Στέλλειν ὅπως τάχιστα, ταῦτα δὲ πατὴς Send, quickly fend, for fo my Jove inspir'd H. H. On the fame account, in another place (a), when he brings in Apolla commanding Men to reverence his own Oracles, he adds, They muft alfo pay due refpect to thofe of Jupiter, without mentioning any of the other Prophetick Deities: His words are thefe, Καγώ τε χρησμές τὰς ἐμές τε, καὶ Διὸς Τα βεν κελεύω. To mine, and Jove's most facred Oracles H. H. Others report, that Apollo receiv'd the Art of Divination from Pan (b); others will have him inftructed by Themis (c), others by Glaucus (d). Laftly, Some were of Opinion, Tu Apedirle Ovegríar evaι μnτέρα όλων, πάσης μαντείας και προγνώσεως εὑρετω. That the heavenly Venus was the Mother of the Universe, and the Inventor of Divination and Prognoftication. The manner of delivering Oracles was not in all Places, nor at all Times the fame; in fome Places the Gods reveal'd them by Interpreters, as did Ap llo at Delphi; in others, more immediately, giving anfwers themselves, which they either pronounc'd viva voce, or return'd by Dreams, or Lots, (the former of which were fuppos'd to be infpir'd, and the latter directed by the Gods) or fome other Way. The Oracles which the Gods themfelves pronounc'd, were term'd χρησμοί αυτόφωνοι : thofe which were deliver'd by Interpreters, χρησμοί oonnnoi. At fome places, feveral ways were us'd; for instance, they who confulted Trophonius, after having propos'd their Questions, first receiv'd an answer in a Dream; and, if that was obfcure, and hard to be understood, had the meaning of it interpreted by Men kept for that purpose, and inftructed in that Art by the Deity: Several other ways alfo this God us'd to give answers to Enquirers, as Paufanias reports in his Description of Beotia; and in another place (e), the fame Author mentions thefe Heroick Verfes, as fpoken by Trophonius: Πριν δορί συμβαλέειν ἐχθροῖς, σήσαθε τρόπαιον, Let not the bloody Enfigns be difplay'd, (a) Eumenidibus. (b) Apollonius Argon. lib. III. (c) Orpheus hymno in Themidem, ve. 6. (d) Athenæus lib. VII. (e) Messenic. Before Before an ample Trophy you erect, And to my hallow'd Shield pay due refpect, Thus when you've done, you may expect that I H. H Which Anfwer was given to the Thebans before the Battle at Leuftra, wherein, by the Conduct of Epaminondas, they gave the Lacedemonians and their Confederates a notable Overthrow. Thus much of Oracles in general. I fhall in the next place endea vour to give a particular Defcription of them, efpecially fuch as were of any Note, together with a fhort account of the Ceremonies required of those that confulted them, the manner of returning Answers, with other things remarkable in each of them. And because Jupiter was reputed to be the firft Author of Oracles; I fhall begin with those, which were thought to be more immediately deliver'd by Him. CHAP. VIII, Of the Oracles of Jupiter. ODONA (a) is by fome thought to have been a City of Thef faly; by others it was plac'd in Epirus; and others, to reconcile thefe two Opinions, will have two Dodona's, one in Theffaly, and ano ther in Epirus. They that place it in Epirus, (and that is generally believ'd to have been the Seat of the Oracle, whether there was another Dodona in Theffaly, or not) are no lefs divided in their Opinions, about it; for fome of them will have it in Thefprotia, others in Chaonia, or Moloffia; but Euftathius (b) has undertaken to decide the controver fy, telling us that it did indeed once belong to the Thefprotians, but afterwards fell into the hands of the Moloffians; and he is herein confirm'd by Strabo (c). It was first built by Deucalion, who in that univerfal Deluge, wherein the greatest part of Greece perifhed, retreated to this place, which by reafon of its height fecur'd him from the Waters. Hither reforted to him all that had