to make ufe of thefe Methods to win them into Compliance. My Author goes yet higher, and tells us, that infpired Perfons were thought worthy of the greatest Honour and Trufts; infomuch that fometimes we find them advanc'd to the Throne, and invefted with Regal Power; for that being admitted to the Counfels of the Gods, they were beft able to provide for the Safety and Welfare of Mankind.

This Reputation ftood the Priefts (who had their Dependance on the Oracles) in no fmall ftead; for finding their Credit thus thoroughly establish'd, they allow'd no Man to confult their Gods, before he had offer'd coftly Sacrifices, and made rich Presents to them: Whereby it came to pafs, that few befide great and wealthy Men were admitted to ask their Advice, the reft being unable to defray the Charges required on that account; which contributed very much to raise the Efteem of Oracles among the common People; Men generally being apt to admire the things they are kept at some distance from; and, on the other hand, to condemn what they are familiarly acquainted with. Wherefore to keep up their Efteem with the better fort, even they were only admitted upon a few ftated Days; at other times neither the greatest Prince could purchase, nor Perfons of the greateft Quality any ways obtain an Answer. Alexander himself was peremptorily denied by the Pythia, till fhe was by downright Force compell'd to afcend the Tripus, when finding herself unable to refift any longer, fhe cry'd out Avine, Thou art invincible; which Words were thought a very lucky Omen, and accepted instead of a farther Oracle.

2

As to the Caufes of Oracles, it has been difputed whether they were the Revelations of Demons, or only the Delufions of crafty Priefts. Vàn Dale has wrote a large Treatife in Defence of the latter Opinion; but his Arguments are not of fuch force but that they might without Difficulty be refuted, if either my Defign requir'd, or Time permitted me to answer them. However that be, it was the common Opinion, that Jupiter was the firft Caufe of this and all other forts of Divination; 'twas He that had the Books of Fate, and out of them reveal'd either more or lefs, as he pleas'd, to inferior Dæmons; for which reason he was firnam'd Пavougai as Euftathius tells us in his Comment upon this verse of Homer,

Ενθα πανομφαίῳ Ζηνὶ ῥέζεσκον Αχαιο

then at the holy Fane

To mighty Jove was the glad Victim flain,
To Jove from whom all Divination comes,
And infpir'd Oracles unriddle future Dooms.

H. H.

Of the other Gods Apollo was reputed to have the greatest skill in making Predictions, and therefore it was one of his Offices to prefide over, and infpire all forts of Prophets, and Diviners; but this was only in fubordination to Jupiter, and by Converse with, and Participation from him, as fchylus gives us to underftand, when he faith,

• Sacerdotibus.

Iliad. 250.

S4

Στίλλειν

Στίλλων ὅπως τάχισα, ταῦτα γὰρ πατήρ

Ζεὺς ἐγ καθεῖ Λοξία.

Send, quickly fend, for fo my Jove infpir'd
Phabus commands.

H. H.

On the fame account, in another place', when he brings in Apollo, commanding Men to reverence his own Oracles, He adds, They must alfo pay due refpect to thofe of Jupiter, without mentioning any of the other Prophetick Deities; His words are these,

Καγώ το χρησμός τὰς ἐμές τε, καὶ Διὸς

Ταρβεῖν κελεύα

To mine, and Jove's most facred Oracles
Pay due Obeifance.

Others report, that Apollo receiv'd the Art of Divination from Pan", others will have him inftructed by Themis, others by Glaucus y. Laftly, Some were of Opinion, την Αφροδίτην Ουρανίαν εἶναι μητέρα ὅλων, πάσης μαντείας και προγνώσεως ευρετήν. That the heavenly Venus was the Mother of the Universe, aud 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 Apollo 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 themselves pronounc'd, were term'd χρησμοί αυ'τόφωνοι, thole which were deliver'd by Interpreters, χρησμοί

Tix At fome places, feveral ways were us'd; for Inftance, they who confulted Trophonius, after having propos'd their Queftions, firft 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 anfwers to Enquirers, as Paufanias reports in his Defcription of Baotia; and in another place, the fame Author mentions thefe Heroick Verfes, as spoken by Trophonius :

Before an ample Trophy you erect,

And to my hallow'd Shield pay due Respect,
Which in the Temple to my growing Praise
The valiant Ariftomenes did raise :

Thus when you've done, you may expect that I

Will crown these Toils of War with joyful Victory.

H. H.

Which Answer was given to the Thebans before the Battle of Leucra, wherein, by the Conduct of Epaminondas, they gave the Lacedæmonians and their Confederates a notable Overthrow.

Thus much of Oracles in general. I fhall in the next place endeavour to give a particular Description of them, especially fuch as were of any Note, together with a fhort Account of the Ceremonies required of thofe that confulted them, the Manner of returning Anfwers, with other things remarkable in each of them. And becaufe Jupiter was reputed to be the first Author of Oracles, I fhall begin with those which were thought to be more immediately deliver'd by him.

