25. Number Three visits Selloi in her tent, guided by a dream she has about Hera, a child believed dead. This mythic element says that the oracles at the oasis of Siwa in Libya and of Dodona in Epirus were equally old, but similarly transmitted by Phoenician culture, and that the seeresses – Herodotus does not say "sibyls" – were women. The oracles were interpreted by bare-footed priests named Selloi from the rustling leaves of the holy oak trees. Wort, Lied, und Gottesspruch: Beiträge zur Septuaginta. She was identified at other sites as Rhea or Gaia. E.R. 5 : tripods) from southern Greek cities. Dodona was the ancient seat of the oracle of Zeus and Dione, the mother of Aphrodite, also honored as the wife of Zeus instead of Hera. "There is a land Hellopia with much glebe and rich meadows, and rich in flocks and shambling kine. Now Ephoros is unable, he says, to tell the oracular response that was given to the Pelasgians, but the prophetess replied to the Boiotians that they would prosper if they committed sacrilege; and the messengers who were sent to consult the oracle, suspecting that the prophetess responded thus out of favor to the Pelasgians, because of her kinship with them (indeed, the temple also was from the beginning Pelasgian), seized the woman and threw her upon a burning pile, for they considered that, whether she had acted falsely or had not, they were right in either case, since, if she uttered a false oracle, she had her punishment, whereas, if she did not act falsely, they had only obeyed the order of the oracle. It is thought, Apollodoros says, that the land was so called from the marshes around the temple . . Panorama of the theater of Dodona, the modern village Dodoni and the snow-capped Mount Tomaros are visible in the background. Würzburg: Echter, 1972. In front of this basin, there was an iron statue of a boy standing with a whip formed of three chains, from which some buttons hung which touched the basin. [1] According to Homer, they were priests of the Dodonian Zeus. Propheteia (trans. "As for the Pelasgoi, almost all agree, that some ancient tribe of that name spread throughout the whole of Greece . 2. "Sokrates : They used to say, my friend, that the words of the oak in the holy place of Zeus at Dodona were the first prophetic utterances. And the Pelasgi are called the earliest of all peoples who have held dominion in Greece. During classical antiquity, according to various accounts, priestesses and priests in the sacred grove interpreted the rustling of the oak (or beech) leaves to determine the correct actions to be taken. "Dodona Selloi has survived and is on the Chrion. Accordingly, Plutarch attributes the foundation of the oracle and the worshipping of Zeus to Deukalion and Pyrrha after the Flood. And both the tragic poets and Pindaros have called Dodona ‘Thesprotian Dodona.’ But later on it came under the rule of the Molossoi. I expect that these women were called 'doves' by the people of Dodona because they spoke a strange language, and the people thought it like the cries of birds; then the woman spoke what they could understand, and that is why they say that the dove uttered human speech; as long as she spoke in a foreign tongue, they thought her voice was like the voice of a bird. Perhaps having Oracles work together, they might provide some insight into next steps." Questions Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 97 (from Scholiast on Sophocles Trachinae 1167) (trans. One comes to ask it a question and another to sacrifice, while yonder band from Thebes stands about the oak, claiming as their own the wisdom of the tree; and I think the golden bird has been caught there by decoy. Aristotle clearly uses 'Dodona' as the designation of the whole district in which the oracle was situated. Photo: Wikipedia. For how could a dove utter the speech of men? 15 (trans. Aristotle considered the region around Dodona to have been part of Hellas and the region where the Hellenes originated. The interpreters of Zeus, whom Homer knew as ‘men with unwashen feet that couch on the ground’ [Iliad 16.235], are a folk that live from hand to mouth and have as yet acquired no substance, and they assert that they will never do so, since they think they enjoy the favour of Zeus because they are content with a picked-up livelihood. Visitgreece.gr is the official tourism web site for Greece, run by the Greek National Tourism Organisation, where you'll find information on the main tourist destinations, such as cities, beaches, as well as activities, events and much more! The oracle shrine (christirion) at Dodona was located in the northwestern part of Greece, in Epirus, south-west of Ioannina. The element of the dove may be an attempt to account for a folk etymology applied to the archaic name of the sacred women that no longer made sense and the eventual connection with Zeus, justified by a tale told by a priestess. And even the oracle at Dodona, like the rest, is virtually extinct. Mysterious Chachapoyas ‘Warriors Of The Clouds’ And Their Impressive Structures, Monster Water God Gong Gong Blamed For Cosmic Catastrophes In Chinese Myths, Cupbearer – Prestigious And Dangerous Profession In Many Ancient Cultures Throughout History, Magnificent Pre-Dynastic City Of Sais And Its Lost Neglected Ruins. the ancient inhabitants of Greece), whose priests were called Selloi or Helloi (with probable ties to Hellen). Strabo, Geography 6. Offerings and fame Selloi The municipality Dodoni has an area of 657.499 km 2 , the municipal unit Dodoni has an area of 101.016 km 2 , and the community Dodoni has an area of 8.748 km 2 . Jahrhunderts v. ", Suidas s.v. comes to be united with the chthonic goddess of vegetation Dione, the worship of whom, preexisted since the Bronze age (2600-1900 B.C.). Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) . [3] It remained an important religious sanctuary until the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman era. The earliest mention of Dodona is in the Iliad’s Book XVI, where its priests, called by Homer, the Selloi (or Helloi) amde predictions from the rustling of the sacred oak leaves and other sounds. At the outset, it is true, those who uttered the prophecies were men (this too perhaps the poet indicates, for he calls them “hypophetae” [interpreters] and the prophets might be ranked among these), but later on three old women were designated as prophets, after Dione also had been designated as temple-associate of Zeus. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) : Strabo, Geography 6. [13] According to Plutarch, the worship of Jupiter (Zeus) at Dodona was set up by Deucalion and Pyrrha.[14]. Selloi is surrounded in her tent by curious tapestries and stones. But later on it came under the rule of the Molossoi. Oracle of Zeus at Dodona. The astrometrics lab probably plays a very large role in the discovery of the algae planet and the charting of the star cluster. And this, it is said, is the origin of the myth about the pigeons in the Dodonaian oak-tree. [23] In 167 BCE, Dodona was destroyed by the Romans[24] (led by Aemilius Paulus[25]), but was later rebuilt by Emperor Augustus in 31 BCE. Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer, Copyright © AncientPages.com All rights reserved. the priestesses Pythia [of Apollo at Delphoi] and Dodona [of Zeus at Dodona] who divine through trees.". Es galt als ältestes Orakel Griechenlands und war nach Delphi das bedeutendste überregionale Orakel der griechischen Welt. 5 : Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 2. All Rights Reserved. I've heard that Oracles don't get along well with each other. "A Bronze Wheel from Dodona. He, too, was deceived by the oracle at Dodona, which bade him be on his guard against Akheron and Pandosia; for places which bore these names were pointed out to him in Thesprotia, but he came to his end here in Brettion. "Or erupt in a cat fight. ", Strabo, Geography 7. It has been inhabited since the Early Bronze Age. ", Strabo, Geography 7 Fragment 1a : The specific description of the goddess Hera further deepens the parallelism between the Lords of Kobol and their counterparts in the Olympian pantheon of real-world Earth's Greek mythology. For suppliants are sacred and holy.’". Delcor, Mathias. [38] Also, the word "Greece" may have been derived from this area. And they [the doves] lived in the hollow of an oak (phêgou). 2. From this and other sources we also learn that at Dodona, oracular consulting was given through the interpreting of the rustling of oak-leaves, or of the cooing of doves (peleiai), of the flight of birds nesting in the oak trees, as of the murmuring of the waters from the sacred spring or of the clanking of brazen vessels which were hung on the branches of the oak-trees, reminding of modern wind chimes. Δωδώνα, Dōdōna, myös Δωδώνη, Dōdōnē tai Δωδών, Dōdōn) oli antiikin aikainen kaupunki ja kaupunkivaltio (polis) Epeiroksessa luoteisessa Kreikassa. 7. Herodotus, but no earlier writer , mentions priestesses, the givers of the oracles, undoubtedly under some kind of guidance from the god. It is further said that in the language of the Molossians and the Thesprotians old women are called peliai and old men pelioi. They too have an inscription :--‘These once ravaged golden Asia, and brought slavery upon the Greeks. There are several archaeological remains at ancient site of Dodona, but perhaps the most representative of all, are the ruins of Dodona’s ancient theatre, which had a capacity of 18,000 and had 55 rows of seats divided in three horizontal sections separated by ten flights of steps. ", Strabo, Geography 7 Fragment 1 : "[18], The details of this story are as follows. And there was another oracle that helped to deceive him : ‘Three-hilled Pandosia, much people shalt thou kill one day’; for he thought that the oracle clearly meant the destruction of the enemy, not of his own people. It was probably the oldest and most prominent oracle in the early ancient Greek world, dated to the second millennium BCE, yet soon it became second to importance after the oracle shrine of Delphi. The area was called Ellopia in ancient times … "Pandosia [a town in Brettion, Italia] . [11], Zeus was worshipped at Dodona as "Zeus Naios" or "Naos" (god of the spring below the oak in the temenos or sanctuary, cf. Selloi tells her that Zeus and the other Lords of Kobol are sad for Three. For it is better, they argue, to write tomouroi than themistes; at any rate, nowhere in the poet are the oracles called themistes, but it is the decrees, statutes, and laws that are so called; and the people have been called tomouroi because tomouroi is a contraction of tomarouroi, the equivalent of tomarophylakes. There was an ancient tradition that Dodona was founded as a colony from the city, also named Dodona, in Thessaly. 1 (trans. Marshall Bagshot snorted. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) Se tunnettiin erityisesti oraakkelinpaikastaan. The shrine of Dodona was considered to be the oldest Greek oracle, dating to the second millennium BC, according to the Greek historian Herodotus. [37] The timing of change is clearly prior to Herodotus (5th century BC), with his narrative about the doves and Egypt. The earliest accounts in Homer describe Dodona as an oracle of Zeus. By the time the traveller Pausanias visited Dodona in the 2nd century CE, the sacred grove had been reduced to a single oak.

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