escap'd from the Inundation, with whom he peopled his new-built City, calling it Dodona, either from a Sea-nymph of that Name, or Dodon the Son, or Dodone the Daughter of Jupiter and Europa; or from the River Dodon, or Don, for fo it is call'd by Stephanus ; or, as fome fay, from Dodonim the Son of Javan, who was Captain of a Colony fent to inhabit those parts of Epirus. At the fame Time, Deucalion is faid to have founded a Temple, which he confecrated to Jupiter, who is thence call'd Dodonaus. This was the firft Temple in Greece, but the Oracle feems to have been a confiderable Time before it; for Herodotus, in the fecond Book of his Hiftory, reports, that it (a) Euftath. Iliad. B'. p. 254. & Il. '. p. 1974. Edit. Bafil. Stephanus Byzant. (b) Odyff. p. 534. (c) Geogr. lib. X. was was the most antient of all Oracles in Greece, which would be falfe, had it not been before Deucalion's time; for he, as the Poets tell us, having escap'd the Deluge, confulted the Oracle of Themis on Mount Parnaffus, what means he fhould ufe to replenish the Country with People; and the fame Oracle is faid to have been jointly poffefs'd by the Earth, and Neptune, before it belong'd to Themis. The Original of it, tho, like all other things of fuch Antiquity, wrapp'd up in Fables, I will repeat to you out of the fore-mention'd place of Herodotus, where he hath given us two Accounts of it, the first of which, he tells us, he received from the Priests of Jupiter at Thebes in Egypt, which was this: That the Phoenicians had carry'd away two Priefteffes from that place, one of which they fold into Libya, the other into Greece; that each of thefe had erected the first Oracle in thofe Nations, the one of Jupiter Hammon, the other of Jupiter Dodonaus. The other account was given him by the Priefteffes at Dodona, and confirm'd by all thofe that miniftred in the Temple, viz. That two black Pigeons taking their flight from Thebes in Egypt, one of them came to Libya, where fhe commanded that an Oracle fhould be erected to Hammon; the other to Dodona, where fhe fat upon an Oaktree, and fpeaking with an Human Voice order'd that there fhould be in that Place an Oracle of Jupiter. Afterwards Herodotus delivers his own Opinion about the Matter, which was this, That if the Phonicians did really carry two Women from Thebes, and fell one of them in Libya, and the other in Greece, it might be probable that the that was tranfported into Greece was fold to the Thefprotians in that Coun try, which in his time was call'd Hellas, but formerly nam'd Pelafgia, where the inftituted the Oracle to Jupiter, and gave Inftructions after what manner he was to be worshipped. To confirm this Conjecture, he adds, that those two Oracles have a near Resemblance to each other.. Moreover he tells us, the two Women were faid to be black, because they came from Ægypt; and were call'd Dovies, because their Language was barbarous, and as unintelligible as that of Birds; afterwards when they had learn'd the Greek Tongue, they were faid to speak with an Human Voice. Euftathius (a) gives two Reasons more for this Appel, lation: the firft is, That they were call'd Пéal, or Doves, q. TeλeoLivres, because they made their Predictions by the Obfervation of those Birds; as they who made ufe of Crows in Divination, were nam'd Kognouivres. The other Reafon is, that in the Moloffian Language, old Women were call'd Пéλez, and old Men Пéneos; and that thofe Pro pheteffes being old Women, either by a mistake of the Word, or a poetical Equivocation, were call'd Doves and why aged Perfons should be thus term'd, the old Scholiaft upon Sophocles (b) informs us; for faith he, the three old Propheteffes were call'd Пeneral, q. METONIWT ar, because of their gray Hairs. Servius gives another Reason in his Comment upon Virgil's Ninth Eclogue (c), viz. That in the Theffalian