Oracle
An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination.
Description
The word oracle comes from the Latin verb ōrāre, "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, oracle may also refer to the site of the oracle, and the oracular utterances themselves, are called khrēsmoí in Greek.Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to people. In this sense, they were different from seers who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails, and other various methods.
The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were Pythia, and the oracle of Dione and Zeus at Dodona in Epirus. Other oracles of Apollo were located at Didyma and Mallus on the coast of Anatolia, at Corinth and Bassae in the Peloponnese, and at the islands of Delos and Aegina in the Aegean Sea.
The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters, ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in frenzied states.
Origins
observes that "Frenzied women from whose lips the God speaks" are recorded in the Near East as in Mari in the second millennium BC and in Assyria in the first millennium BC. In Egypt, the goddess Wadjet was depicted as a snake-headed woman or a woman with two snake-heads. Her oracle was in the renowned temple in Per-Wadjet. The oracle of Wadjet may have been the source for the oracular tradition which spread from Egypt to Greece. Evans linked Wadjet with the "Minoan Snake Goddess".At the oracle of Dodona, she is called Diōnē, who represents the earth-fertile soil, probably the chief female goddess of the proto-Indo-European pantheon. Python, daughter of Gaia was the earth dragon of Delphi represented as a serpent and became the chthonic deity, enemy of Apollo, who slew her and possessed the oracle.
In Greco-Roman culture
Pythia at Delphi
The Pythia was the mouthpiece of the oracles of the god Apollo, and was also known as the Oracle of Delphi.The Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout Hellenic culture. Distinctively, this woman was essentially the highest authority both civilly and religiously in male-dominated ancient Greece. She responded to the questions of citizens, foreigners, kings, and philosophers on issues of political impact, war, duty, crime, family, laws—even personal issues. The semi-Hellenic countries around the Greek world, such as Lydia, Caria, and even Egypt also respected her and came to Delphi as supplicants.
Croesus, king of Lydia beginning in 560 BC, tested the oracles of the world to discover which gave the most accurate prophecies. He sent out emissaries to seven sites who were all to ask the oracles on the same day what the king was doing at that very moment. Croesus proclaimed the oracle at Delphi to be the most accurate, who correctly reported that the king was making a lamb-and-tortoise stew, and so he graced her with a magnitude of precious gifts. He then consulted Delphi before attacking Persia, and according to Herodotus was advised: "If you cross the river, a great empire will be destroyed". Believing the response favourable, Croesus attacked, but it was his own empire that ultimately was destroyed by the Persians.
She allegedly also proclaimed that there was no man wiser than Socrates, to which Socrates said that, if so, this was because he alone was aware of his own ignorance. After this confrontation, Socrates dedicated his life to a search for knowledge that was one of the founding events of Western philosophy. He claimed that she was "an essential guide to personal and state development." This oracle's last recorded response was given in 362 AD, to Julian the Apostate.
The oracle's powers were highly sought after and never doubted. Any inconsistencies between prophecies and events were dismissed as failure to correctly interpret the responses, not an error of the oracle. Very often prophecies were worded ambiguously, so as to cover all contingencies – especially so ex post facto. One famous such response to a query about participation in a military campaign was "You will go you will return never in war will you perish". This gives the recipient liberty to place a comma before or after the word "never", thus covering both possible outcomes. Another was the response to the Athenians when the vast army of king Xerxes I was approaching Athens with the intent of razing the city to the ground. "Only the wooden palisades may save you", answered the oracle, probably aware that there was sentiment for sailing to the safety of southern Italy and re-establishing Athens there. Some thought that it was a recommendation to fortify the Acropolis with a wooden fence and make a stand there. Others, Themistocles among them, said the oracle was clearly for fighting at sea, the metaphor intended to mean war ships. Others still insisted that their case was so hopeless that they should board every ship available and flee to Italy, where they would be safe beyond any doubt. In the event, variations of all three interpretations were attempted: some barricaded the Acropolis, the civilian population was evacuated over sea to nearby Salamis Island and to Troizen, and the war fleet fought victoriously at Salamis Bay. Should utter destruction have happened, it could always be claimed that the oracle had called for fleeing to Italy after all.
