The Cave of Trophonius
Ancient Greeks who wanted answers lowered themselves into a narrow hole in the ground, and came back, it was said, unable to laugh.
What was reported
At Lebadea, today's Livadeia, there was an oracle unlike any other. After days of purification, the visitor drank from two springs, the waters of Forgetfulness and of Memory, and then, at night, went down a ladder into a narrow pit and pushed their feet into a small opening. They were pulled in, it was said, as if by a fast river.
What happened inside was told differently by different visitors: visions, voices, a terror they couldn't describe. Many came out dazed, and it was said that they never laughed again. Pausanias, who went himself, said he had recovered his ability to laugh.
Explanations offered
Historians think the experience was carefully staged: fasting, darkness, ritual and fear could produce vivid hallucinations. The exact site of the cave hasn't been identified for certain, though several caves near the springs of Livadeia have been suggested.
- When
- Visited from about 500 BC to AD 300
- Where
- Livadeia, Boeotia, Greece
- Witnesses
- Visitors, including the writer Pausanias
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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