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The Oracle of Dodona

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

D. M. Nicol
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Extract

The true site of the oracle of Dodona was discovered only in comparatively recent years. Christopher Wordsworth was the first to identify it, and the Greek archaeologist Carapanos the first to explore it. It lies to the south-west of Ioannina, at a spot most easily accessible from the coast of Thesprotiaby way of the valley of the Thyamis (Fig. 1). It is reached today by a branch road some ten miles to the south of loannina. The long, narrow valley in which it stands is completely dominated on its western side, and for much of the day overshadowed, by the almost precipitous mountain Tomaros (Olitzika), which rises to a height of 6,500 feet. This mountain bears a chain of craggy peaks, and its flank is scarred with gorges and torrents, fed by the snow which lasts some four months of the year on the upper slopes. The climate of the district is severe and well substantiates Homer's description of Δωδώνη δυσχωί-μερος. The valley is remarkable for its violent thunderstorms, which bring torrential rain to fill the mountain cataracts in the summer, and its soil is thus unusually swampy. The foothills of Tomaros are covered with pine trees, while in the plain below a few rather ragged oaks are still to be seen. The rivers of the district are the Acheron and the Kokytos, both associated with the underworld; and not far away is the Acheloos which makes its way down into Akarnania. (See Pl. VI.)

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , October 1958 , pp. 128 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1958

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References

page 128 note 1 Wordsworth, C., Greece (London, 1868), 328 f.Google Scholar; Carapanos, C., Dodone et ses Ruines (Paris, 1878), i (Texte), ii (Planches).Google Scholar

page 128 note 2 Strabo 328 τ⋯ ⋯ρος Τόμαρος ἢ Τμάρος … ὑφ' ὅ κεῖται τ⋯ ἱερόν, Aesch. P.V. 830 τ⋯ν αἰπύνωτον … Δωδώνην.

page 128 note 3 Reports of Prof. D. E. Evangelides's work to date are published in Ἠπειρω-τικ⋯ Χρονικά, x (1935); Πρακτικ⋯ τ⋯ς Ἀρχαιολογικ⋯ς Ἑταιρείας, 1930–2, 1954; Ἀρχαιολογικ⋯ Ἐφημερίς, 1956. Cf. also Journ. of Hellenic Studies, lxxiii (1953), 121, lxxiv (1954), 159Google Scholar; Supplements to J.H.S. lxxv (1955), 13, lxxvi (1956), 18, lxxvii (1957), 17; Bull, de Corresp. Hellénique, lxxvii (1953), 223Google Scholar, lxxviii (1954), 135 f., lxxix (1955), 262 f., lxxx (1956), 299–301.

page 129 note 1 The literary evidence, such as it is, indicates that there were temples of Zeus and Aphrodite, and perhaps also of Dione. There was a much-revered statue of Dione which was presumably housed in her temple. Cf. Polyb. iv. 67; Serv. Verg. Aen. iii. 466. Hypereides, Pro Euxenippo 24, mentions the statue Dione and the ἕδος τ⋯ς Διώνης.

page 130 note 1 The ‘fourteen columns’ which Wordsworth saw must have been those of the basilica, many of which are still standing.

page 130 note 2 Alexander the Great left 1,500 talents for the construction of a temple at Dodona, Diod. Sic. xviii. 4. 4–5.

page 130 note 3 Etym. Mag., s.v. Δωδώνη; Strabo 328; Il. ii. 749 f., xvi. 233–5; Hesiod, Fr. 212 (ap. Strabo 328). Steph. Byz. (s.v. Δωδώνη) gives a fanciful derivation of the words ‘Dodonaean’ and ‘Pelasgian’: οι τ⋯ν Δία Δωδωναῑον μ⋯ν καλο⋯ντες, ὅτι δίδωσιν ⋯μῑν τ⋯ ⋯γαθά, Πελασγικ⋯ν δέ, ὅτι τς γ⋯ς πέλας ⋯στίν.

page 131 note 1 Suid. s.v. Δωδώνη; Steph. Byz. s.v. Δωδώνη; Schol. Il. ii. 750; Od. xiv. 316, xix. 287; Pind. Nem. iv. 51–53. Cf. Carapanos, op. cit. i. 153 f.

