathen Christians got
their bright idea when they invented their Je-Zeus Christ whom Christians have made into their
phony god. Usually the question had to be submitted to a priestess, and the answer was then
interpreted by a priest. In 356 BCE the Phocians seized Delphi, but they were defeated in 346
BCE by King Philip II of Macedonia. By the end of the century the Aetolian League controlled
Delphi. After the Roman conquest of Greece, and especially after the spread of Christianity, the
patron of Delphi (Apollo) had declined. The heathen practice of speaking in tongues was revived
by Protestant Christians which continues to be used within various Protestant denominations in
our present era.