When starting the journey of writing this new orchestra piece for the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, I came just days before off the premiere performances of my 30-minute original ballet, Omphalos; A Greek myth-inspired dance production in five scenes for a small ensemble of ten players.

Fresh in the back of my mind, I wanted to take structural elements of that score, and the general writing style that I developed for the production, and explode it to a larger canvas of the symphony orchestra. The chamber music-like writing that I used for the ballet posed a challenge when transposing it to this full-orchestra; resulting in refined level of instrumentational detail that I had never tried before on a scale this big.

The drama of the structure comes from my ballet as well; where that ballet was inspired by the mysterious, mythical stone that is believed to be the genesis-point of the universe, this work is inspired by the powerful priestess that protects it from malevolent forces. But in the end, not a single measure or note from my previous work made its way into this orchestral piece..

A prophetess of the ancient Greek sanctuary, Pythia, gave her advice at the Apollo temple. From far and wide, thousands of people, often pilgrims, came to Delphi every year to consult the oracle and ask the gods for good advice in making important and difficult decisions. Seated on a three-legged stool, she regularly fell into religious rapture. Intoxicated by fumes and other hallucinogens from a rock fissure, she delivered her verdicts. Once in a trance, Pythia began to emit incoherent noises, which were assumed to be messages from the gods. Some priests then shook their heads in understanding and gave a translation, often in hexametric verses.

During this period, Pythia, the oracle of Delphi, was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks and was among the most powerful women of the classical world. For a procedure at the temple fire, Pythia removed her purple veil. The rising smoke was a signal that the oracle had been opened. She then descended into the adyton and seated herself on her three-legged stool. Nearby was the omphalos (a sacred stone thought to be the centre and point of genesis of the earth), with two solid gold eagles representing the authority of Zeus, and the crevice from which the holy vapours came..