Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 3

He goes on to say that the pronouncements once delivered by the Pythia, the Dodonian priests, the Clarian oracle, the shrine at Branchidae, the oracle of Ammon, and by countless other prophets — prophets through whom the whole earth was settled in a gentle way — are not even taken into account. Yet the utterances of those in Judea, whether spoken in the same manner or not, and the sort of thing still customary among the peoples around Phoenicia and Palestine, these are treated as wonderfully reliable and unchangeable. Let us therefore speak about the oracles that have been handed down. It is possible for us to collect from Aristotle and from those who philosophized in the Peripatetic tradition no small number of arguments to overturn the case for the Pythia and the other oracles. It is also possible to cite the words of Epicurus and of those who embrace his teaching on the same matters, and to show that some Greeks themselves reject the divinations believed and marveled at throughout all Greece. But let us grant that the matters concerning the Pythia and the other oracles are neither fabrications nor human pretenses about divine inspiration. Even so, let us see whether it can be demonstrated to those who examine things in a love of truth that, even if one accepts these as genuine oracles, it is not necessary to conclude that gods are present in them. Rather, they are evil demons and hostile spirits, enemies of the human race, who hinder the soul's ascent and the journey through virtue and the restoration of true piety toward God. Now, it is reported about the Pythia — who appears to be the most renowned of the other oracles — that the prophetess of Apollo, sitting over the mouth of the Castalian spring, receives a spirit through the female organs; and when she has been filled with it, she utters the things regarded as solemn and divine prophecies. Observe, then, through these facts whether the impurity and profanity of that spirit are not revealed. It does not enter the soul of the prophetess through pure and invisible channels, but through those parts which it was not even lawful for a sane and human person to see, let alone touch. And this is done not merely once or twice — for perhaps such a thing might seem more tolerable — but as many times as she is believed to prophesy from Apollo. Moreover, the fact that it drives the supposed prophetess into a state of ecstasy and madness, so that she does not follow herself, is not the work of a divine spirit. For the one possessed by the divine spirit ought to have been benefited far earlier by all that is taught from the oracles concerning the middle and natural life — whether for what is useful or for what is advantageous — and ought to be more discerning, especially at the very time when the divine is present to him.