Among the mountains of Epirus, in north-western Greece, lies the sanctuary that many ancients considered the oldest oracle of the Greek world: Dodona. Here it was not Apollo who spoke, as at Delphi, but Zeus, worshipped together with the goddess Dione. And his voice did not come from the mouth of a prophetess in trance, but from an oak tree.
The Homeric testimony
Dodona already appears in the Homeric poems, a sign of its antiquity. In the Iliad, Achilles, before sending Patroclus into battle, prays to "Dodonaean, Pelasgian Zeus", lord of a land of harsh winters, around whom live the Selloi, priests who "do not wash their feet and sleep on the ground". It is an archaic image of a cult bound to the earth and to nature.
In the Odyssey we are told that Odysseus had gone to Dodona to hear the will of Zeus from the high-leaved oak. The tree, then, was the centre of the cult and the channel of communication with the god.
The doves and the priestesses
Herodotus, in the second book of the Histories, reports the story told to him by the priestesses of Dodona, whose names he also records. Two black doves were said to have flown away from Egyptian Thebes: one reached Libya, where it ordered the founding of the oracle of Ammon; the other alighted on an oak at Dodona and, speaking with a human voice, declared that an oracle of Zeus must arise there.
Herodotus also offers a rational explanation: perhaps the "doves" were foreign women whose incomprehensible language sounded to the locals like the call of a bird. In Greek the priestesses of Dodona were called Peleiades, a word that means precisely "doves".
How the god spoke
Ancient sources mention several ways in which the divine answer made itself known:
- the rustling of the leaves of the sacred oak;
- the flight and song of birds;
- the sound of bronze.
On this last point there is an evocative tradition. Bronze cauldrons were arranged around the sanctuary, and when one was struck the sound passed on to the others. Later an offering by the Corcyraeans became famous: a statue of a boy holding a whip with little chains, which, moved by the wind, struck a bronze basin and produced a continuous sound. The "bronze of Dodona" became proverbial for someone who talked without ever stopping.
The lead tablets
Dodona's most extraordinary discovery, however, concerns not the voices of the god but those of human beings. Excavations at the sanctuary have yielded thousands of small lead tablets on which consultants had scratched their questions. The tablet was then folded, probably to keep the request private.
These inscriptions are a unique treasure, because they give us back the concrete concerns of ordinary people, not only of kings and cities. The typical formula is: "So-and-so asks Zeus Naios and Dione whether...". Questions like these follow:
- whether it is better to marry or to stay as one is;
- whether the child his wife is carrying is his;
- whether it is advisable to travel by sea or start a trade;
- whether to buy a plot of land or a house;
- to which deity one should offer sacrifices to obtain a favourable outcome.
There are also questions put by entire communities, asking, for example, to which god they should sacrifice in order to live in concord, or whether an alliance will be advantageous.
The answers
Answers are much rarer than questions. The tablets mostly preserve the point of view of those who asked, and we do not know exactly how the oracle replied. It is likely that many questions were worded so as to allow a simple answer, yes or no, or the name of a deity to whom sacrifices should be offered. Some scholars also think of a system of drawing lots.
The fate of the sanctuary
Dodona underwent major monumental development in the Hellenistic age, when it became the religious centre of Epirus, with a theatre, sacred buildings and an area for festivals. It was, however, sacked in 219 BC by the Aetolians and suffered further devastation during the wars with Rome. The cult survived for a long time in reduced form, until the end of traditional religion.
What Dodona teaches us
Compared with the theatricality of Delphi, Dodona offers the image of an intimate and everyday oracle. Its tablets show that divination was not reserved for great political decisions, but accompanied family, economic and emotional choices. For those who study tradition, it is precious evidence of the human need to seek guidance in the face of uncertainty.
In short
- Dodona, in Epirus, was an oracle of Zeus and Dione regarded as very ancient already by Homer.
- The god spoke through the sacred oak, birds and the sound of bronze.
- Herodotus tells the myth of the doves from Egyptian Thebes and gives its rational interpretation.
- Thousands of lead tablets preserve consultants' questions on marriage, children, travel and business.
- The sanctuary was sacked by the Aetolians in 219 BC, but the cult survived for a long time.
