Greek divination
Greek divination is the divination practiced by ancient Greek culture as it is known from ancient Greek literature, supplemented by epigraphic and pictorial evidence. Divination is a traditional set of methods of consulting divinity to obtain prophecies about specific circumstances defined beforehand. As it is a form of compelling divinity to reveal its will by the application of method, it is, and has been since classical times, considered a type of magic. Cicero condemns it as superstition. It depends on a presumed "sympathy" between the mantic event and the real circumstance, which he denies as contrary to the laws of nature. If there were any sympathy, and the diviner could discover it, then "men may approach very near to the power of gods."
The Greek word for a diviner is mantis, generally translated as "prophet" or "seer". A mantis is to be distinguished from a hiereus, "priest," or hiereia, "priestess," by the participation of the latter in the traditional religion of the city-state. Manteis, on the other hand, were "unlicensed religious specialists," who were "expert in the art of divination." The first known mantis in Greek literature is Calchas, the mantis of the first scenes of the Iliad. His mantosune, or "art of divination", endowed him with knowledge of past, present, and future, which he got from Apollo. He was the army's official mantis. Armies of classical times seldom undertook any major operation without one, usually several. Mantosune in the army was a risky business. Prophets who erred were at best dismissed. The penalty for being a fraud was usually more severe.
Types of mantis
One of the characteristics of Greek mantic culture is "a contrast between official and independent practitioners." On the official side were the internationally recognized oracles, who divined under the auspices of a specified divinity according to a specified method, had their own temple at a specified location, and were supported by their own priesthood; for example, the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the Oracle of Zeus at Dodona, and so on. Although these oracles were located in sovereign city-states, they were granted a political "hands-off" status and free access so that delegations from anywhere could visit them.The English language has reduced mention of mantic pronouncements to one word, "oracle," based on Latin oraculum, which can also mean the mantic center. This double meaning is true in ancient Greek and Latin also. The Greeks and Romans did not have a standard word that would apply in all cases. Manteion, Psychomanteion and chresterion were common in Greek. A prophecy might be referenced by the name of the god: "Apollo said..." or "Zeus said...." or by the name of the location: "Delphi says..." etc. Implication was common: hieron, "the sacred ," fatus meus, "my fate," etc.
The other type of mantis was the independent consultant mentioned above. The important generals and statesmen had their own prophets, to avoid such difficulties as Agamemnon experienced, when Calchas forced him to sacrifice his daughter and ransom his female prize in the opening of the Iliad. Privately hired manteis, such as Alexander used, never seemed to disagree with command decisions, or if a possibly negative prophecy was received, made sure that it was given the most favorable interpretation. By that time, based on what Cicero said, the leaders were probably skeptical of prophecy, but the beliefs of the superstitious soldiers were a factor to be considered.
The extispex in Greek was called ἡπατοσκόπος and σπλαγχνοσκόπος.
Oracles
Oracles were known institutional centers committed to vatic practice, as opposed to individual practitioners for hire. The most generally known and commonly used ones were located at Delphi and Dodona These had the status of being national and even international centers, even though there was as yet no nation of Greece, but there were a great many more scattered over Hellenic territory. States did not hesitate to send delegations to different oracles over the same issue, so that they could compare answers. Oracles that prophesied most successfully became popular and flourished. The least successful oracles were abandoned.Part of the oracular administration was thus a team of what today would be called political scientists, as well as other scholars, who could perform such feats as rendering an oracle into the language of the applicant. The team also relied on information gleaned from the many visitors. The larger oracles were to a large degree intelligence centers posing as prophets. The cost was covered unknowingly by states and persons eager to make generous contributions to the god. As no one also would steal from a god, the center's administration included banking and treasury functions as well. Thus, the wealth of an oracle was available for confiscation by kings and generals during a war or other national crisis.
