The Oracle Of Dodona

In ancient Greece, "no other practice was so universal than the consultation of oracles." These holy sites were found in 260 locations around the Greek-speaking world, and they were considered the "most satisfactory means of ascertaining the future." These sanctuaries were "set apart from the profane, ordinary world" and were in the beginning restricted to natural locations where the divine was thought to be "especially present." They were set aside for special spiritual functions, and a state of purity was generally required of its participants. A historical tendency toward providing haven for criminals was based on the fear of shedding blood in a holy place, and the "fear that the evil magic would emanate from his curse." Of course, the Oracle of Delphi was one of the greatest religious institutions in ancient Greece and one which played a significant role not only in the formation and collective decisions of Hellenic localities and city-states but also in the personal lives of Greeks. The site was dedicated to the god Apollo, and the Greeks believed the god spoke his oracles through his prophetess, known as the Pythia. The judgments and decisions rendered by the oracle were so important to the Greeks that they often put them above all other interests, even security threats posed by the likes of the Persians, and Delphi was popular even amongst outsiders. Aside from Delphi, the most prominent oracles were located near Colophon, Xanthus, Claros, Branchidae, Olympia, and Dodona, and all the Greek oracles have been found in places with "extraordinary natural features" connected to their powers. The Oracle of Dodona was the oldest of all, and it was one of the few dedicated to Zeus and his consort goddess Dione. The oracular utterances heard at the oracles are generally referred to as "smokiness" in Greek, but at Dodona, the answers came in natural sounds and other peripheral phenomena. Unlike Apollo, Zeus traditionally had only one oracle: the Oracle of Dodona. The Oracle of Dodona was considered to be the oldest oracle in Greece and was originally dedicated to Rhea, Zeus' mother (this was widely known in Greece), but he displaced her over time. The Oracle (always a woman) would listen to the sound of the wind in the leaves of oak trees dedicated to Zeus and interpret the sound as the god's voice. Much later, Zeus also "adopted" the Oracle at Siwa in the Libyan desert. The Siwa Oracle was one of the "Sibyls" of the ancient world, and when she was visited by Alexander the Great, she predicted his rise to power and informed him of his divine heritage as Zeus's son. Despite the interest in Greek oracles, modern knowledge remains limited in certain respects, because cult history has become so intertwined with mythology that the lines separating one from another have been nearly lost. Modern scholars studying the oracles have tried to pull the shroud of mythology away from historical facts to illuminate the realities of the Greek cults, but the job has often proved trickier than imagined. If anything, the work of scholars has deepened the mysticism of the oracles rather than dispel it, in large measure due to documenting fascinating and mysterious stories about them. For example, much has been written about natural vapors and fumes that may have caused psychoactive effects in petitioners at oracles. Modern civilizations at times employ this argument to excuse the supposed ignorance of the ancient Greeks, and in some cases, such vapors have been identified and may indeed explain the activities at certain oracles. However, archaeologist Jelle de Boer, intimately associated with some of the most iconic Greek oracles, cautioned that "something can be extra-natural without being outright supernatural." He further noted that "present-day humans are pretty arrogant when they think the ancients could not have observed things clearly."

Studies published to date on the oracle of Dodona in Epirus have to different extents been coloured by, or fully reliant on, the possibility of unravelling divinatory practice, especially in the wake of Parke. Despite a plethora of attempts at identifying how the priestesses and/or priests give the responses of the oracle at Dodona, such a prospect has remained unrealised and at the moment it is impossible to determine the oracular practices in detail. Today new prospects in the study of shrines demand that we turned from attempting to understand how the oracle of Dodona worked, so as to concentrate on who consulted it. The present investigation aims to give a comprehensive study of the catchment area of the shrine of Dodona through the identification of its clients. All available sources have been considered, from the very first attestation of worship at Dodona, in the second millennium, to the mid- 4th century BC, when the geopolitical dynamics of Greece, and especially of Epirus, changed drastically. My thesis responds to the need, on the one hand, for an interdisciplinary analysis of the sources to gain a wider and exhaustive scenario, with a critique of the several archaeological and historical interpretations proposed until today, and, on the other, for the creation of the first corpus of all extant evidence. So far modern scholars have relegated the oracle to a marginal position in the ancient Greek world, considering it as a shrine consulted for private questions by people circulating in the area of the Adriatic Sea. From the analysis of the sources (material and literary evidence), the scenario I have drawn is wholly different. From the 6th century onwards, not only private individuals, but also communities consulted and made offering to the oracle. The catchment area of the shrine grew, passing from an almost local to an interregional (6th cent.) and then pan-Hellenic dimension (5th - 4th cent). The sanctuary attracted devotees not only from local and neighbouring regions, Epirus, Thessaly, the Corinthian colonies of the Adriatic, as one might expect, but also from Boiotia, Magna Graecia, Sicily, Athens, Cyprus, and the Peloponnese, particularly from Sparta.

A monograph concerning the sanctuary of Dodona and its role in the political context of Epirus might be a remarkable input. Located in a region that has received more interest in the last years, this book attempts to analyze the way the shrine evolved in connection with the political developments of its surrounding region. The study employs a diachronic perspective and emphasizes throughout that religion was a dynamic, not a static, phenomenon. The chronology of this research extends from the Archaic to Hellenistic periods. Its key novelty is that it offers an entirely new holistic approach to an ancient religious site by considering its polyfunctionality. At the same time that it presents a state-of-the-art analysis of the shrine of Dodona and contributes with a new theory concerning the function of some structures located in the sacred area, it also highlights the close connection between a settlement and its region. For this reason, the aim is to become a reference work that allows continuing the current trend of studies focused on Epirus, a territory traditionally considered as secondary.

A study of the question tablets from the oracle at Dodona and binding-curse tablets from across the ancient Greek world, These tablets reveal the hopes and anxieties of ordinary people, and help us to understand some of the ways in which they managed risk and uncertainty in their daily lives.

Greek Epigraphy and Religion explores the insights provided by inscribed texts into the religious practices of the ancient Greek world. The papers study material ranging geographically from Epiros to Egypt and chronologically from the Classical to the Roman period.