page 131 note 2 Hesiod, ap. Schol. Soph. Trach. 1169; Pindar, Fr. 224 (Frr. 6–9 Boeckh), Δωδωναῑε μεγασθενές, ⋯ριστοτέχνα πάτερ.…

page 131 note 3 Od. xiv. 327–8 (Odysseus); Schol. Pind. Nem. vii. 153, Ephor. Fr. 17 (Aletes); Aesch. P.V. 658 f. (Io); Eut. Phoen. 982 (Kreon); Soph. Trach. 1170 (Herakles); Eur. Androm. 886 (Orestes); Ap. Rhod. i. 527, Val. Flacc, i. 302 (Argonauts); Paus. vii. 21 (Kalydonians); Verg. Aen. iii. 466. According to one of the accounts in Dion. Hal. (Ant. Rom. i. 51, 55) Aeneas travelled to Dodona from Bouthroton, and there received the oracle about the founding of his city. Cf. Verg. Serv. Aen. iii. 256, ‘oraculum hoc a Dodonaeo Iove apud Epirum acceperunt’.

page 132 note 1 Paus. viii. 11, 12.

page 132 note 2 Dem. xix. 297, xxi. 531; Dio Cass. ix, Fr. 40, 6; Cic. Div. ii. 56. Among the offerings to Zeus at Dodona were weapons dedicated by Pyrrhos from the spoil of the Romans. Cf. Carapanos, , Archäol. Zeit., xxxvi (1878), 115.Google Scholar

page 132 note 3 Pind. Ol. vi. 6, viii. 2. For the oracle of Trophonios, who was sometimes identified with Zeus Basileus, cf. Strabo 414; Hdt. viii. 134; How and Wells, Commentary on Herodotus (Oxford, 1936), ii. 280.Google Scholar

page 133 note 1 Dion. Hal. Ars. rhet. i. 6 (cf. Verg. Georg. i. 147–9); Hdt. ii. 52. Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. vi. 12) coined (or revived) the epithet ‘Dodonigena’ to describe nations who live on acorns.

page 133 note 2 Cf. Carapanos, i. 132–6; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, ii, chap. 20 (§2, ‘The Aryan God of the Oak and the Thunder’).

page 133 note 3 Schol. Il. xvi. 233 (where Φηγωναῖε is an alternative reading for Δωδωναῑε). As a tree-god Zeus had the special epithet of ῎Ενδενδρος.

page 133 note 4 Pliny, H.N. ii. 228, iv. praef. 2 ‘Tomarus mons centum fontibus circa radices Theopompo celebratus’; Serv. Aen. iii. 466. Figures of Zeus in the attitude of Poseidon have been found at Dodona. Cf. Walters, H. B., British Museum Catalogue of Bronzes (London, 1899), 274Google Scholar, Pl. vi. 2; Carapanos, ii, Pl. xii. 4.

page 134 note 1 Paus. x. 12. 10. Cf. Cook, A. B., ‘Zeus, Jupiter and the Oak’, Class. Rev. xvii (1903), 178 f.Google Scholar

page 134 note 2 Il. v. 370, 381; Hes. Theog. 17; Strabo 329. The cult of Zeus Naïos appears elsewhere, e.g. at Athens, where an altar was inscribed Δι⋯ Ναῳ ('Αρχαιολ. Δελτίον, 1890, 145). Dione reappears in Latin mythology as Juno. Cf. Frazer, op. cit. ii. 189; Farnell, L. R., Cults of the Greek States (Oxford, 1896–1909), i. 39.Google Scholar

page 134 note 3 Cf. Gardner, P., New Chapters in Greek History (London, 1892), 403 f.Google Scholar

page 135 note 1 Il. xvi. 234. Cf. Kallim. Del. 286 (who calls them γηλεχέες); Pind. ap. Schol. Il. l.c.; Arist. Meteor. i. 14, 352b2. Hesiod (Fr. 39, ap. Schol. Soph. Trach. 1167) gives the name ‘Ελλοπίη to the district.

page 135 note 2 Od. xvi. 403–5, where Strabo (328) read τόμουροι instead of θέμιστες, a name nowhere else applied to oracles. For the suggestion δρυτόμος, cf. A. B. Cook, l.c., 180f. For the αἰγειροτόμοι cf. G. de Sanctis, 'Ατθίς2 (Torino, 1912), 63 f.; Philostr. Imagines, ii. 73.

page 135 note 3 Farnell, op. cit. i. 38; Schol. Il. xvi. 235. Cf. Philostr. l.c. τ⋯ν γ⋯ρ Δία χαίρειν σφίσιν, ⋯πειδ⋯ ⋯σπάονται τ⋯ αὐτόθεν ἱερεῑς γ⋯ρ οτοι…, Carapanos, i. 160 f. The Νααρχος, whose name appears on inscriptions, may have been a sort of high priest. Cf. Carapanos, i. 55, No. 8; ii, Pl. xxix. 3. See below.

page 135 note 4 Lykophron ap. Schol. Il. xvi. 239.