Tongue the Word λe's is us'd to fignify a Prophetess, as well as a Dove; and it feems no unufual thing amongst the antient Greeks, for Propheteffes to have the name of Doves, whence the Ænigmatical Poet calls Caffandra by that Name twice in one Sentence (d), (a) Odyff. E. p. 544, 545. Edit. Bafil. (b) Trachin, v. 176. (c) Ver. 83. (d) Cafandr. v. 357. Τόμος Laftly, Others give this Account, that in the Hieroglyphical way of writing, according to Horapollo, γυναῖκα χήραν επιμείνασαν ἔχει θανάτε θέλοντες σημῆναι, πεις αν μέλαιναν ζωγραφᾶσι. They fignify a Widow, who remains unmarry'd till Death, by a black Pigeon. Which very wellagrees with the fore-mention'd Relation of Herodotus. Others fay, that: this Oracle was founded by the Pelafgians, who were the most antient of all the Nations that inhabited Greece: Of this Opinion is Strabo (a), being led hereunto by the Teftimony of Homer, who calls the fame Jupiter, by the two Names of Dodonaus and Pelafgicus, in this Verse (6) Ζεῦ, ένα Δωδωναίε, Πελασγικέ Pelafgian Jove, that far from Greece refides, In cold Dodona. Hefiod, whofe Teftimony alfo Strabo makes ufe of, is yet more exprefs: He to Dodona came, and th' hallow'd Oak, And this feems fomewhat more probable; especially if what is com... The Perfons that deliver'd the Oracles, were, at the first, Men, as Strabo (c) and Euftathius (d) have obferv'd out of Homer, who calls them in the Mafculine Gender, Trophтas, and Eeλλòs (e). cit. (a) Geogr. lib. VII. (b) Il. π'. v. 235. (c) Loc. cit. (d) Loc. citat. (e) Zoc. > Ζεύ, ανα Δωδωναίε, Πελασγικές τηλόθι ναίων, Parent of Gods and Men, Pelafgian Jove, H. H. Where fome, as we are there inform'd by Euftathius, read dμçì dé Exλ, making thofe Priests to be call'd Helli; but the former Lec tion, he tells us, is generally receiv'd. The Selli are fo call'd from Sella, a Town in Epirus; or, according to Euftathius, from the River call'd by Homer (a) Selleis, Ηγαγεν ἐξ Εφύρης, ποταμέ ἀπὸ Σελλήεντα : Whom He from Ephyra, and Selleis brought, We But herein he contradicts Strabo, who affirms, that the River doth not belong to Ephyra in Thefprotia; for that neither there, nor yet in Moloffia was ever any River of that Name, but to another Ephyra, which is a City of Elis in Peloponnefus. The fame were call'd Elli or Helli, from Ellus the Theffalian, from whom Ellopia, a Country about Dodona, receiv'd its Name: And Philochorus in Strabo is of Opinion, that thefe Priests were nam'd Elli, from this Region: but Pliny will have the Selli, and the Inhabitants of Ellopia, to have been a different People. Apollodorus in Strabo, thinks they were call'd Exao, no f v, from the Fens and Marshes near the Temple of Dodona. are inform'd by Ariftotle, that the Country of the Selli was inhabited by the Graci, who were on Eaanves, in his Time call'd Hellenes. And Hefychius reports, that Aids iepòv ev Awdwvn, Jupiter's Temple in Dodona was call'd Exλd. Whence it is probable, that thefe Men were firft call'd Helli, and not Selli. The fame is farther prov'd by the Scho liaft upon Homer (b) from Pindar, who derives the name from one Hellus, το πρώτο καταδείξαντΘ το μαντείον, who firft difcover'd the Oracle. Afterwards, either by a Confufion of the Words Exag in Homer, which might easily happen, when it was cuftomary to write continuo ductu, without diftinction of Words or Sentences; or by changing the Afpiration into the Letter, which Grammarians have obferv'd to be a common Variation, they were call'd Selli. However that be, from the two Epithets of avilónodes, and quaisuvar, given them by Homer, Strabo concludes they were barbarous and unciviliz'd: Euftathius (c) tells us, they were nam'd gauasura, because they slept upon the Ground in Skins, and in that Pofture expected prophetical (a) Iliadó. v. 531. (b) Iliad. '. ver. 234 (c) II. '. p. 1074. Edit. Bafil Dreams |