pythoness means the priestess of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pythoness ranks #2,328 of 14,438 for Most Storied Words, #2,374 of 14,451 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,678 of 14,410 for Most Ponderous Words, #7,082 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words.
Why “pythoness” is a great word
A female priestess of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, or, by extension, a woman possessed of a prophetic or oracular spirit. From Late Latin *pythonissa*, from Ancient Greek Πυθία (*Puthía*, "the Pythian priestess"), the title of the Delphic oracle, from Πύθων (*Pýthōn*, "Python", the serpent slain by Apollo at Delphi), first attested in English in the late 14th century. Unlike "sibyl"—which denotes any prophetic woman of antiquity—or "witch"—which implies malign craft and diabolic compact—a pythoness is defined by her inspired, oracular speech, a conduit for divine pronouncement. She is the figure wreathed in laurel and rising vapors on the tripod, the voice that speaks in riddles from the temple’s inner sanctum, the crack through which the future leaks into the present—a vessel forever haunted by the ghost of the serpent and the god who usurped it.
Etymology
From Late Latin pythonissa, from Ancient Greek Πυθία (Puthía). Compare Pythia.
noun
- The priestess of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.
- A female soothsayer
- A female python.e.g.“On the fifteenth of January, it was discovered that the pythoness had excluded rather more than a hundred dirty-white, leathery-looking eggs.”
Words closest in meaning
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