page 136 note 1 Hdt. ii. 52–57. Cf. How and Wells, op. cit. ii. 54Google Scholar; Strabo, l.c.; Paus. x. 12. 10. Bouché-Leclerq, A., Histoire de la Divination (Paris, 1879–1882), ii. 277–331Google Scholar, attempts to read into this myth evidence for the importation of a cult of Aphrodite from the East. But the priestesses of Dodona seem to have been ἱερ⋯δουλοι of Zeus and Dione rather than of Aphrodite.

page 136 note 2 Cf. Strabo 329 κατ' ⋯ρχ⋯ς μ⋯ν ον ἄνδρες σαν οἱ προφητεύοντες ὕστερον δ' ⋯πεδείχθησαν τρεῖς γραῑαι, ⋯πειδ⋯ κα⋯ σύνναος προσαπεδείχθη κα⋯ ⋯ Διώνη.

page 136 note 3 Farnell (op. cit. i. 39) denies that they ever were so called. Other priesthoods were, however, similarly named, e.g. the ‘bees’ of the Ephesian Artemis and of Demeter (Schol. Pind. Pyth. iv. 104), the ‘bears’ of Brauronian Artemis (Suid. s.v. ῎Αρκτος), and the ‘flies’ of Baal.

page 136 note 4 Od. xii. 62.

page 137 note 1 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. i. 14. 1Google Scholar; Krappe, A. H., ‘Les Péléiades’, Rev. Archéologique, 5me Série, xxxvi (1932), 77–93.Google Scholar

page 137 note 2 Krappe, l.c., argues that there is no reason for supposing that Dione was a ‘tard-venue’ at Dodona. Dione and Zeus, he says, existed conjointly from the beginning, as did the priests and priestesses. But, apart from Strabo's evidence (l.c., ὕστερον … προσαπεδείχθη κα⋯ ⋯ Διώνη), neither Homer nor Hesiod connects Dione with Dodona in any way. For the opposite view cf. Farnell, l.c., and Cook, l.c. 179–80. R. C. Jebb, in the Appendix to his edition of the Trachiniai (Cambridge, 1892), 202–6, discusses the various theories.Google Scholar

page 137 note 3 Soph. Trach. 172 is the only authority for a pair of priestesses. Cf. Ephoros ap. Strabo 329; Herakleides ap. Zenob. ii. 84; Jebb, op. cit. 204. Cook, l.c. 268 f., cites the story of Myrtile and other similar tales as evidence of a tradition of human sacrifice at Dodona. Euripides in his Erechtheus romanticized the story by making Myrtile fall in love with one of the Boeotians (Eur. Fr. 369 Nauck).

page 138 note 1 Philostratos, l.c., describes the priestesses as ⋯ν στρυφνῷ τε κα⋯ ἱερῷ τῷ εἴδει ⋯ο⋯κασι θυμιαμ⋯των τε ⋯ναπνεῖν κα⋯ σπουδ⋯ν. Cf. Plut. Lys. 25; Diod. Sic. xiv. 13. 3; Prop. ii. 21.3; Ovid, Trist, iv. 8. 43. Krappe, l.c., having rejected the whole gist of Strabo's statement about Dione and the priestesses, singles out from it the one word γραῖαι on which to build an elaborate hypothesis. According to him, the γραῑαι of Dodona are to be identified with the Γραῑαι of the Perseus myth, and so made the twin daughters of Phorkos or Porkos, himself an ancient Aryan god of thunder and the oak (cf. Latin quercus), the predecessor of Zeus at Dodona. But it is hard to believe that by γραῑαι Strabo means anything more significant than ‘old women’. Indeed he goes on (vii, Fr. la) to give an alternative derivation for the πελει⋯δες to mean ‘old women’ and not ‘doves’, from the Thesprotian and Molossian dialectal form of π⋯λιος. (So also Schol. Od. xiv. 327.) The Dodonaean priestesses were probably, like the Pythia at Delphi, of respectable age.

page 138 note 2 Cf. Parke, H. W. and Wormell, D. E. W., The Delphic Oracle (Oxford, 1956), i. 36–40.Google Scholar

page 138 note 3 Philostr. l.c. κα⋯ τ⋯ χωρ⋯ον δ⋯ αὐτ⋯ θν⋯δες … κα⋯ ỏμφ⋯ς μεστόν.

