DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0429
406
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. XIY.
But there were other oracles in which the gods were
consulted not through the frenzy of the priestess, but
rather by a systematic taking of omens. Any sound or
sight might be regarded by the pious as a message from
the gods. And especially any sudden and unexplained
phenomenon, lightning, a sneeze, a sudden appearance of
birds, would be likely to have a deeper meaning than
appeared on the surface. And the reading of these
omens was an art or profession which required long
study, and carefully trained faculties. The Homeric
seer Chalcas was no prophet, inspired by heaven, but a
highly-trained professional man, a c^jiuoepyo?, who had
learned to spy out the true but occult meaning of all the
phenomena in which it was likely that the divine purposes
would reveal themselves, more especially in the flight of
birds, and in the convolutions of the internal organs of
animals offered in sacrifice. The taking of omens was
the work of hereditary clans of skilled observers.
The history of the oracle at Dodona seems to cover
all the distance between the mere taking of omens and
the developed Apolline oracles. That it was by omens,
some of them of a very primitive kind, that the will, of
Zeus was made manifest seems clear. Yet in the later
age of Greece, at all events, the responses of Dodona
were as systematic and as clear as those of Delphi. It
will be necessary to set forth the evidence for both of
these statements.
Eustathius, in commenting on the already cited pas-
sage of the Iliad, which speaks of the Selli of Dodona
as washing not the feet and sleeping on the ground,
regards it as a proof that oracles were sometimes given
there by dream. Of course we cannot say that it was
not so: but the Homeric passage on the face of it
appears rather to .refer to the rude and outdoor life of
the Selli than to any custom such as is inferred. That
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. XIY.
But there were other oracles in which the gods were
consulted not through the frenzy of the priestess, but
rather by a systematic taking of omens. Any sound or
sight might be regarded by the pious as a message from
the gods. And especially any sudden and unexplained
phenomenon, lightning, a sneeze, a sudden appearance of
birds, would be likely to have a deeper meaning than
appeared on the surface. And the reading of these
omens was an art or profession which required long
study, and carefully trained faculties. The Homeric
seer Chalcas was no prophet, inspired by heaven, but a
highly-trained professional man, a c^jiuoepyo?, who had
learned to spy out the true but occult meaning of all the
phenomena in which it was likely that the divine purposes
would reveal themselves, more especially in the flight of
birds, and in the convolutions of the internal organs of
animals offered in sacrifice. The taking of omens was
the work of hereditary clans of skilled observers.
The history of the oracle at Dodona seems to cover
all the distance between the mere taking of omens and
the developed Apolline oracles. That it was by omens,
some of them of a very primitive kind, that the will, of
Zeus was made manifest seems clear. Yet in the later
age of Greece, at all events, the responses of Dodona
were as systematic and as clear as those of Delphi. It
will be necessary to set forth the evidence for both of
these statements.
Eustathius, in commenting on the already cited pas-
sage of the Iliad, which speaks of the Selli of Dodona
as washing not the feet and sleeping on the ground,
regards it as a proof that oracles were sometimes given
there by dream. Of course we cannot say that it was
not so: but the Homeric passage on the face of it
appears rather to .refer to the rude and outdoor life of
the Selli than to any custom such as is inferred. That