Oraculum Iovis Dodonaei

About

Greece's oldest oracle, where priests read the rustle of a sacred oak's leaves and the clang of bronze cauldrons to hear the will of Zeus. Homer already knew the shrine by the 8th century BCE, long before Epirus's King Pyrrhus gave it a 17,000-seat theater and grander temple in the 3rd century BCE. Croesus of Lydia and generations of Greek states sent envoys here before major decisions. The oracle still answered questions in the mountains of Epirus when Trajan died in 117 CE.

What happened here

You come with a question, and the form of the question matters as much as the answer. There is a fee, a preliminary sacrifice, and a wait — sometimes days, sometimes only on certain days of the year. The consultation itself is controlled: the enquirer rarely meets the speaker directly, and the response arrives through an intermediary, in verse or in writing, and often ambiguously enough to survive being wrong. Cities consult about colonies, wars and plagues; individuals about marriage, illness, travel and lost property. The sanctuary grows rich on the gifts of those whose answers came out well. Sceptics are common and say so openly. By this century several famous oracles are quieter than they were, and people notice.

In ancient writing

• Herodotus, Histories 2.54–57

  Two accounts of the founding side by side: the priestesses' black dove that spoke from an oak, and the Egyptian priests' woman carried off from Thebes.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodona
• https://www.worldhistory.org/Dodona/