page 139 note 1 Plat. Phaidr. 275 B; Od. xiv. 327. Aesch. P.V. 832 implies that there was more than one prophetic oak (αἱ προσ⋯γοροι δρν⋯ς). Cf. Suid. s.v. Δωδώνη (εἰσι⋯ντων τν μαντενομ⋯νων ⋯κινεῑτο δ⋯θεν ⋯ δρ⋯ς ἠχο⋯σα αἱ δ⋯ ⋯φθ⋯γγοντο ὅτι τ⋯δε λ⋯γει ⋯ Ζ⋯ν); Lucian, Amor. 31 (⋯ ⋯ν Δωδώνη φηγ⋯ς … ἱερ⋯ν ⋯πορρ⋯ξασα φωνήν); Hesiod ap. Schol. Soph. Trach. 1167 (… ναῖεν δ' ⋯ν πύθμενι φηγο⋯); and Soph. Trach. 171, 1168 (πολυγλώσσου δρυ⋯ς πολυγλώσσου δρυ⋯ς πολυγλώσσου δρυ⋯ς πολυγλώσσου δρυ⋯ς ) with Jebb's notes thereon, and his Appendix, p. 205.

page 139 note 2 Serv. Verg. Aen. iii. 466; Pliny, H.N. ii. 228; Lucr. vi. 879–82. (Lucr. vi. 848 f. records similar properties of a spring at the shrine of Zeus Ammon.)

page 139 note 3 Suid. and Steph. Byz. s.v. Δωδώνη); Serv. Verg. Aen. iii. 466 ‘uasa aenea, quae uno tactu [tacto?] uniuersa solebant sonare’.

page 139 note 4 Suid. l.c.; Steph. Byz. l.c.; Strabo vii, Fr. 3.

page 140 note 1 Men. Arrhephoros, Fr. 66 (Kock iii. 22).

page 140 note 2 On this whole subject cf. Cook, A. B., ‘The Gong at Dodona’, J.H.S. xxii (1902), 5–28Google Scholar, where all the references are quoted in full.

page 140 note 3 The ⋯σιγ⋯τοιο λ⋯βητος of Kallimachos (l.c.) suggests a perpetual noise. Vitruvius (i. 1, v. 5) describes the arrangement of bronze bowls or ἠΧεῖα at Eleusis, whose purpose was also apotropaic rather than musical.

page 140 note 4 Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 357–9.

page 140 note 5 For the silver-leaf figure of Zeus with thunderbolt, cf. Evangelides, Πρακτικ⋯ (1952), 286–8, Figs. 6, 6a.

page 140 note 6 Il. ii. 780–5; Hes. Theog. 853 f.

page 140 note 7 Soph. Trach. 1167.

page 141 note 1 Cic. Div. i. 34. 76. Cf. Livy viii. 24. 1 ‘Alexandrumque Epiri regem ab exsule Lucano interfectum sortes Dodonaei louis euentu adfirmasse.’

page 141 note 2 A recurring formula is λώϊον κα⋯ ἄμειν⋯ν κα πρ⋯σσοι.

page 141 note 3 The inscriptions found by Carapanos are described and commented on by Roberts, E. S. in J.H.S. i (1880), 227–32Google Scholar, from whom this account is taken. They are collected in Collitz, H., Sammlung d. griech. Dialekt-Inschriften (Göttingen, 1884–1915), 11.Google Scholar i. 91–132. Carapanos claimed four fragments to be responses, but only one seems at all certain. One recently found inscription records the admission to citizenship of two women in the reign of Neoptolemos (fourth century), and contains some hitherto unknown names of Epeirote tribes: Evangelides, Ἀρχαιολ. Ἐφημερ⋯ς (1956), 1–13.

page 142 note 1 There are two large ewers of bronze with inscriptions to Zeus Naïos and Dione which seem to be prizes for athletes: Carapanos, ii, Pl. xxv; C.I.G.S. 2908 (from Priene); Ath. Deipn. v. 35. Among the plays known to have been performed at the Dodona festival were the Acheloos of Euripides and the Achilles of Chairemon; Dittenberger, Sylloge 2, 700. Carapanos, i. 161, n. 2, puts forward a hypothesis concerning the celebration of Mysteries at Dodona.

page 142 note 2 Cook, A. B., ‘Zeus, Jupiter and the Oak,’ Class. Rev. xvii (1903), 181–5.Google Scholar The Νααρχος occurs in an inscription in Carapanos, i. 55, No. 8.

page 142 note 3 Carapanos wrongly identified his discovery as an altar of Aphrodite. The recent discovery of the circular hearth-stone below the central temple may perhaps lend weight to this argument.

page 142 note 4 Ap. Rhod. i. 527, iv. 580; Val. Flacc, i. 302, v. 65. Elsewhere the keel of the Argo is said to have been fashioned from the oak of Dodona, Philostr. Imag. ii. 15.

page 143 note 1 Schol. Od. xiv. 327.

page 143 note 2 Cook, l.c. 185; Plut. Pyrrhos 1. Demosthenes, xxi. 531, mentions that the high priest at Dodona had the title also of ⋯ το⋯ Δι⋯ς, ‘the representative of Zeus’.

page 143 note 3 Polyb. i. 4, iv. 67; Strabo 322; Dio Cass. xxxvi. 101.