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HIST 486: Religion and Society in Anient Greece

Lecture 2: Consulting the Divine: Oracles and Incubation

Dr. J. L. Shear

Greeks and the Gods

1. Approaching Divinities
Artemis and Aktaion of Thebes
Eurpides, Bacchae; divinity: Dionysos
Euripides, Hippolytus; divinity: Artemis

Greeks and Oracles

2. Useful Terms
Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus
Herodotus, Histories
Delphi
Didyma
Klaros
Zeus and Dodona
3. Homeric Hymn to Apollo 287-293 (trans. West)
Here I am minded to make my beautiful temple as an oracle for humankind, who will ever come in crowds
bringing me perfect hekatombs, both those who live in the fertile Peloponnese and those who live in the
Mainland and the seagirt islands, wishing to consult me; and I would dispense unerring counsel to them all,
issuing oracles in my rich temple.

Consulting the Gods: Individuals

4. Xenophon and Apollo: Xenophon, Anabasis 3.1.5-7 (trans. Brownson and Dillery) (= Fontenrose H11)
After reading Proxenos letter Xenophon conferred with Sokrates the Athenian about the proposed journey [to
fight with Kyros]; and Sokrates advised Xenophon to go to Delphi and consult the god in regard to this
journey. So Xenophon went and asked Apollo to what one of the gods he should sacrifice and pray in order best
and most successfully to perform the journey which he had in mind and, after meeting with good fortune, to
return home in safety; and Apollo in his response told him to what gods he must sacrifice. When Xenophon
came back from Delphi, he reported the oracle to Sokrates; and upon hearing about it Sokrates found fault with
him because he did not first put the question whether it were better for him to go or stay, but decided for himself
that he was to go and then asked the god as to the best way of going. However, he added, since you did put
the question in that way, you must do all that the god directed.
For consulting the Delphic oracle, see helpfully Bowden, Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle, pp. 14-25.
5. A Sokrates consults Dodona: Parke, Oracles of Zeus, no. 16
Sokrates asks Zeus Naios and Dione by engaging in what work may he do better and more profitably for himself
and his family.
For consulting the oracle at Dodona, see Parke, The Oracles of Zeus: Dodona, Olympia, Ammon, pp. 100-104,
108-114 (in our library).
6. Euandros and his wife consult Dodona: Parke, Oracles of Zeus, no. 1
Gods. Good Fortune. Euandros and his wife enquire of Zeus Naios and Dione by praying and sacrificing to
what gods or heroes or supernatural powers (daimones) they may fare better and more profitably, themselves
and their household both now and for all time.
7. Questions people ask at Delphi: Plutarch, Moralia 386C (trans. Babbitt)
Those who consult the oracle and ask if they shall be victorious, if they shall marry, if it is to their advantage to
sail the sea, if to take to farming, if to go abroad.
Cf. Plutarch, Moralia 408C (trans. Babbitt): if one ought to marry, or to start on a voyage, or to make a loan.

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8. Kittos consults Dodona: Eidinow, Oracles, Curses, and Risk among the Ancient Greeks, p. 102, no. 6
Will Kittos get the freedom from Dionysios that Dionysios promised him?
9. Dodona consulted about stolen cloth: Parke, Oracles of Zeus, no. 29
Did Dorkilos steal the cloth?

Consulting the Gods: Poleis and Other Groups

10. Corcyraeans and Oricians consult Dodona: SEG XXIII 474 (trans. Parker)
The Corcyraeans and Oricians ask Zeus Naios and Dione by sacrificing to what god or hero they can live in
their cities best and most safely, and have good and abundant produce, and enjoyment of all good produce.
11. Athenians consult Delphi about a portent: Demosthenes 43.66 (trans. Bowden) (= Fontenrose H29)
Read for me the words from the oracle brought from Delphi, from the god, so that you see that it says the same
thing about relatives as the laws of Solon: With good fortune. The demos of the Athenians asked concerning the
sign that appeared in the sky what the Athenians should do, or to what god they should make sacrifices or pray,
to gain the best from the sign. It will be well for the Athenians concerning the sign that appeared in the sky to
sacrifice with good auspices to Zeus Hypatos, Athena Hypate, Herakles, Apollo Soter, and to send offerings to
the Amphiones; for good fortune to Apollo Aguieus, to Leto, to Artemis, and to fill the streets with sacrificial
smoke, and to set up wine-bowls and dances and wear garlands in accordance with ancestral custom in honour
of all the Olympian gods and goddesses, holding your right hand and your left, and giving thanks for what is
given, in accordance with ancestral custom; to make sacrifices and offerings to the founder hero after whom you
are named, in accordance with ancestral custom; for the dead their relatives are to make offerings on the
appointed day in accordance with tradition.
12. Athenians consult Delphi about altars for Ares and Athena: SEG XXI 519.4-10 (trans. Bowden) (=
Fontenrose H27)
The god said that it was better and more profitable for the demos of the Acharnians and the demos of the
Athenians to build altars to Ares and Athena Areia, that the Acharnians and the Athenians might act properly
towards the gods.
13. Spartans consult Delphi about a colony at Trachinia in 426 B.C.: Thucydides 3.92.4-5 (trans. C. F.
Smith) (= Fontenrose H6)
After hearing their (the Trachinians and the Dorians) appeal, the Lakedaimonians were of the opinion that they
should send out the colony, wishing to aid both the Trachinians and the Dorians . They therefore first
consulted the god at Delphi, and at his bidding sent out the colonists, consisting of both Spartans and Perioikoi,
and they invited any other Hellenes who so desired to accompany them, except the Ionians and Achaians and
certain other races. The founders of the colony in charge of the expedition were three Lakedaimonians, Leon,
Alkidas, and Damagon.
14. Spartans consult Delphi before the Peloponnesian War in 431 B.C.: Thucydides 1.118.3 (trans. C. F.
Smith) (= Fontenrose H5)
The Lakedaimonians themselves, then, had decided that the treaty had been broken and that the Athenians were
in the wrong, and sending to Delphi they asked the god if it would be advisable for them to go to war. The god
answered them, as it is said, that if they warred with all their might, victory would be theirs, and said that he
himself would help them, whether invoked or uninvoked.
15. Thebans consult Delphi about the Athenians: Herodotus 5.79.1 (trans. De Slincourt and Marincola)
(= Fontenrose Q130)
Meanwhile the Thebans were anxious to pay off their score with Athens. They sent to Delphi for advice, and
were told by the priestess of the oracle that they would be unable to get their revenge if they tried to act alone:
they must, she said, bring the matter forward to be discussed by the many voices, and ask their nearest to
help them.
16. Argives consult Delphi about the safety of the city: Herodotus 6.19.1 (trans. De Slincourt and
Marincola) (= Fontenrose Q134)
The prediction was as follows: the people of Argos had consulted the oracle at Delphi on a matter which
concerned the safety of their own city, and had received an answer in which others were involved besides
themselves; for while a part of it concerned Argos, there was an additional passage which referred to Miletos.