ODONA a is by fome thought to have been a City of Theffaly;

D it

others,

two Opinions, will have two Dodona's, one in Theffaly, and another 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 less 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 Controverfy, 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 perished, retreated to this Place, which by reafon of its Height fecured him from the Waters. Hither reforted to him all that had escaped 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 thofe 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 firit Temple in Greece, but the Oracle seems to have been a confiderable Time before it; for Herodotus in the second Book of his Hiftory reports, that it

a Euftath. Iliad. ' p. 254. & Iliad. p. 1074. Edit. Bafil. Stephanus Byzant. b Odyff. '. p. 534. c Geogr. lib, X.

was

Chap. 8. was the most ancient of all Oracles in Greece, which would be false, had it not been before Deucalion's Time; for he, as the Poets tell us, having efcaped the Deluge, confulted the Oracle of Themis on Mount Parnaffus, what Means he should 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, though, like all other things of fuch Antiquity, wrapp'd up in Fables, I will repeat to you out of the foremention'd Place of Herodotus, where he hath given us two Accounts of it, the first of which, he tells us, he receiv'd from the Priests of Jupiter at Thebes in Egypt, which was this: That the Phenicians had carry'd away two Priefteffes from that Place, one of which they fold into Lybia, the other into Greece; that each of thefe had erected the first Oracle in those 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 those that miniftred in the Temple, viz. That two black Pigeons taking their Flight from Thebes in Egypt, one of them came to Libya, where the commanded that an Oracle fhould be erected to Hammon; the other to Dodona, where the fat upon an Oak-Tree, and fpeaking with an human Voice, order'd, that there fhould be in that Place an Oracle to Jupiter. Afterwards Herodotus delivers his own Opinion about the Matter, which was this: That if the Phoenicians 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 Country, which in his Time was call'd Hellas, but formerly nam'd Pelafgia, where the instituted the Oracle to Jupiter, and gave Inftructions after what Manner he was to be worship'd. To confirm this Conjecture, he adds, that those two Oracles have a near Refemblance to each other. Moreover he tells us, the two Women were faid to be black, because they came from Egypt; and were call'd Doves, 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 gives two Reasons more for this Appellation: the firft is, that they were call'd Пiλiai, or Doves, q.Пλioules, because they made their Predictions by the Obfervation of those Birds; as they who made ufe of Crows in Divination were nam'd Koodxoμarles. The other Reafon is, that in the Moloffian Language old Women were call'd Πέλειαι, and old Men Πέλειοι ; and that thofe Propheteffes being old Women, either by a Miftake of the Word, or a Poetical Equivocation, were call'd Doves: And why aged Perfons fhould be thus term'd, the old Scholiaft upon Sophocles e informs us; for, faith he, the three old Propheteffes were call'd Πέλειαι q. Πετολιωμέναι, because of their gray Hairs. Servius gives another Reafon in his Comment upon Virgil's ninth Eclogue, viz. That in the Theffalian Tongue the Word Пexías is ufed to fignify a Prophetefs, as well as a Dove; and it seems no unusual thing amongst the ancient Greeks, for Propheteffes to have the Name of Doves, whence the Enigmatical Poet calls Cassandra by that Name twice in one Sentence &:

Κορακομανεις.

d Odyff. p. 544, 545. Edit. Bafil. fandr. v. 357.

d

Laftly, others give this Account: That in the Hieroglyphical Way of Writing,according to Horapollo, Γυναῖκα χήραν επιμείνασαν ἄχρι θανάτες θέλοντες σημήναι, περιτεραν μέλαιναν ζωγραφᾶσι· They fignify a Widow, who remains unmarried till Death, by a black Pigeon. Which very well agrees with the foremention'd Relation of Herodotus. Others fay, that this Oracle was founded by the Pelafgians, who were the most ancient of all the Nations that inhabited Greece. Of this Opinion is Strabo, being led hereunto by the Teftimony of Homer, who calls the fame Jupiter by the two Names of Dodoneus and Pelafgicus, in this Verse ':

Hefiod, whofe Teftimony alfo Strabo makes ufe of, is ftill more exprefs:
Δωδώνην, φηγόν τε Πελασγῶν ἕδρανον ἧκεν.

He to Dodona came, and th' hallow'd Oak,
The Seat of the Pelafgi.

And this feems fomewhat more probable; efpecially if what is commonly reported of Deucalion deserves any Credit, viz. That he fav'd himself from the Deluge, not on the Top of the Mountain at Dodona, but on Parnaffus, where was the Oracle of Themis, confulted by him after his Deliverance. Strabo relates another fabulous Opinion concerning the Foundation of this Oracle, out of Suidas's Theffalica, who (faith my Author) out of a Defign to gratify the Theffalians with a new-invented Fable, hath reported, that the Oracle of Dodona was tranflated into Epirus out of Pelafgia, a Country of Theffaly, being accompanied by a great Number of Women, from whence the Propheteffes in After-Ages were defcended; and that Jupiter received from them the Appellation of Pelafgicus.

The Perfons that deliver'd the Oracles were at the firft Men, as Strabo * and Euftathius' have observ'd out of Homer, who calls them in the Mafculine Gender Υποφήτας, and Σελλὲς

Geogr. lib. vii, Iliad. ' v. 235、 Loc. cit, Loc. citat.

Loc. citat.

Z:us