Some scholars suggested that the Pythia actually babbled unintelligible gibberish and that her words were later put into beautiful, deep, and meaningful hexameter verse — by male priests. Yet in our ancient sources there is absolutely nothing to suggest that it was anyone other than the Pythia herself who came up with the responses. To the contrary: she is regularly named as the one and only source of the prophecies delivered at Delphi. There is no word of male priests, beyond those in purely administrative and assisting roles.

Since the beginning of wave-riding in ancient Hawaii, women have been active participants in the cultural practice of surfing. In the contemporary context, however, the hyper-masculinity celebrated in surfing culture has meant that women had to develop new strategies.