Acts 16:16

Damsel. See on ch. Acts 12:13.

Spirit of divination [π ν ε υ μ α π υ θ ω ν α]. Lit., a spirit, a Python. Python, in the Greek mythology, was the serpent which guarded Delphi.

According to the legend, as related in the Homeric hymn, Apollo descended from Olympus in order to select a site for his shrine and oracle. Having fixed upon a spot on the southern side of Mount Parnassus, he found it guarded by a vast and terrific serpent, which he slew with an arrow, and suffered its body to rot [π υ θ ε ι ν] in the sun. Hence the name of the serpent Python (rotting); Pytho, the name of the place, and the epithet Pythian, applied to Apollo. The name Python was subsequently used to denote a prophetic demon, and was also used of soothsayers who practiced ventriloquism, or speaking from the belly. The word ejggastrimuqov, ventriloquist, occurs in the Septuagint, and is rendered having a familiar spirit (see Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27; 1 Samuel 28:7; 1 Samuel 28:8). The heathen inhabitants of Philippi regarded the woman as inspired by Apollo; and Luke, in recording this case, which came under his own observation, uses the term which would naturally suggest itself to a Greek physician, a Python - spirit, presenting phenomena identical with the convulsive movements and wild cries of the Pythian priestess at Delphi. Soothsaying [μ α ν τ ε υ ο μ ε ν η]. Akin to mainomai, to rave, in allusion to the temporary madness which possessed the priestess or sibyl while under the influence of the God. Compare Virgil's description of the Cumaean Sibyl :

"And as the word she spake Within the door, all suddenly her visage and her hue Were changed, and all her sleeked hair and gasping breath she drew, And with the rage her wild heart swelled, and greater was she grown, Nor mortal - voiced; for breath of God upon her heart was blown As he drew nigher." Aeneid, vil, 45 sq.