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See also Herodotus 6.77 for the section concerning the Argives.
17. Phokians consult Delphi about the Thessalians: Pausanias 10.1.4 (trans. Jones) (= Fontenrose Q117)
The Thessalians, more enraged than ever against the Phokians, gathered levies from all their cities and marched
out against them. Whereupon the Phokians, greatly terrified at the army of the Thessalians, especially at the
number of their cavalry and the practised discipline of both mounts and riders, despatched a mission to Delphi,
praying the god that they might escape the danger that threatened them.
For the Athenians wooden walls oracle, see Herodotos 7.140-142.

Oracles and the Problems of Interpretation

18. Traditional approaches
H. W. Parke and D. E. W. Wormell, The Delphic Oracle, Oxford, 1956.
J. Fontenrose, The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Operations, with a catalogue of responses, Berkeley,
1978.
J. Fontenrose, Didyma: Apollos Oracle, Cult, and Companions, Berkeley, 1988.
19. The poison oracle of the Azande
E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Magic, Witchcraft and Oracles among the Azande, rev. ed., Oxford, 1976. (for a very
brief summary, see Bowden, Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle, pp. 28-32)
20. The Tiv and their oracle
P. Bohannan on the Tiv: the oracle itself is primarily a distracting device that allows the principals to construct
an explanation that can be handled (Tiv Divination, in Essays in Social Anthropology in Memory of E. E.
Evans-Pritchard, eds. J. H. M Beattie and R. G. Lienhardt, Oxford, 1975, p. 166.)

Incubation
21. At the sanctuary of Amphiaraos at Oropos: Pausanias 1.34.5 (trans. Jones)
One who has come to consult Amphiaraos is wont first to purify himself. The mode of purification is first to
sacrifice to the god, and they sacrifice not only to him but also to all those whose names are on the altar. And
when all these things have been first done, they sacrifice a ram, and, spreading the skin under them, go to sleep
and await enlightenment in a dream.
22. Regulations at the sanctuar of Amphiraos at Oropos: Rhodes and Osborne 27.36-48 (trans. Rhodes
and Osborne)
Whoever needs to incubate in the sanctuary [] obeying the laws. The keeper of the temple is to
record the name of whoever incubates when he deposits the money, his personal name and the name of his city,
and display it in the sanctuary, writing it on a board for whoever wants to look. Men and women are to sleep
separately in the dormitory, men in the part east of the altar and women in the part west [] those incubating
in the dormitory []
23. At the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros: Rhodes and Osborne 102.98-103 (trans. Rhodes and
Osborne)
A man from Torone with leeches. He slept in the sanctuary and saw a dream. It seemed to him that the god cut
his chest with a knife, removed the leeches and put them in his hands, and stitched up his breast. When day
came he departed with the creatures in his hands and was made healthy. He had swallowed the leeches after
being tricked by his step-mother who had dropped them into a cocktail he was drinking.
24. At the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros: Rhodes and Osborne 102.68-71 (trans. Rhodes and
Osborne)
Euphanes, a boy from Epidauros. This boy slept in the sanctuary suffering from a stone. The god appeared to
stand beside him and say What will you give me if I make you healthy? And he said Ten kuncklebones.
The god laughed and said that he would cure him. When day came he departed healthy.
25. Aristophanes makes fun of incubation
Aristophanes, Wealth 653-748.

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Further (Optional) Reading
Price, S., Delphi and divination, in Greek Religion and Society, eds. P. Easterling and J. Muir, Cambridge,
1985, pp. 128-154. (ask JLS for electronic file)
Whittaker, C. R., The Delphic Oracle: belief and behaviour in ancient Greece and Africa, Harvard
Theological Review 58 (1965), pp. 21-47. (JSTOR)
Dignas, B., A day in the life of a Greek sanctuary, in A Companion to Greek Religion, ed. D. Ogden, Malden,
Mass., 2007, pp. 163-177.