Sibyl at Cumae
was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, near Naples, dating back to the 8th century BC. The sibylla or prophetess at Cumae became famous because of her proximity to Rome and the Sibylline Books acquired and consulted in emergencies by Rome wherein her prophecies were transcribed. The Cumaean Sibyl was called "Herophile" by Pausanias and Lactantius, "Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus" by Virgil, as well as "Amaltheia", "Demophile", or "Taraxandra" by others. Sibyl's prophecies became popular with Christians as they were thought to predict the birth of Jesus Christ.Oracle at Didyma
near Ionia in Asia Minor in the domain of the famous city of Miletus.Oracle at Dodona
in northwestern Greece was another oracle devoted to the Mother Goddess identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia, but here called Dione. The shrine of Dodona, set in a grove of oak trees, was the oldest Hellenic oracle, according to the fifth-century historian Herodotus, and dated from pre-Hellenic times, perhaps as early as the second millennium BC, when the tradition may have spread from Egypt. By the time of Herodotus, Zeus had displaced the Mother Goddess, who had been assimilated to Aphrodite, and the worship of the deified hero Heracles had been added. Dodona became the second most important oracle in ancient Greece, after Delphi. At Dodona, Zeus was worshipped as Zeus Naios or Naos, or as Zeus Bouleos. Priestesses and priests interpreted the rustling of the leaves of the oak tree that stood on this spot as Zeus' sanctuary to determine the correct actions to be taken.Oracle at Abae
The oracle of Abae was one of the most important oracles. It was almost completely destroyed by the Persians during the Second Persian invasion of Greece.Other oracles
near Ionia in Asia Minor was home to a prophetess.Trophonius was an oracle at Lebadea of Boeotia devoted to the chthonian Zeus Trophonius. Trophonius was a Greek hero nursed by Europa.
Near the Menestheus's port or Menesthei Portus, modern El Puerto de Santa María, Spain, was the oracle of Menestheus, to whom also the inhabitants of Gades offered sacrifices.
At the Ikaros island in the Persian Gulf, there was an oracle of Artemis Tauropolus.
At Livadeia, there was the oracle of Trophonius.
The oracle of Zeus Ammon at the Siwa Oasis was visited by Greeks, and Pausanias records that the Lacedaemonians made greater use of it than any other Greek people in his time.
There was also another oracle of Zeus Ammon at Aphytis in Chalkidiki.
There was an oracle of Zeus at Olympia. It operated on the peak of the god's ash altar, a giant pile of ashes which had accumulated over time as a result of repeated sacrifice. Ulrich Sinn argues that the oracle existed as early as the eighth century BC. In the fifth century BC, Pindar treated the oracle as equally important to the ancient Olympic Games.
In the city of Anariace at the Caspian Sea, there was an oracle for sleepers. Persons should sleep in the temple in order to learn the divine will.
The oracle of Phrixus in Moschia, where a ram is never sacrificed, according to Strabo.
The oracle of Apollo Clarius at Claros, the oracle of Apollo at Eutresis, the oracle of Apollo at Tegyra, the oracle of Khresterios Apollo at Aigai, the oracle of Apollo at Chalcedon, the sanctuary of Apollo with an oracle at Gryneium, the oracle of Abae.
At Ptoion, there was an oracle of hero Ptoios and later of Apollo.
The oracle of the Acraean Hera located between Lechaion and Pagae.
Oracle of Aphrodite at Paphos.
There were many "oracles of the dead", such as in Argolis, Cumae, Herakleia in Pontos, in the Temple of Poseidon in Taenaron, but the most important was the Necromanteion of Acheron.