Oracle at Hierapolis – Google Docs
The Oracle at Hierapolis
The fun thing about the scientific mind is that it can be so usefully distracted. For example: does one have an oracular site with the unfortunate side effect that people and animals sometimes suddenly die in its proximity? Easy enough to arrange matters so that there’s an convenient mundane explanation, like dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide emanating from a local cave. It’s even better if you can put your oracular operation inside a cave that already has a toxic gas problem (assuming that you can compensate for that): you don’t have to worry about people seeing through your fakery, because it’s not actually fake in the first place.