Summary of ancient Greek oracles
The ancient Greek oracles are known through references to them in ancient Greek literature, supplemented in many cases by archaeological information. The references were collected in the 19th century by the editorial staff of the classical encyclopedist, William Smith. A tabular summary follows. It has been necessary to supplement some of Smith's scanty descriptions with information from his sources, especially Plutarch Lives, Moralia and De Defectu Oraculorum.| Location | Deity | Epithets | Lifespan | Method |
| Abae at Kalapodi in Phocis | Apollo | Unknown | Prehistoric through classical. First mention 6th cent. BC, burned and abandoned in Third Sacred War, 346 BC, sympathetic partial restoration by Trajan. | Unknown, resulting in Delphi-like oracular statements |
| Claros near Colophon in Anatolia | Apollo | Clarius from the name of the temple | Legendary founding. The epigoni having sent Tiresius and Manto as a gift to Delphi. Manto was told to build an oracle at Colophon, which she did jointly with Cretans. Originally a pool from a spring in a grotto. Earliest structure 9th century BC. Last use 4th century. | After a sacrifice a priest would drink the water and begin to reply in verse to a question known to the applicant but not to him. |
| Delphi, formerly Pytho in Phocis | Apollo, Poseidon, Gaia | Phoebus | Prehistoric times through early Christian times, when it was abandoned. | The divinity was believed to speak in the ravings of a chosen priestess seated on a tripod over a natural chasm from which toxic gas exuded. The time was chosen and sacrifice and payment must have already happened. The ravings were interpreted and versified by other chosen priestesses. |
| Dodona | Zeus, Dione | Pelasgian, Naios | Prehistoric through classical. Burned by Romans 167 BC. | Originally interpretation of the rustling of oak leaves, later, of the sound of wind chimes made of bronze pans, or pans and bones. |
| Eutresis, Boeotia | Apollo | Eutresites | There is one mention of it. Stephanus of Byzantium says that a noted temple and oracle existed there, but not how far back it went. The settlement precedes the Bronze Age and is known in the Linear B tablets as Eutresis. It was burned and abandoned, to be reoccupied in the Archaic Period, and not abandoned until the mid-1st-millennium. When it lost the oracle remains unknown. | Nothing is known of its practices. |
| Hysiae, Boeotia | Apollo | Unknown | Mentioned once in Pausanias 9.2.1. At that time Hysiae was in ruins but a half-finished temple to Apollo was probably built after the Boeotians took the village from Athens in 507 BC. It was short-lived, being destroyed at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. | Those "drinking" from the concomitant sacred well "prophesied," but Pausanias does not say who or how. As the drinking occurred "anciently" (palaiOracular deitiesZeusZeus was the major god of the ancient Greek divine panoply. He commanded men and gods alike. Ideologically he was the guardian of justice, the patron of the state, and the final arbiter of destiny. Etymologically he descends from the Proto-Indo-European sky god, root *dyeu-, "shine," applied to the daylight sky, who, judging from his appearance in different descendant cultures, such as the Indic and the Roman, had the same status. Thunderstorms were the mark of his immediate presence, and lightning bolts, made of sacred fire, were his weapons.The literary fragments suggest that Aristotle's view was generally believed, that the first Hellenes were of the tribe of the Selloi, or Helloi, in Epirus and that they called the country Hellopia. If these fragments are to be believed, Epirus must have been an early settlement location of Indo-Europeans who were to become Greek speakers by evolution of the culture, especially language. They took over a center of worship of the former culture, called by them "Pelasgians," introducing Zeus, and from then on had responsibility for the shrine and oracle of "Pelasgian Zeus," becoming "Dodonaian Zeus." As to when these settlement events may have occurred, the decipherment of Linear B, writing of about 5000 baked clay tablets found at known Greek prehistoric centers, opened a whole new chapter in Greek history, termed by most "the Greek Bronze Age." Zeus is represented in those tablets in both masculine and feminine form. The masculine does not have a nominative case, but does have a genitive, Diwos, and a dative, Diwei. The feminine, Diwia, is distinct from Hera, who appears on her own. These deities are mentioned in tablets recording offerings to them. Zeus was known as Zeus Moiragetes, which is to refer to the power of Zeus to know the fate of mortals. The newly born Zeus himself learnt his fate by the night and, accordingly, by Phanes, while within a dark cave. Herodotus stated the earliest oracle was the oracle of Zeus located at Dodona, although archaeological remains at Delphi date to earlier. There was an oracle at Dodona from the 5th century BCE, although the oracle of Zeus might have still have had a practice at the same locus earlier, prior to construction of the temple, a possibility which seems probable since the temple remains show an oak tree at the location. |