Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 3

He goes on to say that the pronouncements uttered by the Pythia, the Dodonian priests, the Clarian oracle, the shrine at Branchidae, the oracle of Ammon, and by thousands of other prophets — through whom the whole earth was gently settled — are not given any credence at all. Yet the things spoken by those in Judea in the same fashion, or even things that were never spoken, and the sort of utterances still customary today among the peoples of Phoenicia and Palestine, these they regard as marvelous and unalterable.

Let us then address the oracles that have been cited. We can collect from Aristotle and the philosophers of the Peripatetic school plenty of arguments to overturn the case for the Pythia and the other oracles. We can also adduce the statements of Epicurus and his followers on the same subject to show that even some Greeks reject the prophetic claims that are revered and wondered at throughout Greece.

But suppose we grant that the phenomena surrounding the Pythia and the other oracles are not fabrications or human pretenses of divine inspiration. Let us see whether, even on that concession, one can demonstrate to those who investigate honestly that accepting these utterances as genuine oracles does not compel us to acknowledge the presence of gods. On the contrary, they point to evil demons and spirits hostile to the human race, beings that obstruct the soul's ascent, the path of virtue, and the restoration of true piety toward God.

The Pythia is reported to be the most renowned of the oracles. She sits over the mouth of the Castalian spring, and the prophetess of Apollo receives a spirit through her female organs; filled with it, she delivers what are taken to be solemn and divine prophecies. Consider whether this does not reveal the unclean and profane character of that spirit. It does not enter the prophetess's soul through pure, invisible channels — channels far cleaner than the female organs — but through parts that it is not even lawful for a sane person to look at or touch. And this happens not merely once or twice (for perhaps that might seem more tolerable), but as often as she is believed to prophesy from Apollo.

Moreover, driving the supposed prophetess into an ecstatic, manic state in which she loses all self-possession is not the work of a divine spirit. The one indwelt by the divine Spirit ought to have been benefited long before by everything taught through the oracles, and to have become more discerning — most of all at the very moment when the divine is present to him.